Local leaders and spoken-word artists detailed the struggle in Chicago because Washington gave billionaires a massive tax break and stuck everyday Americans with the bill.

CHICAGO (July 8, 2026) – Today, Families Over Billionaires, Citizen Action/Illinois and local partners brought the Who Pays? Bus Tour to Chicago. Residents and local leaders gathered at Clinard Dance Studio to share stories and spoken-word performances about the real-world consequences of the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” (OBBBA). The law, signed one year ago on July 4th, cut Medicaid and SNAP to deliver $4.5 trillion in tax cuts to billionaires and corporations.

In addition to remarks, the event featured spoken word performances by Goddess The Warrior Poet, Swavell Toliver, Andrew Kirk, and a Q&A led by King Moosa.

Chicago is the eighth stop on the nationwide tour that kicked off June 30th in Portland, Maine to tell the stories behind the headlines. The bus will make 17 stops in 13 states to demand a tax system that works for everyone before concluding on July 16th in Tucson, Arizona.

Media who would like video or photos from the event, or an interview with one of the speakers please email [email protected].

HIGHLIGHTS

Kristen Crowell, Executive Director of Families Over Billionaires talked about how communities have supported each other in the wake of this terrible bill:

• “Today is a different kind of bus stop for us as we embrace our humanity through the arts. We’re centering art and culture – not just naming the facts and talking about the big numbers, but really bringing ourselves to this work. Because they can take away our money, but they cannot take away our joy and our humanity and our love for our beloved community.

• “While Donald Trump and the Republicans don’t care if we die, we know that when we stand shoulder to shoulder and take care of each other in a neighborly way, in a community way, we can actually get through this time and build a future that we all deserve.”

Sen. Robert Peters pulled from his background as a community organizer and someone who once relied on the social safety net, calling out the rigged system:

• “The OBBBA is an attack coming from the worst elements in our politics – from very powerful and rich people who want to close our hospitals, make our food banks impossible to have food in them, make it so that people struggle to not only just pay to keep their house or to pay rent, that they not only go to the street, but when they go to the street, they don’t have the services they need, or they’re struggling to buy housing. It is an attack on people in every corner and every pocket of the city and state. It’s an attack on people who live in the city, in the suburbs, rural communities. It is an attack on working people, all so the richest of the rich can get a second yacht.

• “We live in the richest, most powerful country in history. It is ridiculous that people are struggling every day. It’s ridiculous that the food pantry in my district in Hyde Park that serves four zip codes saw its population grow in terms of what it’s serving, while the food getting donated has decreased. It is ridiculous that people who are living in HUD housing are struggling right now with a private equity firm to make sure that their housing is secure, while that private equity firm sees it as a growth opportunity. It is ridiculous that in this country, where the richest of the rich can enjoy the bounty of this country, that they get to sit comfortably and then blame us for the problem.”

Rep. Theresa Mah, Majority Conference Chair and champion of the Illinois Billionaire Wealth Tax focused on fairness and working families:

• “I’m proud to represent these neighborhoods that are predominantly immigrant working families – they have really borne the brunt of the policies of the one horrible ugly bill that passed a year ago.

• “Everyday people are bearing the brunt of these tax policies where the ultra wealthy are getting tax cuts that they don’t need or deserve. … We have to make this connection for everybody all over the country that are suffering because billionaires are not paying their fair share.”

Suzanne Ahkras, Founder and Executive Director of the Syrian Community Network, and an OxFam Sisters of the Planet Ambassador

• “Whether it’s a family fleeing a war in Syria or a nurse here in Chicago who can’t afford her own rent, the story is the same: Ordinary people are carrying the weight of a system that’s rigged against them… For decades, billionaires and corporate lobbyists have shaped their roles in their favor, then turned around and blamed working people. The last year didn’t fix that, it made it worse on purpose.”

• “We don’t need more billionaires, we need living wages, we need housing that people can afford, we need a tax system where the wealthiest time to pay their fair share, instead of buying political power with what they hold from the rest of us. We need to welcome, not scapegoat, the newcomers who are, who are already rebuilding our neighborhoods block by block.

Dr. Julie Blankemeier, a family physician in Chicago with the Committee to Protect Health Care detailed the personal and public health impacts of cutting Medicaid:

• “As a physician, I see that decisions made in Washington eventually show up in clinics and hospitals across the country. I know patients who have put off seeing their doctor, cannot get diagnostic testing, are rationing medications because they cannot afford them. Illnesses become more advanced. Chronic conditions lead to irreversible complications that were preventable. Conditions that could have been treated turn into emergencies. It’s more expensive, more dangerous, and harder on patients and families.

• “We should be making it easier, not harder, for people to receive the care they need. It is not only better for the patient and their family, but also for a productive society. Health care should never be sacrificed so the wealthiest Americans can receive another tax break.”

Swavell “Sway” Toliver, a spoken word artist, performed a poem called Paper Promises and discussed the impact of cuts to SNAP during Q&A:

• From Paper Promises:
  • “Now the suits and the higher ups // that are probably more higher than us // are seriously cutting the lifelines. // Slashing Medicaid, trimming SNAP like they’re excess branches. … But these programs aren’t just handouts, they are the bare minimum needed to survive this world, this system, designed to starve the bottom.

• “The people, they need these safety nets just to keep the gravity from pulling them under. … These colorful coupons were paper promises. // A colorful yet embarrassing grace in a great cold concrete world before they turned our survival into data analysis // and left the hood to fend for its own soul amongst many other challenges.”

• “I’m recently released from prison, and before I even got home, I was talking to men, friends, relatives, and others [about the OBBBA cuts]. That was one of the first things they were telling you, they were losing benefits. And since I’ve been home these past two months, several individuals I spoke to, who just got out before me, they was like, “yo, I was receiving SNAP for like three months, and now they cut it off. Or they went from like $200 to $20.”

• “You know no one wants to be on these benefits if they don’t have to. We’d rather be moving around, and work, and take care of ourselves and our families. And do whatever we want, whatever we can do, so we can help society as a whole. But if you can’t, you need them.”

Who Pays? bus tour national partners include: Gen Z For Change, Protect Our Care, Committee to Protect Health Care, National Women’s Law Center, Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, DemCast USA, National Nurses United, Unrig Our Economy, Americans for Tax Fairness, and State Revenue Alliance.