Life has become “incredibly unaffordable” for working class families said Seattle Congresswomen Pramila Jayapal said in an episode of “Spill the Tea“.
Produced by the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus, a group of AAPI congresspersons and allies who actively advocate for AAPI needs, “Spill the Tea” is an ongoing YouTube series hosted by CAPAC chair and New York Congresswoman Grace Meng.
Joined by Jayapal, the two Democrats accused the Trump Administration of failing to support poor and working Americans and instead choosing his billionaire donors.
“When you look at what [President Trump] has done, he’s prioritized himself and he’s prioritized his billionaire buddies… He’s renovating his bathroom. He’s spending $300 million on the destruction of the [East] Wing. He’s holding this incredible, disgusting…party at Mar-A-Lago while people are hurting and he’s talking about it all while he is inflicting maximum pain on Americans during the shutdown,” Jayapal said.
The representative from Washington state emphasized how during the government shutdown, saying Trump hurt hungry Americans by illegally stop funding SNAP benefits and disobeying a judge’s orders to do so. A federal appeals court recently ordered Trump to make full SNAP payments after a lower court called the cutoff of benefits illegal.
“He’s working for the billionaires,” Jayapal said.
According to AAPI Data, compared to the general public, more AAPI adults disapprove of how Trump is handling trade with other countries (75% vs. 63%), foreign policy (74% vs. 59%), the economy (74% vs. 62%), and crime (63% vs. 53%).
In what was nicknamed the “Big Beautiful Bill”, or as Jayapal refers to it, the “Big Betrayal Bill,” funding for Medicaid and SNAP was “slashed” in addition to raising tariffs that have driven an increase in inflation.
Although Senate Democrats reach a deal with Republicans, the government reopening does not include extending the Affordable Care Act tax credits, an issue that is concerning for the two congresswomen. The tax credits help alleviate some of the financial stress of having healthcare, lowering premium rates.
In a January survey, 18% of Asian American adults identified health care reform as a top policy priority, however in the latest survey, that number jumped to 33%. Additionally, 56% listed healthcare as the second most difficult financial burden for them, with housing and rent being number one.
“If these tax credits don’t get renewed and health care becomes so unaffordable, then people are going to have to choose and they’re going to choose to not be insured and to pay their rent or pay for their food or you know pay the other expenses for their kids,” Jayapal said.
Lastly, the Meng and Jayapal discussed the highly contentious issue of immigration. Now, more AAPI adults disapprove of Trump’s handling of immigration now than they did six months ago (71% vs. 58%).
Meng explained that many AAPI voters supported Trump because they believed he would only target violent criminals and deport them to improve public safety, however, he has done the opposite.
“What we’ve seen is that he’s literally ripping apart families, deporting law-abiding residents, even some who are citizens, American citizens without due process,” Meng said.
“Trump isn’t going after the worst of the worst,” Jayapal responded. “He’s going after all immigrants of any immigration status, including US citizens.”
Registration is closed for Common Ground: Building Together conference and gala award banquet in San Francisco on January 24. A shoutout to our planning committee: Jane Chin, Frank Mah, Jeannie Young, Akemi Tamanaha, Nathan Soohoo, Mark Young, Dave Liu, and Yiming Fu.
We are published by the non-profit Asian American Media Inc and supported by our readers along with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, AARP, The Henri and Tomoye Takahashi Charitable Foundation, The Asian American Foundation & Koo and Patricia Yuen of the Yuen Foundation.
Find additional content on Bluesky, Facebook, Instagram ,Tiktok, X, and YouTube. Please consider interning or joining our staff. Don’t miss a single headline. Subscribe for free.
Suggest slug: immigration-healthcare-snap-inflation-billionaires
