Rev. Della Owens, who organizes with the N.C.-based faith movement Repairers of the Breach, argues the budget bill being considered in the U.S. Congress will have deadly consequences for North Carolina if it is passed.
By Della Owens / Beacon Media
This opinion column is syndicated by Beacon Media and is available to republish for free anywhere under our guidelines.
Do you remember the 2003 movie Kill Bill? It’s about a former assassin who vows to get revenge after she wakes up from a four-year coma inflicted by her ex-lover Bill’s attempt to murder her on her wedding day. In the movie, Bill aborts his murderous mission at the last moment, considering it dishonorable to kill her while she is defenseless.
Wouldn’t it be wonderful if our Congress had as much honor as a fictional assassin and decided at the last moment to do the honorable thing and consider killing a bill that would harm millions of defenseless Americans?
The U.S. House budget reconciliation bill, which President Trump has called the “Big Beautiful Bill,” is actually what we should call a “Big Deadly Bill” that would assassinate Medicaid and a host of other vital programs. (The U.S. Senate began marathon rounds of voting on Monday that will likely determine this bill’s fate).
Medicaid is a lifeline for low-income people all over America and is the United States’ largest insurer. Additionally, the bill would gut the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), which provides resources to low-income families to supplement their grocery budget and ensure access to nutritious food. Thousands of those receiving food assistance, 13% of North Carolinians, would lose that assistance under the bill.
These issues are very personal to me. My brother, my father, and both of my sisters died due to complications related to the incurable autoimmune disease lupus. My father was only 46 because he couldn’t access the right treatment.
If my brother, David Owens, had not had Medicaid, he could not have afforded a kidney transplant that extended his life for 12 years before he died just eight months ago.
My battle continues, as I have also lived with lupus for 37 years—often dealing with severe joint pain, fatigue, stiffness, swelling, arthritis, inflammation, and other chronic conditions.
Health insurance is important for everyone. But for people like me and the 1.5 million Americans with lupus — or anyone who needs more frequent medical care — it’s vital to have health insurance to help lower your overall health care costs and help you afford life-saving medication.
What will low-income families who are struggling to pay their monthly bills do as the cost of food continues to rise? I know firsthand the impossible choices that will have to be made – I watched my mother have to decide between buying medicine for my dad or making the car payment so she could get to work, which was a 30-minute drive each way.
As a preacher, I must stand up, speak up, and advocate for those who will be most impacted by this immoral budget. That’s why on June 2, I joined with Repairers of the Breach, which is led by my husband, the Rev. Dr. William Barber II, and other clergy for a Moral Monday Rally in Washington, D.C. I was arrested for engaging in non-violent civil disobedience with eight other people as we prayed in the Capitol Rotunda.
We refused to be silent — the defenseless are being killed by the people who were supposedly elected to make decisions in our best interest.
The more we learn about the “details” of other things in this Big Deadly Bill, the worse it gets. The threatened Medicaid cuts would impact North Carolina dramatically. Medicaid provides coverage to nearly 1 in 4 North Carolinians, covering more than 3 million people in the state.
Then there are proposed cuts to the Head Start program, which provides early childcare for thousands, and more money for mass deportations and detentions, as well as the cuts to food assistance. .
Let’s say what this is: tax giveaways for billionaires at the expense of the poor. It was a shame that we were arrested earlier this month for simply praying that the spirit of God would arrest the consciousness of Congress to stop the passing of this immoral budget that will kill innocent Americans.
But we will not stop! We are headed back to Washington, D.C. this week. We must kill this BILL and not let the BILL kill us!
The Rev. Dr. Della J. Owens is the Senior Pastor of Saint James Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in Wilson, N.C.