Democrats Urge Town Hall Attendees To Persevere, Hope In Face Of ‘Big Beautiful Bill'

By Lauren Lifke, Maryland Matters

July 11, 2025

Democrats had little nice to say about the budget- and tax-cutting One Big Beautiful Bill that was the subject of a town hall in Germantown Thursday night, but they still tried to leave the audience with some hope.

“If our courts hold, we’re going to be OK,” Rep. April McClain Delaney (D-6th) told the crowd of about 100 at the Montgomery College campus in Germantown. “We’re going to get through this, and we’re going to be able to turn this back.”

McClain Delaney was joined at the 90-minute event by Maryland Comptroller Brooke Lierman (D) and Attorney General Anthony Brown to discuss the fallout of the budget reconciliation that was a top priority of President Donald Trump, who signed it amid considerable ceremony on the Fourth of July.

The bill extends tax cuts passed in Trump’s first term, which were scheduled to expire this year, but it also makes steep cuts to Medicaid and the food assistance program and prohibits federal funds to Planned Parenthood. Its passage last week capped a tumultuous first six months for Trump, who has tried to make sweeping cuts to federal agencies and the federal workforce, a mainstay of Maryland’s economy.

As comptroller, Lierman said she sees every dollar going into and out of state government. From March to May, she said, 8,500 Marylanders lost federal jobs. The months since Trump’s Jan. 20 inauguration have been an “existential crisis” for Americans, she said.

Rep. April McClain Delaney (D-6th) talks with attendees at a town hall meeting Thursday in Germantown on the fallout of the “big, beautiful bill.” (Photo by Lauren Lifke/Maryland Matters)

“It’s also incredibly personal,” Lierman said. “It’s our neighbors losing their jobs. It’s my sister-in-law being laid off from her refugee resettlement agency because USAID [the U.S. Agency for International Development] was canceled.”

One audience member asked whether there is anything Marylanders can feel hope about. Lierman pointed to the record numbers of people who have turned out to protest.

“It’s not just that; it’s also the work that’s happening in our community every day — whether it’s extra volunteers showing up at the Upcounty Hub, whether it’s folks showing up at some of the other food banks around the state, donations to libraries,” Lierman said. “One of the things that we’re seeing is that people are recognizing the need to support our institutions.”

Brown said, who has joined other states on dozens of lawsuits challenging Trump administratiion actions, said he has felt hopeful after seeing that the courts are still working. Judges who were appointed by both Democratic and Republican presidents have invalidated the actions of the administration, he said — such as in the birthright citizenship and Kilmar Arbrego Garcia cases.

Lierman said that, despite seeing what she called a deconstruction of norms and federal agencies that the country has relied on for decades, the community has continued to show up.

“It’s incredibly cool and chaotic,” she said. “And it’s hard to witness — but we are witnessing it, and we’re not backing down.”