What to the Rural Tennessean is “The One Big Beautiful Bill"?

The Republican Congress, on the eve of July 4th—a day when our nation celebrates independence and freedom—has passed what they ironically call “The One Big Beautiful Bill.” Not a single Democrat in the House or Senate supported it. So what, to the rural Tennessean, is this bill that President Trump will sign with such fanfare on Independence Day? Is it a new birth of liberty, or the sudden extinguishing of freedoms hard-won by past generations?

This bill arrives as rural Tennessee stands at a crossroads. As fireworks burst in the sky, families in places like Cannon County face the grim reality that Ascension St. Thomas Stones River Hospital, and others like it, may soon close. These hospitals are more than buildings—they are lifelines. When they disappear, so does access to emergency care, maternity and pediatric services, and the economic stability of entire communities. Instead of investing in the health and well-being of our people, “The One Big Beautiful Bill” diverts billions to expand ICE, build more detention centers, and empower agents to tear families apart.

Nine rural hospitals in Tennessee are at risk of closing due to cuts in Medicaid and Medicare funding. As care disappears, cages multiply. The bill’s expansion of ICE means more raids, more detentions, and more families living in fear. It means that while hospitals shutter and opportunities shrink, the machinery of prison-industrial complex grows ever larger, consuming resources that should have been used to heal, to educate, and to uplift rural America.

The impact on our communities is profound. Imagine the immigrant child in Coffee County, who goes to bed afraid, knowing that new funding for ICE means more agents and more raids. Imagine the law-abiding family who has lived here for decades, now facing separation and loss because “The One Big Beautiful Bill” has made their peaceful existence a target. This is not freedom. This is not the promise of an America built and sustained by immigrants.

The bill is presented as a gift to the nation, but for rural Tennessee, it is a Trojan horse. It exposes the true Gulf of America, between the rhetoric of freedom and the reality of dependence—dependence on distant hospitals, on the whims of out-of-touch Republican lawmakers, and now, on the mercy of an immigration system drunk with new power and new prisons. The American Dream has been twisted into a nightmare where zip code determines destiny, illness can mean death, and a knock at the door can mean exile.

Where once the American Dream promised a future shaped by hard work, this bill delivers a future shackled by closed hospitals and open detention centers. Where once hope was offered to every child, hardship is now delivered to every family. Where once opportunity was the birthright of all, obstacles now exist for everyone who is not a billionaire or born a certain ethnicity.

Until every Tennessean can access healthcare, until every family can live without fear, until liberty is truly shared by all, let us not mistake the signing of a bill for the securing of our freedom. Let us not confuse fireworks for justice, nor celebration for true independence. On this Independence Day, let us remember that true freedom is won by the courage of those willing to stand together and fight for justice, dignity, and hope for all. I am proud of the Democratic Party for using every tool at their disposal in an attempt to stop this bill and to fight for rural Tennesseans like myself.

Mike Stein

Chair, Coffee County Democratic Party