KALAMZOO, Mich. – Francisco “Paco” Perez and David Prellwitz are furious.
Both these AFSCME members are among the thousands of public service workers who keep Michigan running.
Both are angry that their congressman, Rep. Bill Huizenga, supported the cruelly named budget law that was ironically named the “big, beautiful bill.”
Huizenga’s yes vote betrayed working families in the 4th Congressional District, which the lawmaker represents.
The congressman supported cuts to critical programs like Medicaid and federal food assistance that thousands of his Western Michigan constituents rely on. All to give billionaires the biggest tax break in history.
Prellwitz, Perez and other AFSCME members staged an event in Kalamazoo on Friday to hold Huizenga accountable for his vote. They brought a giant check to symbolize Huizenga cutting a huge check to billionaires out of the pockets of working families.
More than 370,000 Michiganders could lose lifesaving health care through Medicaid. More than 300,000 Michigan residents could lose access to critical food benefits through the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).
AFSCME research shows more than 41,500 jobs in the state are at risk just from the deep cuts to Medicaid and SNAP in the bill that Huizenga and others rushed to pass so it could be signed into law on the Fourth of July.
Perez, the lead field operator with the city of Kalamazoo, is a 20-year public service worker. He serves as the city’s main groundskeeper and is the president of AFSCME Local 2775 (AFSCME Michigan 925).
“I am angry,” Perez said. “Congressman Bill Huizenga has made it harder for our community to thrive. … Voting to pass the one big, beautiful bill betrays public service workers like me who have put everything on the line for our community.”
Perez’s wife, a Type 1 diabetic, relies on Medicaid for her health care. But the bill makes the biggest cut in Medicaid’s history.
Perez worries about what’s in store for his wife. Medicaid is already difficult to access with onerous paperwork, he said.
“Congressman Bill Huizenga has made it even harder for families like ours to survive. It’s not enough for my wife to have to fight for care that she is entitled to, just to stay alive,” Perez said. “Huizenga wants to take it away entirely, to give tax cuts to billionaires.”
Prellwitz is a master gardener with Western Michigan University and vice president of AFSCME Local 1668. He’s also AFSCME’s charity coordinator for the university’s Essential Needs food bank for students, which serves one in 12 students.
“The use of the food bank has grown exponentially in the last few years as costs have gone up for working people,” Prellwitz said. “Huizenga voted for the one big, beautiful bill to give tax breaks for billionaires. And a lot more people are going to need our food bank.”
“All of us, no matter our circumstances, are never more than a few paychecks away from needing a little help,” he added. “That is why Congressman Bill Huizenga’s vote to cut SNAP benefits in order to give handouts to billionaires is such a betrayal to Kalamazoo, to our whole community, and to every working family in Michigan.”