Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC) slammed Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski for criticizing President Donald Trump's "big, beautiful" bill despite voting in favor of it.
"This isn't about you. This is about the 17 million Americans whose health insurance you're taking away. And after you turned your back on them to vote "YES", you said your fellow House GOP should vote NO. Americans are going to suffer. YOU admit that. And YOU supported it," the lawmaker said in a social media publication.
This isn’t about you.
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) July 3, 2025
This is about the 17 million Americans whose health insurance you’re taking away.
And after you turned your back on them to vote “YES”, you said your fellow House GOP should vote NO.
Americans are going to suffer. YOU admit that. And YOU supported it. https://t.co/N8oQtgPw23
AOC was responding to a July 1 post by Murkowski, whose vote was uncertain until the very end in the Senate. Her support for the bill ended up being crucial, considering the final vote was a 50-50 tie and Vice President JD Vance ended up casting the deciding vote to send the bill to the Lower House.
Murkowski published a lengthy post, saying the vote was "one of the hardest" during her time in the Senate. She said that she worked to "improve the present bill for Alaska" but its iteration is "not good enough for the rest of our nation."
"My sincere hope is that this is not the final product. This bill needs more work across chambers and is not ready for the President's desk. We need to work together to get this right," the senator concluded.
The bill includes major cuts to Medicaid, jeopardizing health coverage for 17 million Americans, along with the largest reduction to SNAP benefits in U.S. history, potentially leaving 5 million without access to food assistance.
The legislation also raises average household energy bills by $400 annually, increases the national debt ceiling by $4 trillion, and delivers an additional $400,000 in benefits to the wealthiest 0.1% of Americans.
The bill cleared a key hurdle in the House in the early hours of Thursday after a lengthy standoff with Republican holdouts. House Speaker Mike Johnson managed to sway four of the five lawmakers who had voted against a procedural "rule" vote and the eight who had not voted.
"There was just a lot of patience and listening to everyone's concerns and making sure that their, their concerns were addressed," Johnson told press. Trump has set a July 4 deadline for the bill.
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