Indivisible GA 10 and Indivisible Boldly Blue, in collaboration with Oconee County Democrats, assembled 12 speakers at the Historic Walton County Courthouse in Monroe on July 1 to explain how the tax and policy bill before Congress at that time would impact them negatively.
The speakers made their comments before a crowd of about 50 and then delivered those statements to the Office of U.S. District 10 Congressman Mike Collins, located across the street from the Courthouse.
The effort was in vain, as Collins on Thursday joined all but two of his fellow Republican colleagues in approving the massive legislation and sending it forward to President Donald Trump for his signature in a White House ceremony on Friday, the July 4 holiday.
The speakers on Tuesday included farmer Dave Ramsey, college student Moss Joslin, climate activist Valerie Aldridge, and Aaron Giles from Monroe, and all of whom said the tax and policy issue would adversely affect them personally
The final speaker was Rev. Haley Lerner, who reminded Rep. Collins that Jesus tells his followers to love and care for fellow citizens.
The event was part of a statewide effort organized by Indivisible Georgia to get messages delivered to the office of all of Georgia 14 members of Congress before they voted on Thursday.
Introduction Of Program
“We join with Indivisible groups all across the state of Georgia today to encourage our members of Congress to do the right thing for all Georgians, not what's best for the ultra wealthy, special interest groups, lobbyists, or political donors, ” Tammy Van Dongen of Monroe said in introducing the program on Tuesday.
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| Van Dongen 7/1/2025 |
“Today our primary concern is passage of the so-called big beautiful bill, which is in fact, a dangerous, partisan budget bill supported by Republican leadership,” she said.
Van Dongen said the bill adversely affects “our most vulnerable Georgians--seniors, the disabled, and children that could all lose healthcare coverage or face greater burden."
“Veterans are posed to lose hard-earned benefits,” she said. “Rural hospitals that are being forced to close will impact Republicans as well Democrats.”
Van Dongen said 20 percent of Georgians will lose 4 percent of income while the richest 20 percent gain the same percent.”
“The deficit will soar into the trillions,” she said, “all to give a tax cut to the ultra wealthy.”
“What do we ultimately want from Representative Collins?” Van Dongen asked.
“We want him to hear us," she said. "We want him to hear about the impact that legislation passed in Washington has on regular people here at home, and how disappointed we are that he voted for this monstrosity of a bill.”
Collins had voted in favor of the House version of the bill that was sent to the Senate and again with the majority on Thursday in the 218 to 214 vote of approval of the Senate version when it was before the House.
Sampling of Comments
Duke Geddis, who called himself a retired atmospheric scientist with the federal Environmental Protection Agency and a Korean War Veteran, said the bill passed by Congress and signed by President Trump “will eliminate many initiatives like funding for toxic pollutants research in low income areas.”
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| Ramsey 7/1/2025 |
“This ugly bill will remove incentives for clean energy like solar power and electric cars,” he said. “It removes rules that would reduce carbon emissions from sources like coal fired power plants.”
Ramsey said he lives in Madison County and “I'm a small-time farmer there like a lot of my neighbors and I'm also a Vietnam veteran.”
“I can tell you that many of our small-time farmers are not happy with this administration and with this bill that’s in front us,” he said.
Ramsey said that the bill replaces a $1 billion program that allowed small farmers to support a farm to school and to child daycare centers lunch program with $52 billion for commodity support.
“Now we all know 90 percent of the commodity support goes to wealthy farmers, absent landowners, and corporations,” he said.
“Now this rip off of our farmers is going to continue because now we're getting an additional blow that cuts to the supplemental nutrition assistance program called SNAP,” he said.
“Thousands of people in this particular district are going to have their benefits cut through SNAP if this bill goes through,” he said.
“In addition to this, the state Georgia is going to have to pick up part of the share of the SNAP program,” he said. “So every taxpayer in our state is going to be affected by that.”
“It also means that the poorest and most food insufficient people in our district are going to suffer,” he said.
More Testimony Of Impact
Joslin, who said she is a Monroe area high school graduate currently studying at the University of Georgia, said her federal Pell Grant “allows me to study, eat, and work without having to fear that I will have to drop out to support myself.”
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| Joslin 7/1/2025 |
“Rent increases with every year,” she said. “Food increases with every year with inflation, but my job, my wage does not.”
“Fresh food is a damn luxury now,” she said.
“The higher barriers to funding” for student loans in the legislation, Joslin said, “like increased hour requirements and stricter eligibility, will result in large numbers of students from this district deciding against going to college or dropping out.”
“Why are you, Mike Collins, voting to take this opportunity away from my neighbors, from my classmates?” she asked. “Cutting education funding from the poorest in your district will only ferment broken dreams into anger and resentment.”
Aldridge from the Climate Change Coalition in Athens said Georgia “has more to lose from this bill than any other state in the nation--42,000 jobs and $28 billion in clean energy investments since the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act.”
“The attack on support for clean energy technologies is detrimental to the climate change efforts to transition to a clean energy economy and will put us behind China in new technologies,” she said.
“This big bad bill will add taxes on wind and solar projects and increase subsidies on the fossil fuel industries,” she said, “weakening environmental and public health protections that protect our aid and water quality, causing respiratory problems and other diseases.”
“Do poor people pay taxes?” Giles from Monroe asked. “Well, why is it that we can't speak up when we see something being done that is draconian, it's surrounding our lives. It's going to affect me directly and a lot of other people indirectly.”
“I am a minority. I'm Black and I'm poor and I'm disabled,” he said. “And everything that they're doing is affecting me and I got to speak up somewhere because they want to save the baby that hasn't been born yet, but they are going to kill me.”
Oconee County Statement
Iva King read a letter from Melissa Eagling from Watkinsville, an attorney and a single mother with four children.
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| King 7/1/2025 |
One of her children has severe disabilities, King said, “and Medicaid is a literal life line to care for him.”
Eagling wrote that “His Medicaid covers speech therapy, physical therapy, occupational therapy, vision therapy, orientational mobility therapy, diapers and wipes, developmental pediatrician, urologists, cardiologists, orthopedists, geneticists, ENT hearing specialists, ophthalmologists, wheel chair, orthotics specialized bed, specialized car seats, medications, nursing care in the home.”
“Keeping Medicaid requires this application process over and over and over despite the fact that his condition will never change,” Eagling wrote.
“Medicaid is already tragically broken,” she wrote. “We're entangled in red tape. Mike Collins do not make it harder.”
“Mike Collins, I'm afraid, I'm angry. I'm at the mercy of your decisions,” Eagling wrote.
“You have the power to be our voice,” she continued. “We elected you to be our voice. I'm asking that you be my voice and the voice of my son who cannot speak for himself. Vote against this big beautiful bill.”
Indivisible is technically nonpartisan, but many members active in the Oconee County Democratic Party were at the rally on Tuesday and several played organization roles, including at least three members of the Party’s executive committee.
Minister Speaks
Rev. Lerner, a Campus Minister at the Presbyterian Student Center at the University of Georgia, said she was speaking to Rep. Collins “not only as one of your constituents, but also as a Christian clergy member.
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| Lerner 7/1/2025 |
“I have to remind you that in Matthew's Gospel, Jesus asks his followers, I was hungry, and you gave me something to eat,” Lerner said. “I was thirsty, and you gave me something to drink.”
“I was a stranger, and you welcomed me,” she continued. “I was naked, and you gave me clothes to wear. I was sick, and you took care of me. I was in prison, and you visited me.”
“I am embarrassed to remind you that by voting to pass this bill, you have clearly ignored the heart of what Jesus calls us to do--in every time and in every age--to love our neighbors as ourselves.”
“Paul reminds us in his letter to the Romans that our response to faith is not just about our own souls, but also about the responsibility of acting morally to the least of these, not to the ones who fund your campaign or promise you power, but to the least of these.”
“I don't get to decide who calls themselves a Christian,” she said, “but I do believe that it is within my calling to remind all of us who do, to act like Christ, because when you harm the vulnerable, you harm God.”
Video
The video below begins with the opening of the program on July 1 and ends with two short clips from outside the office of Rep. Collins.
Rep. Collins does not allow video recording inside his office.
In the final clip, Kevin Mason, District Director from Collins’s Office, steps out of the office for an exchange on the street with a few of those who had visited with him.
The exchange ended with shared a “Thank you.”
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