Representatives Jasmine Crockett, Brandon Gill react to President Trump's "big, beautiful bill"

CBS News

01-06-2025

When it comes to their political views, U.S. Representatives Jasmine Crockett, D-Dallas, and Brandon Gill, R-Flower Mound, could not be more different. They both sounded off on what President Trump calls the "big, beautiful bill".
The bill narrowly passed in the U.S. House and includes tax and spending cuts, border security funding, and energy policy provisions. It extends and makes permanent the tax cuts passed during the first Trump administration.
The bill adds two of the President's campaign promises: no tax on tips and no tax on overtime pay. The President also campaigned for no tax on Social Security. While that's not in the bill, seniors will receive an additional $4,000 on top of the standard deduction.
Rep. Crockett joined all Democrats to oppose the legislation.
"It's a disaster for the American people. This is a disaster for anyone who is not from the top 1%. They decided that they would throw a few crumbs in there to make people believe that they were doing something great for them. The kind of idea of no tax on tips and things like that, it's more so a game," Crockett told CBS News Texas during an interview for Eye On Politics.
Rep. Gill was among the majority of Republicans who voted in favor of the measure.
"A permanent extension of the 2017 tax cuts is the biggest tax cut for working-class families in American history. That is a huge conservative win. It's going to put more money back in the pockets of working-class families. This is something that I think we'll see broad support for now," Gill told CBS News Texas an interview.
The legislation also reduces the growth of Medicaid, the healthcare program for low-income individuals, by $880 billion over a decade. The Congressional Budget Office estimates 8.6 million people will lose Medicaid coverage.
Gill said this has to be done.
"We are reforming Medicaid to make sure that it is sustainable and viable for the core Medicaid population. In other words, what we're doing is protecting Medicaid. We've got just shy of five million, about 4.8 million Americans who are working age and able-bodied, who are on Medicaid but are not working or seeking work," Gill said. "That's a problem. Most Americans agree with us. There are 1.4 million illegal aliens that are on Medicaid right now. We're taking them off."
Crockett disagreed.
"I say that they are really good at spinning it. What they have decided is that they need to somehow figure out how they are going to rein in some of the spending. They just didn't want to make it seem like it was that bad," she said.
Crockett also criticized the $330 billion in cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP.
"The number of people who are going to go hungry," Crockett said. "Unfortunately, we have a hunger issue in this country. It just doesn't seem right, because it isn't right. This is literally a reverse Robin Hood."
Crockett dismissed criticism from Republicans who have said Democrats all voted against the tax cuts.
"I say it's a lie, and it's a game. We know that this was just about taking care of the billionaires. It's a billionaire tax scam," said Crockett.
Gill said the bill represents the difference between the Democratic and Republican parties.
"As we're looking at the economy and how we measure success, Democrats measure success by the number of people that they can get on welfare rolls on the public dole. Republicans measure success by the number of people that we can lift out of poverty, that we can lift off of the welfare rolls," said Gill.
The U.S. Senate is now reviewing the bill and will likely make changes.
Watch Eye On Politics at 7:30 a.m. Sunday morning on CBS News Texas, on air and streaming on the CBS News app.
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