Representative Yassamin Ansari on new reconciliation budget

Representative Yassamin Ansari (D) joined “Arizona Horizon” to discuss the reconciliation budget, otherwise known as President Donald Trump’s big beautiful bill, as well as developments with the Iran-Israel conflict and other topics of the day.

Ansari first share her thoughts on the reconciliation bill and the effect it will have on Arizona.

“There is no way to sugar coat it, this Trump budget bill is going to be devastating for Arizona. There are 365,000 Arizonans who rely on Medicaid, who rely on SNAP and food assistance, who are going to be impacted by this bill. This bill is also a massive job killer for Arizona. I have talked to everyone from labor union leaders, including conservative labor union leaders. Electricians, construction workers, those who are building the clean energy future in Arizona who do not understand how this could be possible. And finally, the bill raises the deficit and it’s very alarming to me,” Ansari said.

Regarding the healthcare aspects of the bill, Ansari responded to claims from Republicans about able-bodied individuals receiving Medicaid assistance.

“That’s just not true and as much as the Republicans, especially the ones from Arizona want to keep repeating lies, the nonpartisan congressional research office has made very clear the numbers in each district.” Ansari said.

Ansari also shared her experiences working alongside Congress members from across the aisle.

“The reality is, I think there’s a lot of fear of Donald Trump. He has an iron clad grip on the party and what I have seen in my first six months in Congress is that my Republican colleagues are willing to do whatever it is, even if it means sacrificing their own seats in Congress because they are so afraid of the retaliation from this administration. That is just the truth of the matter. On the final days of the negotiations last week many of them, including Rep. Ciscomani, has said that they wouldn’t vote for Medicaid cuts. They wrote letters, I have met with organizations that said he assured them of this, and then they talk to the President and suddenly everything changes,” Ansari said

Following strikes from the U.S. on Iran’s nuclear sites, Ansari discussed her thoughts on the handling of this involvement in the Israel-Iran conflict.

“My perspective on this issue comes from two, is looking at two components. First and foremost, is the president’s action legal? Should he have asked for congressional authorization, and my belief based on the constitution is that the president should have briefed Congress and asked for authorization before taking any unilateral military action. Second, we need to understand the intelligence, we need to understand what the goal of this was. Thus far there has been no response from the administration backed by intelligence to show that we have actually postponed the creation of Iran’s nuclear program and any sort of advancement toward a nuclear weapon in any sort of meaningful way,” Ansari said.