Gov. Josh Shapiro is no fan of the new federal legislation that was pushed by President Donald Trump who signed it on Independence Day.

“I want to be very clear about something,” he said on a recent visit to Lycoming County. “The decision they made to pass this into law cannot be backfilled by the state.” Shapiro said issuing a stern warning about the anticipated impact to those receiving Medicaid, food assistance with the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program and jobs in the energy sector.

“Those people who are going to lose their healthcare are going to lose it because of the decision by President Trump and these Republican members of Congress from Pennsylvania,” he said.

“The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania does not have the billions of dollars to backfill that and it breaks my heart to see that people are going to lose healthcare, they are going to lose food assistance, they are going to lose their job so that folks at the highest income bracket can get a tax cut that they don’t need,” he said, adding, “that is bad economic policy but that’s now the law of this country.”

“The idea that they are borrowing from your kids and your grandkids to just simply pay for the operations of this country right now makes us less free, less safe – I believe that to be a national security risk,” Shapiro said.

Shapiro said it’s not talking points, but rather real lives that are now at stake.

“Your members of Congress went to Washington and voted, knowingly, to rip people out of their healthcare, to take away the food that they put on their table,” he said. “This isn’t about some cynical political nonsense. These are real lives that are going to be hurt because the folks who were sent to Washington from here don’t have the people of Lycoming County in mind the way I do. But, instead, he noted, “they’ve got the special interest in mind. I am fighting every damn day for the good people of Pennsylvania. I am on their side. Unfortunately, their federal representatives screwed them over and are on the side of the special interest in Washington, D.C.”

That legislation is going to mean the following, according to Shapiro:

— 310,000 Pennsylvanians are going to lose Medicaid, including 2,667 in Lycoming County.

— 200,000 more will lose their health care on Pennie, which is the state’s healthcare exchange.

— 140,000 Pennsylvanians are going to lose Supplement Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits or food assistance.

“Understand that of all those numbers I just cited roughly half of those people live in rural communities in Pennsylvania like these,” Shapiro said. “They did all of this to try and give a tax cut to people in the highest income brackets who don’t need a tax cut,” he reiterated.

Beyond the health care side of this are the energy sector jobs.

“There are also going to be 26,000 people who work in the energy sector out of a job because they slashed those energy credits,” Shapiro said.

“You just heard me talk about how critical energy is to the economy here in Pennsylvania,” Shapiro said, further explaining the impact the federal legislation will have on the national deficit.

“And beyond all of that they had $3.3 trillion to our national deficit, which is going to impact every family and disproportionately impact the middle class and those who are working poor,” Shapiro said.