{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.king.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/senate-passes-regressive-downright-cruel-tax-bill-that-will-significantly-harm-maine-people", "Senate Passes \u2018Regressive, Downright Cruel\u2019 Tax Bill that will Significantly Harm Maine People", "2025-07-01", "2025", "2025-07", "Independent", "Senate", "ME", "Angus S. King, Jr.", "K000383", "www.king.senate.gov", "angusking", "https://www.king.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/table", "scraper", "WASHINGTON, D.C. \u2014 Today, the United States Senate passed the so-called \u2018Big Beautiful Bill\u2019 tax and budget legislation \u2014 a bill that was passed by the Republican majority with a single tie-breaking vote by Vice President JD Vance. Maine DHHS estimates that, because of this legislation, 31,000 Mainers would be disenrolled from MaineCare in the first year and estimates suggest that 4 rural Maine hospitals could close. In addition, it is estimated that 20,000 Mainers will lose their coverage under the Affordable Care Act.\n\nThe bill now heads to the House of Representatives for consideration in the days ahead.\n\nU.S. Senator Angus King (I-ME) previously spoke on the Senate Floor to share remarks on the bill that he called \u201cirresponsible, regressive, and downright cruel\u201d and highlighted the inevitable harm it would do to Maine people \u2014 adding he found it \u201cimmoral\u201d to take food from vulnerable children while giving larger tax breaks to well-off Americans.\n\nA statement from Senator King on final Senate passage of the bill is below:\n\n\u201cWe just voted on the so-called Budget Reconciliation, a bill which was passed by the Republican majority on a straight party-line vote. This bill will have catastrophic impacts on Maine people. In fact, I think this is the worst, most regressive and harmful piece of legislation I've ever seen.\n\n\u201cHere's the way I can best explain the consequences of this disastrous bill:\n\n1. It will have devastating impacts upon Maine itself, on our state and on our state budgets.\n\n2. It's going to have devastating impacts on Maine people.\n\n3. It's a gross transfer of wealth from lower income people to the very wealthy.\n\n4. Even with these devastating cuts, the bill still explodes the federal deficit which will result in higher interest rates and a drag on business expansion in Maine and across the country.\n\n\u201cI call this the Great Maine Robbery. First, it\u2019s going to shift millions of dollars to state budgets \u2014which means Maine taxpayers will be left footing the bill for essential services like healthcare and food assistance. It will also likely result in the closure of rural community health centers and hospitals \u2014 although the health fund in this bill will provide some limited relief to Maine hospitals, it do anything for the thousands who will lose their health care under the terms of this bill. This will leave Maine people traveling further and spending more money out of pocket than they would otherwise. Many Maine people will also likely lose their MaineCare and CoverME marketplace coverage entirely, and significant Medicare cuts from this bill will harm Maine\u2019s older adults.\n\n\u201cEssentially, this bill is a \u2018shift and shaft\u2019 to provide huge tax cuts for those making more than $400,000 per year in exchange for the elimination of critical programs that Maine people rely on for food, health and safety. This is not politics \u2014 this is the wellbeing of Maine people, and even though this bill is huge setback, I remain committed to fighting for them every single day.\u201d\n\nAccording to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, the legislation would add $3.3 trillion dollars to the federal deficit over the next ten years, while also cutting $1.1 trillion from Medicaid over the same time, resulting in 11.8 million Americans losing healthcare. Maine DHHS estimates that, if passed as is, 31,000 Mainers would be disenrolled from MaineCare in the first year and estimates suggest that 4 rural Maine hospitals would close.\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-07T14:40:33Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.king.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/senate-passes-regressive-downright-cruel-tax-bill-that-will-significantly-harm-maine-people"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.799349905923009, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}