This is the Daily Blast from the New Republic, produced and presented by the DSR Network.

I'm your host, Greg Sargent.

J.D. Vance just delivered a speech in Georgia that has been widely billed as a reset in the battle over President Trump's abysmally unpopular budget bill, the big, ugly bill

enshrining Trump's agenda.

Vance lied ham-handedly about the bill's health care cuts,

tried to distract his audience with crude demagoguery about undocumented immigrants,

and viciously attacked a nonpartisan agency for telling the truth about the bill's true intentions.

This comes as local headlines from many states are showing that people deep in MAGA country know they're going to get

royally screwed by this bill. The level of scamming of Trump voters that Vance attempted

here is remarkable, even for him. So how is the battle over this bill going to unfold? Do Democrats

have a strategy for keeping the public focused on its horrors all the way through Election Day

2026? Today we're talking about all this with Michael Linden, an economist and Democratic

strategist who is organizing against the bill and understands the pitfalls that lie ahead.

Thanks for coming on, Michael.

Thank you very much for having me, Greg.

So just to recap, the top line of the big ugly bill is that it's going to knock at least 10 million people off Medicaid to fund a huge tax cut for the rich.

During his speech, J.D. Vance addressed the health care cuts. Listen to this.

Well, you know what the President of the United States made a promise, a sacred promise,

that the only people who are going to lose access to health care are illegal aliens who shouldn't be in this country to begin with.

Because I happen to believe that Medicaid belongs to American workers and American families.

I happen to believe that when you are struggling in this country, we're generous people,

and we want to help you.

...