At Bakersfield town hall, community members and elected officials gathered to discuss political, policy response

At a town hall on Thursday, registered nurses with California Nurses Association/National Nurses United (CNA/NNU) – along with local elected officials and leaders and members of community organizations from Bakersfield and the Central Valley – vowed to take on the elected officials and corporations that are destroying public programs like Medicaid in order to fund tax cuts for billionaires.

Registered nurses organized the town hall in response to the passage of the federal budget reconciliation bill, which represents one of the largest transfers of wealth in U.S. history. It steals more than $900 billion in Medicaid funding from everyday Americans and slashes insurance for 10 million people to fund tax cuts for billionaires and corporations. Additionally, it will cut food assistance through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) to 22.3 million families. 

“The federal budget bill is a cruel piece of legislation that will have disastrous consequences for the most vulnerable in our communities, including the patients I care for in Bakersfield,” said Sandy Reding, a registered nurse at Bakersfield Memorial and a president of California Nurses Association, an affiliate of NNU. “This bill will make the rich even richer, put jobs at risk, endanger the lives of hard-working people, and take away two basic human rights: health care and food.”

Full recording of the Bakersfield town hall can be found here. Additional photos can be found here. 

As many as 3.4 million people in California could lose their health insurance, including the parents and babies who depend on MediCal for safe deliveries (Medi-Cal finances nearly half of all births in the state). Rep. David Valadao represents California’s 22nd Congressional district, which has the highest share of Medicaid recipients of any House Republican. Despite this, he still voted to take away health care from 65,000 of his own constituents.

“David Valadao has left behind his roots in the valley and is now in the pockets of billionaires,” said Precious Henley, United Domestic Workers (UDW) District 5 vice chair and In-Home Supportive Services (IHSS) program provider. “He voted to pay for billionaire tax breaks by cutting our community’s healthcare, and we are going to make sure he pays the price of that betrayal."

“Cutting funding for healthcare, housing, and other social services isn’t just irresponsible, it’s immoral,” said Rosa Lopez, a senior policy advocate and organizer and deputy advocacy director for the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Southern California. “But doing that while increasing funding for immigration raids and detention centers? That’s not just immoral – it’s evil. We must build collective power, speak out, and take action until our tax dollars prioritize community care, not cages.”

“Republicans in Congress last month voted for the largest health care cut in American history,” said Melissa Cedillo, a Health Access California campaign organizer. “They are spinning it as a tax cut, but it’s really a cost spike for most working Californians and their families. They voted against their constituents, who time and time again fought to stop these deadly cuts. Hundreds of thousands of Central Valley residents will either lose their coverage or see their costs skyrocket – living sicker, dying younger, and falling further into debt. All so a billionaire can buy an extra yacht.”

“The California Teachers Association works to promote a free, quality, public education for all students and strives to create a better society through teaching and learning,” said Jesse Aguilar, teacher and member, California Teachers Association Board of Directors. “The funding cuts coming from this federal administration are an existential threat to public education and to the students, families, and communities we serve. The funding cuts to Medicaid and other services that many of our students rely on to live and thrive will severely hamper fundamental learning goals. The fact that these cuts exist to feed tax cuts that only help the very wealthy is obscene.”

"At the Dolores Huerta Foundation, we see firsthand how deeply our underserved families rely on healthcare and social services to survive and grow,” said Cecilia Rosas of Vecina Unida, Dolores Huerta Foundation: Wasco Chapter. “Cutting these resources will leave families without the care and support they need, pushing them further into hardship. We must protect and expand these services so every family has the chance to live with dignity and hope.” 

Sandy Reding, RN added, “I lay awake at night wondering what will happen to my patients, my family, my friends, my neighbors. It is my duty as a nurse to not just to care for my patients but to also protect and advocate for them during their toughest times. That should also be the function of all our elected officials. So it is unconscionable that Rep. Valadao voted to make life harder for the people he is supposed to serve.”

The town hall, hosted by National Nurses United and their affiliate California Nurses Association, was cosponsored by 24 organizations, including United Domestic Workers; California Teachers Association; the Fresno, Madera, Tulare and Kings Counties Central Labor Council; and the Kern, Inyo, and Mono Counties Central Labor Council. Additionally, representatives of the AFL-CIO, a federation of 63 national and international labor unions representing nearly 15 million working people, stopped at the town hall as part of its national “It’s Better in a Union: Fighting for Freedom, Fairness and Security” bus tour. 

Assemblymember Dr. Jasmeet Bains, California Senator Melissa Hurtado, Bakersfield Vice Mayor Manpreet Kaur, and Visalia Unified School District Trustee Randy Villegas were in attendance and participated in a panel discussion about how they plan to use their positions to fight back against the Republican playbook to privatize public goods. 

“Union nurses see so clearly what’s happening right now with Medicaid cuts– it is what we call a ‘takeaway campaign,’” said Mary Turner, a registered nurse and NNU president. “It’s when our corporate employers try to revoke protections that we have already won so that we can keep our patients and our colleagues healthy and safe. We are not about to stand by and watch this billionaire takeaway campaign on steroids roll back Medicaid! Union nurses know better than anyone that we don’t just stand by and let the bosses take protections away. We fight back, and when we fight, we win.”

Full recording of the Bakersfield town hall can be found here. Additional photos from the town hall can be found here. 

California Nurses Association/National Nurses United is the largest and fastest-growing union and professional association of registered nurses in the nation with more than 100,000 members in more than 200 facilities throughout California and more than 225,000 RNs nationwide.