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spending cuts
Republicans Told to 'Stop Cowering' From Voters as They Back Unpopular Medicaid Cuts
"We expect every Republican who voted for the budget resolution to hold a town hall during recess on what parts of Medicaid and SNAP they want to cut," said the national director of the Working Families Party.
Feb 26, 2025
In the wake of their passage late Tuesday of a budget resolution that sets the stage for massive cuts to Medicaid and other key programs, House Republicans who supported the measure with near unanimity faced calls to explain their vote to constituents who will be directly harmed if the proposed cuts become law.
"We expect every Republican who voted for the budget resolution to hold a town hall during recess on what parts of Medicaid and SNAP they want to cut," Maurice Mitchell, national director of the Working Families Party, said in a statement following Tuesday's vote.
"If you stand behind this plan," Mitchell added, "stop cowering from your constituents."
In recent days, GOP lawmakers have faced angry audiences at town halls in their home districts as voters—including Republican constituents—express outrage over President Donald Trump and Elon Musk's lawless assault on federal agencies and the party's broader legislative agenda, which includes destructive attacks on key programs to help finance trillions of dollars in tax breaks largely for the rich.
"Every single swing district Republican voted to cut Medicaid so they can shovel cash to their billionaire backers."
The intensifying constituent wrath has left Republicans "weary and wary of in-person town hall meetings," NBC News reported Tuesday.
Citing an unnamed GOP aide, the outlet reported that "House Republican leaders are urging lawmakers to stop engaging in" town halls altogether.
In response to NBC's story, Indivisible co-executive director Ezra Levin noted that "there were like eight GOP town halls last week in the entire country."
"Ninety-five percent of GOP members were already hiding from constituents," Levin wrote on social media. "The fact that they think EIGHT is too many is a real sign of how scared they are of constituents and owning this agenda."
Last night, every single swing district Republican voted to cut Medicaid so they can shovel cash to their billionaire backers. If you’ve got an R representative, call now to let them know you’re furious: indivisible.org/resource/cal...
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— Leah Greenberg (@leahgreenberg.bsky.social) February 26, 2025 at 7:41 AM
Survey data indicates that the deep spending cuts congressional Republicans are pursuing are extremely unpopular, including with their own base. One poll released earlier this week found that 71% of Trump voters oppose Medicaid cuts and 60% oppose cuts to federal nutrition assistance.
Under the budget resolution that House Republicans passed late Tuesday, the committees that oversee Medicaid and SNAP are instructed to find over $1 trillion in combined cuts—a clear indication that the two programs are in the party's crosshairs, despite GOP leaders' claims to the contrary.
"This bill doesn't even mention the word Medicaid a single time," House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) told reporters Tuesday.
But as The New York Times observed, the resolution's instructions to the House Energy and Commerce Committee—which has jurisdiction over Medicaid—to slash $880 billion in spending over the next decade leaves Republicans with few options other than large cuts to the program that provides healthcare to more than 70 million low-income Americans, including children.
"If Republicans want to avoid major cuts to Medicaid, the largest pot of available money is in the other big government health insurance program: Medicare," the Times observed.
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) claimed Tuesday that Republicans are only targeting "fraud, waste, and abuse" in Medicaid—a statement that one expert called "a smokescreen for the tired, harmful playbook to gut the Medicaid program that was tried and failed in 2017 as part of the highly unpopular effort to repeal" the Affordable Care Act.
"House Republican leaders have not really moved on," Edwin Park, a research professor at the Georgetown University McCourt School of Public Policy's Center for Children and Families, wrote earlier this week. "Today, they are still pursuing the same kind of draconian Medicaid cuts that would take away coverage and access from tens of millions of low-income children, parents, pregnant women, people with disabilities, seniors, and other adults."
Shortly after Tuesday's vote, Protect Our Care announced a new flurry of ads targeting Republicans in competitive districts who backed the budget resolution, which still must be approved by the GOP-controlled U.S. Senate before the party can begin crafting its filibuster-proof reconciliation package.
The first round of ads, according to Protect Our Care, is aimed at Reps. David Valadao (R-Calif.), Ken Calvert (R-Calif.), Young Kim (R-Calif.), Dan Newhouse (R-Wash.), David Schweikert (R-Ariz.), Ryan Mackenzie (R-Pa.), and Scott Perry (R-Pa.).
"Instead of standing up for their constituents' health, Republicans fell in line to vote in favor of ripping away healthcare from millions of Americans—all so they can give a tax break to billionaires and big corporations," said Leslie Dach, the chair of Protect Our Care. "Medicaid is popular across the board with voters, no matter where they live or who they voted for."
"By ignoring the impact of these cuts on their constituents, every House Republican who voted for this horrific budget is playing a dangerous game," Dach added. "If Republicans proceed with these cuts, we will hold them accountable."
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Trump Opens Door to Medicare Cuts After Backing GOP Plan to Gut Medicaid
The president's contradictory statements in recent days "cannot mask his betrayal to millions of people across the country who believed he would lower their costs," said one critic.
Feb 20, 2025
Beltway journalists reported Thursday on "confusion" spreading throughout the White House and the Republican caucus following U.S. President Donald Trump's endorsement of a House plan that would slash Medicaid and comments from the administration that suggested Trump will not protect Medicare—but Democratic lawmakers and progressive advocates said the message was crystal clear.
" Donald Trump and Elon Musk want to cut taxes for billionaires like themselves—and pay for it by gutting Medicare and Medicaid," Maurice Mitchell, national director of the Working Families Party, said in a statement. "They don't care if families have to take on crushing debt to pay for care, as long as it makes them much, much richer."
Mitchell offered the translation of contradictory statements from Trump that came Wednesday, with the president expressing support for a House resolution aimed at imposing his border and energy policies and extending his 2017 tax cuts that primarily benefited the wealthy.
The House resolution "implements my FULL America First Agenda, EVERYTHING, not just parts of it," the president said, suggesting his opposition to a Senate proposal that would push for two separate bills.
Calling for $2 trillion in spending cuts in order to fill the $4.5 trillion hole the tax cuts would blow in the deficit, the proposal would include potential cuts of $880 billion to Medicaid, which have made some Republicans in Congress express doubt that they could support the package without angering millions of constituents who rely on the low-income healthcare program.
Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) is among the Republicans who have expressed "concerns" about the "very deep cuts to Medicaid" included in the House proposal, which Larry Levitt of Kaiser Family Foundation said would "go well beyond eliminating fraud and abuse."
Hours before he endorsed the House plan, Trump said neither Medicaid nor Medicare "is going to be touched" in the Republican budget, and his later comments reportedly came as a surprise to his top aides who were unaware of what Medicaid cuts Trump would be willing to approve.
The White House further muddled its message about how it intends to fund tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans and corporations, including those who helped fund Trump's election campaign, when a spokesperson attempted to clarify that the government healthcare programs relied on by more than 100 million people would be preserved.
"The Trump administration is committed to protecting Medicare and Medicaid while slashing the waste, fraud, and abuse within those programs—reforms that will increase efficiency and improve care for beneficiaries," White House spokesperson Kush Desai told Politico Wednesday, before sending an updated statement that left out the mention of Medicare.
The administration's attempt to remove Medicare from the conversation about possible cuts didn't get past Democratic lawmakers including Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.), who said the original comments indicated "a war on Medicare."
Voters who supported Trump because they believed his promises to protect Medicaid and Medicare "were had," according to the administration's latest comments, said Helaine Olen of the American Economic Liberties Project.
"By endorsing House Republicans' budget plan, Trump once again is putting the interests of the ultrawealthy and corporations over the needs of everyday Americans, supporting a plan that devastates the healthcare of tens of millions of Americans," said Accountable.US executive director Tony Carrk. "Trump's statements to the contrary cannot mask his betrayal to millions of people across the country who believed he would lower their costs. Medicaid is more than a pawn in the administration's game: It's an essential program for millions of Americans of all ages."
Trump's newly confirmed commerce secretary, Howard Lutnick, further made the White House's objectives clear when he claimed on Fox News that Social Security, Medicaid, and Medicare are rife with "$1 trillion of waste, fraud, and abuse" and will be slashed.
"We have almost $4 trillion in entitlements and no one's ever looked at it before," said Lutnick. "You know Social Security is wrong, you know Medicaid and Medicare are wrong, so he's gonna cut $1 trillion, and then we're gonna get rid of all these tax scams that hammer Americans."
"Howard Lutnick, Trump's billionaire buddy turned commerce secretary, has confirmed that the administration was simply lying to MAGA supporters about not touching Social Security and Medicare," wrote Malcolm Ferguson at The New Republic on Thursday. "This is a long cry from the party that was telling its voters—many of whom are elderly conservatives on government benefits—that they wouldn't lay a finger on the programs they need most."
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House GOP Advances Budget After Blocking Amendments to Protect Food Benefits, Medicaid
"Instead of choosing to protect the American people, they chose to protect billionaires and corporations," said the top Democrat on the House Budget Committee.
Feb 14, 2025
House Republicans advanced their budget plan out of committee Thursday night after a 12-hour markup session during which they rejected dozens of Democratic amendments, including proposed changes that would have protected Medicaid and federal nutrition benefits from the deep cuts the GOP hopes to impose to help finance trillions of dollars in tax breaks for the richest Americans.
The House Budget Committee advanced the Republican resolution, unveiled earlier this week, in a 21-16 vote along party lines. Prior to the vote, GOP members agreed to adopt an amendment offered by Rep. Lloyd Smucker (R-Pa.) that, according to Politico, effectively caps "the cost of the tax cuts at $4 trillion, with a dollar-for-dollar increase in that ceiling if Republicans cut more spending, up to a total of $2 trillion in cuts."
Democrats on the panel offered more than 30 amendments to the budget resolution, all of which Republicans rejected.
"Each of our amendments was a direct effort to shield the American people from the reckless cuts embedded in this proposal, cuts that will hurt the most vulnerable while giving trillions of dollars of handouts to the ultra-rich," Rep. Brendan Boyle (D-Pa.), the top Democrat on the House Budget Committee, said in his closing remarks at Thursday's hearing. "We fought to protect Medicaid and Medicare, ensuring that seniors, low-income families, children, and people with disabilities don't see their healthcare stripped away."
"We proposed amendments to maintain funding for public education, ensuring that schools remain adequately resourced and that teachers don't bear the burden of budget shortfalls," Boyle continued. "And we stood up for veterans who risked their lives for this country and deserve more than empty rhetoric. They deserve fully funded healthcare, food assistance, and the benefits they earned through their service. Yet, despite the clear benefits of these proposals, Republicans oppose all of them."
"Instead of choosing to protect the American people," he added, "they chose to protect billionaires and corporations."
"This isn't government of, by, and for the people; it's government of, by, and for billionaires."
The Republican budget blueprint calls for more than a trillion dollars in cuts to Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), which provide healthcare and food aid to tens of millions of low-income Americans.
"These aren't just numbers," Sharon Parrott, president of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, stressed in response to the House GOP resolution. "The loss of Medicaid means, for example, a parent can't get cancer treatment, and a young adult can't get insulin to control their diabetes. Cuts to food assistance mean a parent skips meals so their children can eat or an older person who lost their job has no way to buy groceries."
In addition to advancing the GOP's far-right ideological project, such cuts would partly offset the costs of Republicans' proposed tax breaks—which would disproportionately benefit the wealthiest people in the country, including the billionaires in President Donald Trump's Cabinet.
"Republicans are cutting Medicaid and SNAP to pay for tax breaks for the richest 1% of Americans," the progressive advocacy group Americans for Tax Fairness wrote in a social media post on Thursday. "They are literally taking $1.1 TRILLION away from you, and giving it to the wealthiest people in the country."
Thursday's vote marks a first step toward passage of a sprawling, filibuster-proof budget reconciliation package that will include a slew of Republican priorities.
But the House GOP must resolve its differences with Senate Republicans, who are pushing for two bills instead of one. The Senate plan, which Republicans advanced out of committee earlier this week, also calls for major cuts to Medicaid and SNAP.
"This Republican budget opens the door to massive cuts for families," Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), ranking member of the Senate Budget Committee, said Thursday. "Democrats on the committee offered amendment after amendment to protect healthcare, housing, and education—all of the foundations working families need to thrive—and Republicans blocked every single one of them, all to later divert those cuts into massive tax breaks for the richest Americans."
"This is the Great Betrayal," Merkley added. "Trump campaigned on protecting families, but President Trump and Senate Republicans are all about protecting their billionaire friends. This isn't government of, by, and for the people; it's government of, by, and for billionaires."
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