The Great American Heist You’re Paying For

Jul 11, 2025

Summer Lee, US Representative for Pennsylvania's 12th congressional district, discusses her efforts to ban super PACs and fight corporate greed. She critiques a new law that transfers wealth from working people to the elite, triple-funding border enforcement while cutting crucial healthcare for millions. Lee highlights the struggle against harmful political narratives and emphasizes the importance of campaign finance reform to support marginalized voices. The conversation sheds light on the urgent need for equitable policies and genuine representation in today's political landscape.

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INSIGHT

Reconciliation Bill's Wealth Transfer

The reconciliation bill orchestrates the largest wealth transfer from working people to billionaires through cuts and tax breaks.
It slashes Medicaid, education, and food programs while tripling the budget for militarized immigration enforcement.

INSIGHT

Medicaid Cuts Threaten Lives

Medicaid covers millions including disabled and vulnerable populations, critical to many rural hospital systems.
Historic Medicaid cuts threaten healthcare access and sustainability, risking community health.

INSIGHT

Racism Weaponized for Power

Republican messaging exploits fear by falsely blaming working people losing Medicaid on others.
Racism is politically incentivized and openly leveraged to gain power and divide communities.

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On the Fourth of July, President Donald Trump signed into law a bill that constitutes one of the largest transfers of wealth in history — taking money away from working people and giving it to the nation’s elite.

The bill is the culmination of years of giveaways that have allowed corporations and billionaires to tighten their grip on the government. The law triples the budget for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, slashes taxes for the most wealthy, and pays for it all by cutting health care for as many as 20 million people and gutting funding for public education and meals for school children.

“ The reconciliation process goes hand-in-hand with all the executive orders that we've been seeing,” says Rep. Summer Lee, D-Pa. “It goes hand-in-hand with all of the different things that DOGE was pretending to uncover. It goes hand-in-hand with so much of Project 2025. So this is all just one kind of super villain packed into this — what they call this one big bill — that's like thousands of pages.”

This week on The Intercept Briefing, Lee speaks to host Akela Lacy about what Democrats are doing to meet the moment and how they can break through Republican messaging on the bill.

“ Democrats are screaming into a void,” Lee says. “The reality is that we have been talking about Medicaid, and it's very hard to break through in a 24-hour news cycle and this big bubble where we are in a sea of red coverage, conservative media, conservative narratives, disinformation, misinformation. And to break through in that moment takes more than just us.”

At the heart of it all is one core problem: the power of money in politics, Lee says. She introduced a bill to ban super PACs, the kind of groups that helped elect Trump and have pushed Democrats to the right.

“ You cannot have a democracy and super PACs,” Lee says. “If you are able to influence and shape the politics, shape information — what information gets out, which information doesn’t — because you have more money, then we don't have a level playing field.”

You can hear the full conversation of The Intercept Briefing on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen.

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