In response to the devastating budget bill and the federal delegation’s unwillingness to listen to constituents, Alaska Democrats held an emergency virtual town hall

ANCHORAGE, AK – The Alaska Democratic Party is calling out Senator Dan Sullivan, Senator Lisa Murkowski, and Representative Nick Begich for backing a deeply unpopular national budget bill that will increase energy, food, and healthcare costs for Alaskans already struggling to get by– while delivering billions in tax breaks to millionaires, including members of Alaska’s own delegation.

A new Yale University study shows voters – especially Republicans – turn against the bill when told the truth:

It raises costs for working families while cutting taxes for billionaires.

The “Big, Beautiful Bill” increases out-of-pocket costs for health care, reduces food and energy assistance for low and middle-income families, and delivers permanent tax breaks to the ultra-wealthy. Meanwhile, both Senator Sullivan and Representative Begich are among the wealthiest members of Congress – and stand to benefit personally from the bill they just voted for.

“Dan Sullivan, Lisa Murkowski, and Nick Begich just voted to make their own tax bills smaller – while making life more expensive for everyone else in Alaska,” said Alaska Democratic Party Chair Eric Croft. “Millionaires, Sullivan and Begich, representing Alaska in D.C. voted to make medical care, food, and energy more expensive for the poorest Alaskans, and life much cheaper and easier for millionaires. That’s not representation. That’s self-dealing.”

Alaska polling confirms what the national data shows: Costs of living are voters’ top concern, and voters want tax cuts that work for everyone, but they strongly oppose politicians voting to enrich themselves and their wealthy donors at the regular people’s expense.

What This Bill Actually Does

• Cuts more than $1 billion from Alaska Medicaid, threatening rural clinics, Tribal hospitals, and care for low-income families.
• Reduces SNAP and LIHEAP, leaving thousands more Alaskans vulnerable to hunger and heating insecurity.
• Delivers over $300 billion in permanent tax breaks, largely to the wealthiest Americans – including members of Congress who voted for it.
• Adds trillions to the federal deficit, despite Republicans’ claims of fiscal discipline.

And while Alaska’s Republican delegation defends their votes by pointing to new energy and resource development provisions, those provisions are speculative at best, while the cuts to health care, food assistance, and energy support take effect almost immediately.

Alaskans Deserve Better

“You can’t tell families in Bethel, Mat-Su, and the Kenai that this is good policy when their heating costs go up and their clinics close,” said Croft. “The delegation had a choice: protect working Alaskans or protect their own financial interests. They chose wrong.”

Our Response

The Alaska Democratic Party held an emergency virtual town hall in response to this devastating bill, in which all members of the delegation were invited to explain themselves. With zero attendance from our delegation, the Alaska Democratic Party invited a panel of Alaska state legislators and a U.S. Senator to hear the voices of concerned Alaskans.

“After attempting to reach the offices of our federal delegation several times to explain their votes, we decided to fill the empty seats at our town hall with strong local leaders and Sen. Ruben Gallego to share the impacts of this bill with Alaskans,” said Alaska Democratic Party Executive Director Jenny-Marie Stryker. “Now more than ever, Alaskans need to hear from folks in leadership positions because they are terrified of what’s to come next – and they deserve answers. While our delegation chose to line their pockets, they’ve put the livelihoods of tens of thousands of Alaskans at risk.”

Guest speaker U.S. Senator Ruben Gallego joined to shed light on how this will impact Alaskans and Americans alike. 

“You have these elites, these politicians, that are entirely rigging the system,” said Sen. Ruben Gallego, D-AZ. “To screw them, right? And that’s exactly what happened. Let’s be clear – that’s what Senator Sullivan did, and that’s what Senator Murkowski did. They screwed and rigged these working-class people. To benefit the uber-rich, right? It didn’t have to be this way.”

Local leaders, Sen. Elvi Gray-Jackson, Sen. Jesse Kiehl, Sen. Scott Kawasaki, Rep. Robyn Burke, and Rep. Genevieve Mina joined to answer live questions from the audience.

“We’re at great risk if this thing passes, not just because of the bureaucratic sludge to kick people off benefits to keep them healthy, keep kids in school, keep people working,” said Alaska State Sen. Jesse Kiehl. “But because it imperils our institutions, our hospitals, our big clinics, regional clinics. And it’s gonna raise your prices.”

The “Big, Beautiful Bill” not only poses a significant risk to our healthcare, our access to food assistance, and our energy prices, but it also threatens the state of our economy.

“The rest of the economy is in for real trouble,” said Kiehl. “This bill adds more than 5 trillion dollars to America’s national debt…And how much of that goes to things that really help working people?”

This bill doesn’t represent Alaska values – it represents D.C. greed.