Hi Friends,
On our country’s 249th Independence Day, families across Florida were meant to gather to honor the promise of Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness. Instead, we were forced to grapple with the gut-wrenching and shameful decision that just ripped that promise away from us.
By passing Trump’s Big Ugly Bill and doing the bidding of the ultra-rich, Senate and House Republicans chose to serve leeching billionaires and their unchecked greed over working people and democracy.
Back in February, our Fund Our Futures coalition of community-led organizations across the state sent a letter to Congress urging members to reject President Trump’s call for more tax giveaways for billionaires and large corporations at the expense of working families, children, and seniors. For months, we urged Congress to safeguard basic needs programs that millions of Americans and Floridians rely on – programs like Medicaid, health care subsidies, and food assistance. We tirelessly urged lawmakers to do what they were elected to do: stand for working people, families, and the middle class.
But they refused.
Senate and House Republicans decided to increase poverty, food insecurity, and hunger, including among seniors and children. They decided to gut Medicaid, increase the number of uninsured people, underfund rural hospitals, and take health coverage away from the most vulnerable populations. They decided to cut clean energy jobs, which will lead to higher utility costs.
And as they leave millions of Americans vulnerable to hunger and sickness, they also shovel record-high spending into the Pentagon and mass deportations- supercharging ICE, kidnapping innocent people, tearing families apart, and terrorizing our neighborhoods.
Simply put, extreme politicians are trading life for death. President Trump signed the budget reconciliation bill into law on July 4.
What happens next in Florida will be just as defining. Our state policymakers can choose to fight for the freedom of every Floridian to live healthy, prosperous, and safe. Or they can double down and follow the GOP’s dangerous roadmap, making life worse for millions of Floridians.
Friend, this Independence Day we mourned a country where billionaires buy influence and working people pay the price.
But we also recommitted to building a Florida where freedom means more than fireworks and speeches—it means justice, care, and opportunity for everyone. It means all of us spending time with our loved ones and enjoying the lives we’ve worked so hard to build. No exceptions.
Onwards and upwards,
Your Friends at Florida For All
