Transcription: Rep. Tom Suazzi on

The next is the transcription of an interview with the representative Tom Suzzi, a New York Democrat, which was issued in “Fac The Nation with Margaret Brennan” on July 6, 2025.

Weijia Jiang: We now go to the New York Democratic congressman Tom Suzzi. Congressman, thank you very much for your time this morning.

REP. Tom Suzzi: Yes, thank you very much for inviting me.

Weijia Jiang: Well, you just heard from Kevin Hasett, you know, as President Trump said, without this bill, it would be one of the greatest tax increases for the US public. They say it is the greatest tax cut in American history. You sit in the committee of forms and media, so I have to ask me how you describe it.

REP. Suzzi: I describe it as the big and ugly ticket, not as the ‘big and beautiful bill’. He will do many things that will hurt many people in our country. The biggest one, which he spoke with Mr. Haset, is to increase the deficit in the country. And what this does is that it creates inflation, which maintains high interest rates, which makes people buy house difficult, make it difficult for them to borrow money, do the things they want to do. In addition, it will eliminate a group of people from medical care. We know that Republicans have tried for a decade to undo the law of health care at a low price, Obamacare, and this is a form of rear to eliminate the health insurance of people who really need it more here in our nation. And will cause health insurance costs to increase for many people. One of the biggest problems of the president in which he campaigned was to reduce prices quickly on the first day, we will reduce costs. Well, the costs are not going down, inflation of inflation will be affected by this deficit. Interest rates will remain high, and this will have a negative impact on health insurance costs for many people in our country.

Weijia Jiang: I know you just mentioned Medicaid and the possible loss of coverage. What tells some Americans that they could ask, well, why capable bodies should not have to work to access Medicaid?

REP. Suzzi: Well, you must understand that 92% of people who can work are currently working, and 8% who are not often people who care for disabled children. Remember that two thirds of people in nursing homes are in Medicaid. A tenth of all veterans in the United States of America is in Medicaid. Medicaid is a lifeguard for so many people who face such difficult circumstances that we cannot even imagine. And why would we eliminate health insurance and food benefits from some of the most needy Americans, while we provide what I think is an unnecessary tax exemption for some of the richest Americans? It simply makes no sense to be reducing taxes for some of the richest people, harming some of the lowest income, while the greatest deficit in the budget we have had in the country’s history. Those things simply do not join.

Weijia Jiang: Well, last week, you said you agree with 75% of what is in this package, that is a fairly significant number. So why is it worth 25% that you don’t like?

REP. Suzzi: Because those things I just mentioned are so devastating. I like the idea that we are investing more money to ensure the border. I like the idea that we are providing tax exemptions to low -income people and middle -class people and people who aspire to the middle class. I like the idea of ​​providing tax exemptions for those people. But why are we providing, and when the economy is doing as well as it has been in recent years, why we would provide a decrease in taxes, tax exemptions for some of the richest Americans in our country, while we blow a massive hole in the deficit?

Weijia Jiang: Congressman, I want to resort to an opinion article that you wrote at the Wall Street Journal last week saying: The victory of Zohran Mamdani in the primary democratic mayor of New York City should be an appointment, “a strong call to the Democrats.” What lessons do you think your group can learn from your campaign?

REP. Suzzi: Well, you know, I do not agree with Mr. Mamdani. I have to make that very clear that, you know, I am a democratic capitalist. I am not a Democratic socialist. Y- But you have to recognize that he took advantage of something. He took advantage of the same thing that Donald Trump took advantage of, that it is that people are concerned that the economy is not working for them. The affordability and the economy is the number one problem in the country. And too often, the Democrats are not perceived as focused on affordableness and economy and middle class, and people who aspire to the middle class and their economic concerns. Come to the Democrats as mainly focused on reproductive rights and LGBT protections, which are important problems, but they are not the problems in which people think every night when they are in bed thinking about paying their bills or when they talk about how they will send their children to school. Therefore, the Democrats have to do a better job learning from Trump and Mamdani, not with their solutions, which I think are wrong, but with the diagnosis of the problem that we are frustrated, we are worried. All in the United States, whether a right -wing conservative or a progressive left, should believe that in exchange for hard work, you earn enough money so you can live a good life. You can buy a house, you can educate your children, you can pay for your health insurance, you can withdraw a day without being afraid. People do not feel it today, and we have to do a better job when communicating it.

Weijia Jiang: Well, I’m glad that I have mentioned perception, because he also wrote that “Democrats must recognize the future begins with an economic security message for US families.” I covered the Biden campaign. I covered Harris’s campaign. That was the center of his messages. So what is the problem here? Is the messenger? Is the message? Because they already have that message.

REP. Suzzi: It is a combination. Number: The Democratic Party as a whole has to have this platform that focuses on what matters to people. They care about the economy, they care about immigration, they care about taxes, they care about crimes, they care about medical care. But then we have to recognize that the media infrastructure is fractured, and Trump discovered it before the Democrats, which are not only traditional media such as their shows and newspapers, but that they are social networks. They are podcasts. Podcasts, the 500 main podcasts in the United States, 400 of the 500 main are properly inclined. 100 are inclined. And of the 100 left inclined, half of them beat the Democrats. Then it has other national media, and then it has some of these ethnic and underground media related to Wechat and WhatsApp and different types of applications that people use. Therefore, we have to communicate on all these platforms, because people receive their messages in these fractured environments and live in these echo cameras, and we have to do a better job communicating on all these platforms and making the Democrats together together in the economy, immigration, etc.

Weijia Jiang: Very good, congressman, we are all trying to learn all those new languages. Thank you very much for your time this morning. And we will return much more to the nation. Stay with us.

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