The government shutdown has crossed the one week mark. As the days tick on, Americans across the country suffer from rising healthcare costs, food insecurity, and growing unemployment. Representative Ritchie Torres (D-NY) joins Jen to update us on the Democrats’ fight to extend ACA tax cuts, protect the WIC program, and lessen the financial burden on families.
Too much is at stake if the Republicans can’t make a deal with Democrats on healthcare. In this poignant sit-down, Rep. Torres and Jen discuss the devastating impacts the proposed budget and the “big, beautiful bill” could have on rural hospitals, clinics, unemployment, and more if not remedied.
Congressman Ritchie Torres is the U.S. Representative for New York’s 15th congressional district. He is a member of the Committee on Financial Services and the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party. Previously, Torres served as the New York City Councilmember for the 15th district. Torres was the first openly LGBTQ+ candidate to be elected to legislative office in the Bronx, and the youngest member of the city council.
The transcript below has been edited slightly for clarity.
Jen Rubin
Hi, this is Jen Rubin, Editor-in-Chief of the Contrarian. We are thrilled to have back with us Congressman Richie Torres. Welcome!
Ritchie Torres
It’s an honor to be here.
Jen Rubin
It is wonderful to see you. We are well past the one-week mark on the shutdown, and we’re hearing, a lot of different things from the Republicans. The president wants to meet with you, he thinks he’s already meeting with you, that houses away. What are your Republican colleagues doing? There seems to be real disarray on their side.
Ritchie Torres
Look, the position of the Republicans is politically unsustainable. You know, Democrats are committed to reopening the government and keeping healthcare affordable. Whereas Republicans have largely been on vacation. Content to let the government shut down, and let millions of people lose their healthcare, and millions more see their healthcare costs spiral out of control. And the American people are on our side, according to KFF. Nearly 80% of Americans are in favor of extending the ACA tax credits. And the 80% supermajority includes more than 90% of Democrats, more than 80% of Independents, and nearly 60% of Republicans, including MAGA Republicans. So not only do we have the moral high ground, but we are on the winning side of an 80-20 issue, and Republicans know it, and Donald Trump knows it, and even Marjorie Taylor Greene admits it.
Jen Rubin
Exactly, so welcome to the resistance, Representative Green. One of the things that’s happening, and it will increase as we approach November 1, are people are going to get those notices that say how much their healthcare is going to cost next year. Do you think that will resonate as people literally get the bill for what this is gonna cost them?
Ritchie Torres
When the American people find out about the premium shock that’s coming, it’s going to lead to a massive backlash. And keep in mind, you know, the cost of healthcare has more than doubled since 2000, rising by 121% and so premiums that have doubled. Are in danger of doubling once again and doubling overnight. And so if Republicans fail to extend the ACA tax credits, up to 24 million Americans. We’ll see their premiums rise by an average of 114%. And if you’re a 55-year-old couple, earning $85,000 a year, you will see your premiums not double, but triple. From $7,000 to $24,000, I am not aware of a working-class couple in America that can afford a $17,000 increase in their premiums in the span of a few months.
Jen Rubin
And what that really means is many people will have to lose their insurance altogether. So, they won’t get preventative care, they’ll get sicker, and then they’ll wind up in the emergency room, with much more expensive healthcare, that, the emergency room will be obligated to care for. How is that a good use of our dollars, and how does that make any sense from a health standpoint?
Ritchie Torres
But providing people with healthcare preventatively is not only good morals, it’s good economics. It saves us far more.Because the cost of emergency care is known to be high. And, you know, a common talking point that we’ve heard from Republicans is that Democrats are, quote, fighting for the healthcare of undocumented immigrants. Well, first, undocumented immigrants are ineligible for the ACA tax credits that we’re intent on extending. But second, I will… there is one president who did sign a law that guarantees healthcare to undocumented immigrants, and that president was Ronald Reagan. And I’m not aware of a single Republican who’s proposing that we repeal Ronald Reagan’s law guaranteeing healthcare to undocumented immigrants in the emergency room.
Jen Rubin
And essentially, that’s the law that says if you show up in the hospital at death’s door, they have to treat you, because it’s not like we’re doing them a favor. We don’t want people dying on the street or running around with highly communicable diseases. So, it’s unclear exactly what Republicans’ problem with that is. We’re also looking, of course, at these massive cuts, to Medicaid. What’s happening on that front?
Ritchie Torres
Look, we’re intent on reversing the cuts that Republicans have made. You know, the so-called Big Beautiful Bill, which is Orwellian in name, not only cut SNAP by over $300 billion, but cut Medicaid by over $800 billion. And so it’s going to cause… You know, upward of 10 million people. To lose their health insurance. And, you know, Medicaid is the largest source of insurance in the United States, and it’s been destabilized by the big, ugly law.
Jen Rubin
For hospitals like the one in your district, which also happen to be the biggest employer. what is the Medicaid cuts that these go through, gonna, inflict, not only on the healthcare, but on those institutions as employers, as economic mainstays of their community?
Ritchie Torres
Well, look, it’s worth noting that in the second quarter of 2025, most of the job growth was concentrated in the healthcare sector. It is often the case. Ritchie Torres: that healthcare providers, particularly hospitals, are the largest employers, especially in rural America, and especially in underserved urban areas like the Bronx. And so if these Medicaid cuts go forward, and if the expiration of the ACA tax credits go forward. It’s going to lead to the widespread closing of hospitals, nursing homes, clinics. It’s going to lead to widespread, displacement and unemployment, defunding healthcare is not only bad morals, it’s bad economics.
Jen Rubin
It does seem that the president who was elected to lower costs, is not doing, what he said he was gonna do. You not only have the healthcare costs that you alluded to, energy prices are continuing to go up, and perhaps, worst of all, are these tariffs that are driving the cost of virtually everything up. How are folks in your district who are, working class people, many who are really, in the lower, income levels, how are they surviving? How do they make ends meet during this period of time?
Ritchie Torres
My working poor constituents are struggling to survive. Like, imagine if you’re a single mother. You know, I was raised by a single mother who raised my twin brother and me. So imagine you’re a single mother. Raising two children in the Bronx. And since 2020, you’ve seen the cost of groceries rise by 20-30%. And then you see Donald Trump cut your SNAP benefits by 20-30%. And then you see Donald Trump propose to cut your WIC benefits by 75%. We are making it unaffordable. Dangerously unaffordable to have a family in America. Like, America has become a hostile environment for families because of the affordability crisis. And I want to speak about the WIC program because it is so, you know, WIC is so vital that it serves 40% of America’s infants. It provides nutritious food to nearly 7 million women, infants, and children.And the longer the government shutdown persists, the greater the risk to the WIC program. And keep in mind, when it comes to infants and children who are in their most fragile and formative years of development. There’s nothing temporary about a temporary government shutdown. The loss of funding for WIC, Could inflict permanent developmental damage on infants and toddlers. Like, for infants, nutrition is not a luxury, it is a lifeline. An iron deficiency can damage the brain. A vitamin D deficiency can weaken your bones and your immune system. A protein deficiency can stunt growth.And so when you undermine a program like WIC, as the Republicans have done. You’re not only starving infants or children of food, you’re starving them of a future.
Jen Rubin
It is rather incredible. It is not as if these hardships are only falling on blue districts like your own.
Ritchie Torres
Yes.
Jen Rubin
You noted that red districts, particularly rural ones, have these same issues, these same problems. Will… do you think the red state… And when district lawmakers begin to recognize this, or feel this, I can’t think of anything more devastating to a rural community than have the only hospital within a couple hundred miles shut down, or to lose food assistance. And, of course, farmers are beginning to go bankrupt because of the combination of the tariffs, the cutoff of USAD. Rural America is, suffering as much, if not more, than any part of America.
Ritchie Torres
I mean, Donald Trump and Republicans are portraying their constituents. So there are about 24 million people on the ACA marketplace. Of the 24, 75% live in red states. Whereas only 25% live in blue states. Right? 18 to 19 million people in the marketplace are from red states, whereas 5 to 6 million are from blue states. And so Republicans are not only abandoning the American people, they’re abandoning the very people who voted him into office. And the irony here is that you have blue state representatives like me fighting for the healthcare of their red state constituents.
Jen Rubin
Well, perhaps this will make a bit of a difference in people’s political evaluations. I’d be remiss if I didn’t ask you about one of your newly elected colleagues who is yet to be seated by the Speaker of the House, Representative Grijava. And she was elected weeks ago now. The speaker has his folks on vacation and is refusing to seat her. Is that appropriate, in your view? And what’s gonna go on with that? How long is he gonna refuse to recognize the votes of, hundreds of thousands of Americans?
Ritchie Torres
Well, it’s profoundly undemocratic, but it’s hardly coincidental that Speaker Johnson refuses to seat a Democratic member of Congress when we’re one signature away from discharging the Epstein petition. And so I see it as nothing more than a naked ploy to protect Donald Trump from accountability. You know, everyone knows that there is no one in Washington, D.C, who has closer and longer ties to Jeffrey Epstein than Donald Trump. Like, he is at the core of the Epstein conspiracy theory, and so Mike Johnson’s priority is not to protect the healthcare of the American people. It’s not to protect the functioning of the federal government, it’s to protect Donald Trump, his Lord and Savior. Like, the ideology of the Republican Party is no longer conservatism, it’s Trumpism. It’s a cult of personality around Donald Trump.
Jen Rubin
I think that’s very hard to dispute. So, last question for you, Congressman. You know your colleagues, better than everyone. Do you think the Republicans are finally gonna crack, and we’re gonna see some progress in the next week or so?
Ritchie Torres
Look, I feel like we have the moral high ground, the political high ground. you know, Donald Trump is suggesting that the problem has to be solved. Marjorie Taylor Greene, Is… is conceding as much, the Republican position is, is, is unsustainable, so… but I can tell you, look, as Democrats. We have a choice. We could have either stood by passively, And become complicit. Well, we can fight, and we have wisely chosen to fight for the healthcare of the American people. And I’m optimistic that we will win that fight.
Jen Rubin
Well, as always, Congressman, thank you for all you’re doing. Thank you for coming on. It’s very hard to argue, that, you guys, as you say, don’t have the moral and political high ground. Perhaps that will permeate, Donald Trump’s brain, at some point, and he’ll maybe act upon it. So thank you so much, Congressman, and we’ll look forward to seeing you real soon.
Ritchie Torres
Always a pleasure.
