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Trump’s War on Health Care: Public Health Watch

Welcome to Public Health Watch, a weekly roundup from Protect Our Care tracking catastrophic activity as part of Donald Trump’s sweeping war on health care. From installing anti-vaccine zealot RFK Jr. as Secretary of HHS to empowering Elon Musk to make indiscriminate cuts to our public health infrastructure, including the National Institutes of Health and the Centers for Disease Control, Donald Trump is endangering the lives of millions of Americans. Protect Our Care’s Public Health Watch will shine a spotlight on the worst of the Trump/RFK/Musk war on vaccines, science and public health and serve as a resource for the press, public and advocacy groups to hold them accountable. 

Upcoming Events

March 4: President Trump will give an address to a joint session of Congress

March 5: The Senate HELP Committee will hold a confirmation hearing for Jay Bhattacharya as NIH Director

March 6: The Senate HELP Committee will hold a confirmation hearing for Marty Makary as FDA Commissioner 

What’s Happening In Public Health?

Catastrophic Cuts Are Creating Chaos And Endangering Americans’ Health And Scientific Innovation

The Atlantic: Inside the Collapse at the NIH For decades, the National Institutes of Health has had one core function: support health research in the United States. But for the past month, the agency has been doing very little of that, despite multiple separate orders from multiple federal judges blocking the Trump administration’s freeze on federal funding. For weeks on end, as other parts of the government have restarted funding, officials at the Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees the NIH, have pressed staff at the agency to ignore court orders, according to nearly a dozen former and current NIH officials I spoke with. Even advice from NIH lawyers to resume business as usual was dismissed by the agency’s acting director, those officials said. When NIH officials have fought back, they have been told to heed the administration’s wishes—or, in some cases, have simply been pushed out.

Stat: Medicare and Medicaid agency faces compromised functions and disruption from Trump’s firings The federal agency that oversees Medicare, Medicaid, and other major health care programs is facing employee firings, flagging morale, confusing messaging, and the specter of additional disruption — compromising its oversight and administration of key programs that finance care for half of Americans. Leaders at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services still haven’t formally received a list of who was fired in the initial round of cuts from the Trump administration, which focused on employees in their probationary periods. CMS leaders think at least 300 of the agency’s 6,700 employees have been let go, or a little under 5%, one senior CMS official told STAT. The Trump administration, guided by Elon Musk’s U.S. DOGE Service, has cut thousands of people across federal health agencies, and more firings appear to be coming across departments, with plans due by March 13. An order for workers to return to their offices is also likely to contribute to attrition. However, some terminated CMS employees who are attorneys or work on Medicare Advantage have been asked to come back — a sign of the haphazard approach to the job cuts. Now, the administration is getting pushback. On Friday, Jeff Grant, a top career official who has been with CMS since 1993, retired from the agency. On his way out, Grant excoriated the federal human resources officer who carried out the firings and demanded that all terminated employees in his division, which oversees Affordable Care Act plans, get their jobs back.

Axios: Universities feel ripple effects of DOGE cuts to health As the battle over Elon Musk’s DOGE-directed cuts to federal medical research continues, institutions already are freezing hiring, cutting back on the number of Ph.D. students they’ll accept and making other contingencies. Why it matters: Capping how much the National Institutes of Health covers the schools’ overhead costs could lead to billions of dollars in cuts to scientific research funding and widespread economic fallout. Driving the news: An economic analysis by software company Implan on Tuesday estimates proposed cuts could lead to a loss of $6.1 billion in the nation’s gross domestic product, a $4.6 billion reduction in labor income and result in the loss of more than 46,000 jobs nationwide. This includes the direct effects of the research itself, with 17,000 expected job cuts, but also indirect effects through a slowing of business-to-business spending in the R&D supply chain that could support 14,000 more jobs.

Chaotic Firings and Re-Hirings:

Cruel and Destructive Policy Changes:

RFK Jr. Is An Extreme Anti-Vaxxer Who’s Already Breaking His “Assurances” To Key Republicans To Get Confirmed

New York Times: Federal Officials Underplaying Measles Vaccination, Experts Say In a first test of the Trump administration’s ability to respond to an infectious disease emergency, its top health official has shied away from one of the government’s most important tools, experts said on Sunday: loudly and directly encouraging parents to get their children vaccinated. Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the health secretary, was widely criticized as minimizing the measles outbreak in West Texas at a cabinet meeting on Wednesday. In a social media post on Friday, he took a new tact, saying that the outbreak was a “top priority” for his department, Health and Human Services. He noted various ways in which the department is aiding Texas, among them by funding the state’s immunization program and updating advice that doctors give children vitamin A. But on neither occasion did Mr. Kennedy himself advise Americans to make sure their children got the shots.

  • Axios: RFK Jr. urges people to get vaccinated amid deadly Texas outbreak Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. spoke of the benefits of the MMR vaccine on Sunday in response to a growing measles outbreak in Texas. Why it matters: Kennedy has a long record of sowing skepticism about vaccines and last week appeared to downplay the situation in Texas when he described such outbreaks as “not unusual.” He has previously repeated debunked claims about vaccines and provided elusive answers to senators on his stance on vaccinations ahead of being confirmed. Driving the news: Kennedy wrote an op-ed for Fox News’ website on Sunday with the headline “Measles outbreak is call to action for all of us” and the subheading “MMR vaccine is crucial to avoiding potentially deadly disease.” Kennedy wrote that before the introduction of the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine in the 1960s, “virtually every child in the United States contracted measles.” He noted that from 1953 to 1962, “on average there were 530,217 confirmed cases and 440 deaths,” with a fatality rate of 1 in 1,205 cases. “Vaccines not only protect individual children from measles, but also contribute to community immunity, protecting those who are unable to be vaccinated due to medical reasons,” Kennedy wrote. Yes, but: Kennedy emphasized that the decision to vaccinate is “a personal one.”
  • Boston Globe: After dismissing outbreak as ‘not unusual,’ RFK Jr. says ending measles in Texas is ‘top priority’ Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said in an X post Friday that ending the major measles outbreak in Texas is a “top priority for me and my extraordinary team at HHS.” “I recognize the serious impact of this outbreak on families, children, and healthcare workers,” he wrote. The outbreak made headlines after an unvaccinated child in rural West Texas died from the virus Tuesday night, the first US death from the highly contagious respiratory disease since 2015. The following day, Kennedy described the situation as “not unusual.” He also appeared to misspeak at the Wednesday Cabinet meeting, claiming that two people had died from the virus. A federal agency spokesman later clarified that the CDC has confirmed only one death.
  • CNN: RFK Jr. said measles outbreaks are ‘not unusual’ in the US. Doctors say he’s wrong When Health and Human Services Sec. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Kennedy answered questions during the first cabinet meeting of the new Trump administration, he incorrectly described the number of people who died in a West Texas measles outbreak and the reason people were hospitalized. Measles outbreaks are “not unusual,” Kennedy said. Doctors say that was wrong, too.

NBC: A measles crisis decades in the making: How RFK Jr. helped drive America to this moment A child in the United States has died from measles. Just two weeks after his confirmation as Health and Human Services secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. faces the public health crisis that experts have long warned would come. Little is known about the child, besides that they were school-age, unvaccinated and lived in an area of West Texas with a large Mennonite community, where vaccine refusal is among the highest in the country. In another administration, the death of this child, and the growing outbreak that has sickened more than 150 across Texas and New Mexico and hospitalized 20, would likely have been met with urgent calls from the president and health secretary for parents in Texas and beyond to vaccinate their children. The measles, mumps and rubella vaccine is safe, well studied and the only effective method of preventing an illness that can cause a high fever, pneumonia and, in rare cases, brain swelling that is disabling or fatal. But this is public health in the Kennedy era, where the secretary’s life’s work has been dismantling trust in the very vaccines that could have prevented this outbreak, and where the public official now in charge of the agencies that regulate and advise on vaccines wrote in a 2021 book that measles outbreaks had been “fabricated to create fear that in turn forces government officials to ‘do something.’” And so, at a Cabinet meeting Wednesday, Kennedy’s response to the child’s death offered something else entirely: an unconcerned and casual reply.

  • Washington Post: Amid West Texas measles outbreak, vaccine resistance hardens Texas’s worst measles eruption in three decades has surged to 146 known cases, with the true toll likely much higher, exposing how under-vaccinated communities are unnecessarily vulnerable to one of the world’s most contagious diseases, experts say. The first known victim was 6 and otherwise healthy, according to two individuals with knowledge of the case who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss details that haven’t been publicly released. The life-threatening outbreak in West Texas starkly illustrates the stakes of slipping immunization rates and the ascension of vaccine skeptics, including Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr., to the highest levels of the public health establishment. And it has revealed how fear and the scientifically false claims of the anti-vaccine movement have seeped into communities like Gaines County, the epicenter of the outbreak, hardening attitudes about vaccines, pro and con, in the face of a dangerous, preventable disease. […] The outbreak spurred hundreds in the region to vaccinate themselves and their children as the threat of the virus became immediate. But it has made others dig in their heels, arguing that measles is no worse than chicken pox or the flu.

Stat: RFK Jr. moves to eliminate public comment in HHS decisions Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. posted a document Friday proposing to strip public participation from much of the business his department conducts. The move comes during a time of major upheaval across federal health agencies, and as the public waits to see how Kennedy will enact his pledge of “radical transparency” at the department. The statement, placed in the Federal Register, said HHS would rescind its longtime practice of giving members of the public a chance to comment on the agency’s plans. “This is a direct attack on the idea that HHS — a gigantic agency — should have to tell the public everything that it’s doing,” said Alex Howard, an open government advocate and former director of the Digital Democracy Project at Demand Progress Educational Fund. 

New York Times: F.D.A. Cancels Meeting of Vaccine Experts Scheduled to Advise on Flu Shots A panel of scientific experts that advises the Food and Drug Administration on vaccine policy — and that has been the target of criticism from Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. — learned on Wednesday that its upcoming meeting to discuss next year’s flu vaccines had been canceled. The F.D.A. sent an email to members of the panel, the Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee, on Monday afternoon informing them of the cancellation, according to a senior official familiar with the decision. There was no reason given. The panel was to meet on March 13. One committee member, Dr. Paul Offit of the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, an outspoken critic of Mr. Kennedy, confirmed the cancellation and warned that it could interfere with or delay production of flu vaccines.

Bloomberg: Trump Team Weighs Pulling Funding for Moderna Bird Flu Vaccine US health officials are reevaluating a $590 million contract for bird flu shots that the Biden administration awarded to Moderna Inc., people familiar with the matter said. The review is part of a government push to examine spending on messenger RNA-based vaccines, the technology that powered Moderna’s Covid vaccine. The bird flu shot contract was awarded to Moderna in the Biden administration’s final days, sending the company’s stock up 13% in the two days following the Jan. 17 announcement. The US is in the midst of a record-breaking bird flu outbreak that’s affected dozens of cattle herds along with poultry flocks nationwide, sending egg prices soaring. While human cases have been relatively rare, the virus has caused deaths in the past, and experts are concerned that it could become more transmissible and dangerous.

Fox News: Multimillion-dollar Biden-era COVID-19 vax project halted by Trump’s HHS Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has paused a multimillion-dollar contract from the Biden administration to create a new COVID-19 vaccine, Fox News Digital has learned. “While it is crucial that the Department [of] Health and Human Services (HHS) support pandemic preparedness, four years of the Biden administration’s failed oversight have made it necessary to review agreements for vaccine production, including Vaxart’s,” Kennedy said in comments provided to Fox News Digital on Tuesday. “I look forward to working with Vaxart and medical experts to ensure this work produces safe, effective, and fiscal-minded vaccine technology.” Kennedy issued a 90-day stop-work order on Friday related to the HHS contract with American biotech company Vaxart Inc., which is working to develop a new COVID-19 vaccine that can be taken orally. The stop-work order comes as 10,000 individuals were slated to begin clinical trials on Monday.

NOTUS: RFK Jr.-Tied ‘MAHA’ Group Has Hired One of QAnon’s Earliest Influencers A political advocacy group closely tied to Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has enlisted one of the earliest promoters of the QAnon movement to help “Make America Healthy Again.” Tracy “Beanz” Diaz is a podcaster, YouTuber and writer and was one of the first people to discuss QAnon on social media, posting her first video on the topic only six days after “Q” posted on 4chan for the first time in 2017. Now, Diaz says she will be serving as editor-in-chief for MAHA Action, the 501(c)(4) affiliated with Kennedy’s super PAC, MAHA Alliance. MAHA Alliance was formed after Kennedy ended his own bid for the presidency and joined Donald Trump’s 2024 campaign. Its leadership includes former Kennedy campaign staffers, including campaign communications director Del Bigtree and Brigid Rasmussen, the chief of staff. While the Super PAC’s mission statement was originally to inspire Kennedy followers to vote for Trump, MAHA Action is now recruiting to help “reverse the chronic disease epidemic and restore America’s position as a global leader in public health outcomes.” With its close ties to the Health and Human Services secretary, the organization says it is seeking to transform public health.

Associated Press: CDC report adds to evidence that HPV vaccine is preventing cervical cancer in U.S. women A new government report adds to evidence that the HPV vaccine, once called dangerous by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., is preventing cervical cancer in young women. The report comes after Kennedy pledged to give a family member any fees he might earn from HPV vaccine litigation. In a 2019 video posted on the anti-vaccine nonprofit Children’s Health Defense website, Kennedy called Gardasil “the most dangerous vaccine ever invented.” The new report found that from 2008 to 2022, rates for precancerous lesions decreased about 80% among 20- to 24-year-old women who were screened for cervical cancer. The estimates were published Thursday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

NOTUS: Bill Cassidy Is Already Pressing RFK Jr. on Vaccine Policy Two weeks into Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s tenure as health secretary, some of the Republican senators who voted for him already have questions about how he’s handling the nation’s health policy. “I just want to know what the rationale is,” Sen. Bill Cassidy told NOTUS when asked about the recent cancellation of a Food and Drug Administration committee meeting intended to pick which flu strains to use in next year’s flu shot. He said he plans to ask Kennedy during a scheduled call on Friday about the canceled meeting. During his hearings, Kennedy downplayed his history as an anti-vaccine advocate and said he would not interfere with the country’s vaccine infrastructure. Those commitments helped him win over Cassidy and other Republicans with reservations about his record. But his promises already seem to be wearing thin.

Axios: The businesses hoping to boom under an RFK Jr.-led HHS Supplement makers, practitioners of alternative medicine and others in the wellness movement are hoping to capitalize on Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s tenure as the nation’s top health official. Why it matters: Kennedy’s interest in treating the root causes of chronic illnesses through lifestyle changes could elevate unregulated alternatives and risky pseudoscience while relegating diagnosis and treatment of disease to the back burner, critics warn. The question is how that will play with many Americans who are fed up with an increasingly corporate health care system and eager to take more direct control over their care. Kennedy, an environmental lawyer with no health background, has long railed against drug companies and other industries profiteering off people’s illnesses. “It’s sort of open season for grifters. There’s no doubt in my mind,” said Peter Lurie, executive director for the Center for Science in the Public Interest.

Vanity Fair: America’s Food Safety Is Now in the Hands of Don Jr.’s Hunting Buddy Late last week, amid mass purges of key personnel at the nation’s health agencies, a Florida attorney with a surprisingly slim résumé was named acting deputy commissioner for human foods at the Food and Drug Administration. The role, which is not subject to Senate approval, is an important one. In it, Kyle Diamantas, 37, will be responsible for ensuring the safety of roughly 80% of the nation’s food supply. The already-overtaxed division is vital to public health, responsible for everything from overseeing the complex manufacturing of infant formula to responding to deadly bacterial contamination and managing food supplies in the wake of hurricanes and floods. Diamantas’s LinkedIn profile is a study in brevity. He received a law degree from the University of Florida in 2013. He started his next-listed job, as an attorney at the law firm Jones Day in Miami, in 2021, ascending to partner last year. His now archived Jones Day bio described him as having “more than 10 years of experience advising food, cosmetic, dietary supplement, drug, and other life sciences and consumer goods clients on a wide range of regulatory, compliance, and enforcement matters.” Prior to that job, he worked as a senior associate at the Orlando office of the law firm Baker Donelson. Diamantas’s limited experience for such a major regulatory position, when compared with the experience of his predecessor, appears to have been offset by another significant qualification. The young attorney is a friend and hunting buddy of Donald Trump Jr., the president’s firstborn son, Vanity Fair has learned.

Public Health Threats

Washington Post: Texas child is first confirmed death in growing measles outbreak A child has died of measles here , the first confirmed fatality in Texas’s worst outbreak of the disease in three decades, state health officials said Wednesday. The unvaccinated school-age child was hospitalized last week, according to the Texas Department of State Health Services. The death is the first known U.S. measles fatality since 2015. Officials have reported 124 cases in Texas, mostly in west Texas, since late January, and nine cases in a neighboring New Mexico county. Nearly 80 percent are children, who are more susceptible to the vaccine-preventable disease. “It’s heartbreaking,” said Katherine Wells, Lubbock’s director of public health. “My heart just goes out to the family. And I hope this will help people reconsider getting children vaccinated.”

  • Politico: Only one CDC employee is in Texas to help with the measles outbreak Only one CDC employee — a field officer who is usually based in Austin — is in Texas helping with the measles outbreak response, according to Lara M. Anton, a senior press officer for the Texas Department of State Health Services. The state has not asked for additional assistance from the federal agency — and the CDC can’t send personnel unless the state requests help — even as the measles case count has ballooned to 146 since late January and an unvaccinated child died. The epicenter of the outbreak is west Texas, where the one CDC employee is working.

New York Times: U.S. Terminates Funding for Polio, H.I.V., Malaria and Nutrition Programs Around the World Starting Wednesday afternoon, a wave of emails went out from the State Department in Washington around the world, landing in inboxes for refugee camps, tuberculosis clinics, polio vaccination projects and thousands of other organizations that received crucial funding from the United States for lifesaving work. “This award is being terminated for convenience and the interest of the U.S. government,” they began. The terse notes ended funding for some 5,800 projects that had been financed by the United States Agency for International Development, indicating that a tumultuous period when the Trump administration said it was freezing projects for ostensible review was over, and that any faint hope American assistance might continue had ended. Many were projects that had received a waiver from the freeze because the State Department previously identified its work as essential and lifesaving. “People will die,” said Dr. Catherine Kyobutungi, executive director of the African Population and Health Research Center, “but we will never know, because even the programs to count the dead are cut.” The projects terminated include H.I.V. treatment programs that had served millions of people, the main malaria control programs in the worst-affected African countries and global efforts to wipe out polio.

Wall Street Journal: Mystery Disease Linked to Bats Kills Scores in Congo A fast-spreading mystery illness linked to bats has killed scores of people in the Democratic Republic of Congo, with nearly half dying within 48 hours of showing symptoms, the World Health Organization said Thursday. The disease, which causes uncontrolled bleeding, vomiting, diarrhea and other symptoms of hemorrhagic fever, had infected 1,096 people and killed 60 as of Feb. 23, the WHO said.

Washington Post: Musk claims DOGE ‘restored’ Ebola prevention effort. Officials disagree. Elon Musk on Wednesday acknowledged that the U.S. DOGE Service “accidentally canceled” efforts by the U.S. Agency for International Development to prevent the spread of Ebola — but the billionaire entrepreneur insisted that the initiative was quickly restored. “We will make mistakes. We won’t be perfect. But when we make a mistake, we’ll fix it very quickly,” Musk said at a meeting of President Donald Trump’s Cabinet officials, defending his group’s fast-moving approach to canceling federal programs in a bid for cost savings. “So we restored the Ebola prevention immediately. And there was no interruption.” Yet current and former USAID officials said that Musk was wrong: USAID’s Ebola prevention efforts have been largely halted since Musk and his DOGE allies moved last month to gut the global-assistance agency and freeze its outgoing payments, they said. The teams and contractors that would be deployed to fight an Ebola outbreak have been dismantled, they added. While the Trump administration issued a waiver to allow USAID to respond to an Ebola outbreak in Uganda last month, partner organizations were not promptly paid for their work, and USAID’s own efforts were sharply curtailed compared to past efforts to fight Ebola outbreaks.

  • New York Times: A 4-Year-Old Boy Dies of Ebola in Uganda as U.S. Pulls Back on Help The Ebola outbreak in Uganda, which had seemed to be in retreat, has claimed a new victim: a 4-year-old boy who died on Monday, according to a State Department cable viewed by The New York Times. News of the child’s death comes even as the Trump administration has canceled at least four of the five contracts with organizations that helped manage the outbreak. It also placed the manager of the Ebola response at U.S.A.I.D. on administrative leave.

Opinion and Commentary

New York Post (Editorial): Hey, RFK: Go to Texas and prove you mean it on vaccines In seeking Senate approval to take his new job, Health Secretary Robert Kennedy insisted he’d come around on the safety and efficacy of (most) vaccines. Now he has a chance to prove he really meant it. The measles outbreak in Texas (and now New Mexico) just claimed its first life, an unvaccinated school-age child who’d been hospitalized in Lubbock last week. It was the first US measles death since 2015. More may be ahead: Most of the Texas cases are among the Mennonite faith community, where resistance to vaccinations is strong. Go to Texas, Mr. Secretary, and preach the truth as only a convert can: This vaccine is safe, and getting children jabbed is an act of love.

New York Times (Zeynep Tufecki): The Texas Measles Outbreak Is Even Scarier Than It Looks The news that an outbreak in Texas has caused the nation’s first confirmed measles death in a decade — an unvaccinated child — is as unsurprising as it is tragic. Spreading largely in rural Mennonite communities that typically have low vaccination rates, the outbreak has already grown to at least 146 cases since late January. Almost all of them are children. Parents whose children got infected but survived are no doubt grateful that their family was spared. But startling research about the virus unfortunately tells a new and very different story, recasting what was previously known about how measles works and making clear why the Trump administration’s approach to vaccines is nowhere even close to meeting the moment. That research, conducted over the past decade by the immunologist and medical doctor Michael Mina and others, revealed that measles destroys immune cells. Even people who recover from the virus lose much of their immune memory, and therefore the protection they had acquired from prior infections or vaccines to all the other childhood illnesses. This leaves survivors more vulnerable to many other diseases for years afterward. Worse, these victims may now face those childhood diseases, to which they lost immune protections, as older children, which puts them more at risk for complications.

The HIll (Tom Frieden): Postponing last week’s vaccine meeting endangers Americans’ health The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices — a group of pediatricians, parents and public health specialists that provides vaccine recommendations to the FDA — was scheduled to meet last week. Instead, the meeting has been postponed indefinitely. The panel’s webpage says the meeting was “postponed to accommodate public comment in advance of the meeting.” But the Trump administration has had since Feb. 3 to open the comment period, and it still has not done so. This is the first time this committee’s meeting has been postponed since it was first established in 1964. This is concerning. But what’s more troubling is the possibility that this delay could be used to change the panel’s composition, for example by claiming conflicts of interest among its members.

ashoup
In News

ROUNDUP: Public Health Threats Spiral As RFK Jr. Breaks Promises On Vaccines

Just two weeks into Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s tenure as Secretary of Health and Human Services, he has already begun enacting some of the most radical parts of his conspiracy theory-laden agenda, breaking promises he made to on-the-fence Senators during his confirmation process with deadly consequences. 

Last week, coverage confirmed that Kenndy would be removing members of the CDC’s vaccine advisory committee after canceling a critical meeting on vaccine approvals. Earlier this week, he paused a multimillion dollar project to create a new COVID-19 vaccine in pill form, and his FDA canceled an advisory committee meeting on updating next season’s flu vaccine. Republicans like Bill Cassidy, Susan Collins, and Lisa Murkowski ultimately bear responsibility for the public health nightmare that is RFK Jr.’s agenda. As a measles outbreak rages in Texas and bird flu continues to spread unchecked, Kennedy’s disastrous broken promises will continue to lead to more sick and dead Americans, including children.

BROKEN PROMISES

RFK Jr. Committed To Not Change Vaccine Review Standards, Nor Deprioritize Or Delay Vaccine Approval. During Kennedy’s confirmation hearings, Senator Cassidy asked, “[Do you] promise that the FDA will not deprioritize or delay review and/or approval of new vaccines, and that vaccine review standards will not change from historical norms?” Kennedy replied, “Yes.” [Science, 1/30/25]

RFK Jr. Assured Senator Bill Cassidy He Would Maintain The CDC’s ACIP Without Changes. Cassidy said, “If confirmed, [RFK] will maintain the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices without changes.” [Chief Health Care Executive, 2/11/25]

RFK Jr. Assured Senator Lisa Murkowski He Would Not Make It Difficult For People To Take Vaccines Or Discourage Vaccination Efforts. “I continue to have concerns about Mr. Kennedy’s views on vaccines and his selective interpretation of scientific studies, which initially caused my misgivings about his nomination. Vaccines have saved millions of lives, and I sought assurance that, as HHS Secretary, he would do nothing to make it difficult for people to take vaccines or discourage vaccination efforts.” [Sen. Lisa Murkowski, X, 2/12/25]

RFK Jr. Assured Senator Lisa Murkowski He Would Ensure Public Access To Information About Vaccines. “He has made numerous commitments to me and my colleagues, promising to work with Congress to ensure public access to information and to base vaccine recommendations on data-driven, evidence-based, and medically sound research. These commitments are important to me and, on balance, provide assurance for my vote.” [Sen. Lisa Murkowski, X, 2/12/25]

HEADLINES

NBC: First Measles Death Reported In Texas As Kennedy Downplays The Outbreak.

  • “Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Wednesday appeared to downplay the seriousness of the West Texas measles outbreak that has killed a school-age child. The child’s death, the first from the disease in a decade in the United States, was confirmed by Katherine Wells, director of public health at the health department in Lubbock, Texas. The child had not been vaccinated against the measles. The outbreak has so far infected at least 124 people — mostly children — in rural West Texas.”

Reuters: Measles Death In Texas Puts Kennedy’s Vaccine Views To The Test.

  • “A growing measles outbreak in Texas, where one unvaccinated child died and nearly 20 others have been hospitalized with serious complications, marks the first major test for U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr, a longtime vaccine skeptic. Kennedy’s immediate response to news of the measles death, the first in the U.S. since 2015, was to say that such outbreaks are a commonplace event. He incorrectly alluded to two deaths and said that hospitalized patients were being kept “mainly for quarantine” reasons. Public health experts said the Trump administration should be encouraging vaccination at the national level to help curb one of the largest U.S. outbreaks of measles in the past decade.”

MSNBC (Opinion): RFK Jr.’s Rough Start As HHS Secretary Gets Even Worse Amid Texas Measles Outbreak.

  • “Those hoping they could count on the HHS secretary for accurate and reliable information quickly learned otherwise. In fact, as part of this relatively brief summary, Kennedy misstated the number of deaths, mischaracterized the nature of the quarantine, and downplayed the significance of the Texas outbreak in ways that didn’t make a lot of sense.”

The New Republic: RFK Jr. Takes a Sledgehammer to Two Major Vaccine Developments.

  • “Multiple vaccine projects have been paused by the Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Kennedy paused a multimillion dollar project to create a new Covid-19 vaccine in pill form on Tuesday, and the Food and Drug Administration canceled an advisory committee meeting on updating next season’s flu vaccine, an advisory committee said Wednesday.”
  • “Meanwhile, the FDA’s Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee, or VRBPAC, was scheduled to meet in March to discuss the strains that would be included in next season’s flu shot, but federal officials told the committee in an email Wednesday that the meeting was cancelled, said committee member Dr. Paul Offit, director of the Vaccine Education Center at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. Offit told NBC News that no explanation was given for the cancellation of the yearly spring meeting, which comes in the middle of a flu season in which 86 children and 19,000 adults have died, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.”

CNN: FDA Meeting To Choose Flu Vaccine Composition Canceled Without Explanation.

  • “A March meeting of outside advisers to the United States Food and Drug Administration to discuss the composition of flu vaccines for this fall’s flu season has been canceled, a member of the advisory committee told CNN. The meeting of the Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee, or VRBPAC, is held every March ‘to pick flu strains, because it’s a six-month production cycle for a vaccine released in September,’ Dr. Paul Offit, a member of VRBPAC, told CNN Wednesday. He said this year’s meeting had been set for March 13, and he received an email this afternoon saying it had been canceled. ‘No indication it’s been postponed,’ he told CNN; ‘cancelled.’ He said it wasn’t clear who directed the meeting to be cancelled or why, and said it’s also not clear now how flu vaccine manufacturers will get guidance on the composition of seasonal flu vaccines – ‘relying on WHO recommendations? What’s the plan?’ he said.”

Axios: Trump Team Weighs Pulling Funding For Moderna’s Bird Flu Shot Despite Outbreak.

  • “The Trump administration confirmed it’s reviewing whether to pull $590 million in funding that Moderna received in the final days of the Biden administration to develop an mRNA vaccine for bird flu in people.”
  • “The review comes after the USDA this month licensed an updated bird flu vaccine for poultry as part of efforts to rebuild a national stockpile for use in livestock. The department on Wednesday said it would spend up to $1 billion to combat the spread of bird flu, including providing free biosecurity audits to farms, NBC News reported.”

Fox News: Multimillion-Dollar Biden-Era COVID-19 Vax Project Halted By Trump’s HHS.

  • “Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has paused a multimillion-dollar contract from the Biden administration to create a new COVID-19 vaccine, Fox News Digital has learned.”
  • “Kennedy issued a 90-day stop-work order on Friday related to the HHS contract with American biotech company Vaxart Inc., which is working to develop a new COVID-19 vaccine that can be taken orally. The stop-work order comes as 10,000 individuals were slated to begin clinical trials on Monday. The trial is only paused, not terminated, with Kennedy and other health officials set to examine the study’s initial findings over the next 90 days before deciding on next steps.”

NOTUS: Bill Cassidy Is Already Pressing RFK Jr. on Vaccine Policy.

  • “Two weeks into Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s tenure as health secretary, some of the Republican senators who voted for him already have questions about how he’s handling the nation’s health policy. ‘I just want to know what the rationale is,’ Sen. Bill Cassidy told NOTUS when asked about the recent cancellation of a Food and Drug Administration committee meeting intended to pick which flu strains to use in next year’s flu shot. He said he plans to ask Kennedy during a scheduled call on Friday about the canceled meeting.”
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NEW: Protect Our Care Launches New Ads After Republicans Vote to Decimate Medicaid

Ads Will Run in Key House Districts After Republicans Advance Budget Slashing Medicaid to Pay For Tax Breaks For the Ultra-Wealthy

Watch All the Ads Here.

Protect Our Care is launching a new round of ads targeting 11 Republican lawmakers who voted to advance a budget resolution that includes cutting nearly $1 trillion from Medicaid in order to give tax breaks to the ultra-wealthy and big corporations. This latest effort is part of Protect Our Care’s $10 million dollar “Hands Off Medicaid” campaign exposing the choice between protecting Medicaid or giving away new tax breaks for the ultra-wealthy.

Medicaid is an essential pillar of our health care system with over 70 million Americans currently covered through the program. The GOP budget would have a devastating impact on the most vulnerable Americans, including low-income seniors, children, veterans, people with serious disabilities, and people who take care of their children or elderly parents.

“Republicans are ripping away health care from their own constituents to give a tax break to billionaires and big corporations,” said Protect Our Care President Brad Woodhouse. “The consequences of cuts to Medicaid could touch nearly every household in America. By voting to advance this budget resolution, these key House Republicans are playing a dangerous game. People across the country are depending on them to do the right thing and reject these cuts to Medicaid.”

The ads will launch in the following districts: David Schweikert (AZ-01), David Valadao (CA-22), Young Kim (CA-40), Ken Calvert (CA-41), Nick LaLota (NY-01), Andrew Garbarino (NY-02), Mike Lawler (NY-17), Nick Langworthy (NY-23), Ryan Mackenzie (PA-07), Scott Perry (PA-10), and Dan Newhouse (WA-04). 

Links to each of the 30-second ads can be found below:

David Schweikert (AZ-01)
David Valadao (CA-22)
Young Kim (CA-40)
Ken Calvert (CA-41)
Nick LaLota (NY-01)
Andrew Garbarino (NY-02)
Mike Lawler (NY-17)
Nick Langworthy (NY-23)
Ryan Mackenzie (PA-07)
Scott Perry (PA-10)
Dan Newhouse (WA-04)

Sample Ad Script for AZ-01

Narrator: Your representative in Congress, David Schweikert, just voted to slash our health care to help pay for massive tax breaks for millionaires and billionaires. 

Over 70 million Americans count on Medicaid for their health care. And putting seniors, children with disabilities, working families, and rural hospitals at risk to provide another tax break for the wealthiest Americans is just plain wrong. 

Call David Schweikert and tell him – Hands off Medicaid.

Background

ashoup
In News

HEADLINES: Republicans Are Scrambling for Cover After Voting to Slash Medicaid Funding By Nearly $1 Trillion

U.S. Capitol Building

Americans Across Party Lines Oppose Republicans’ Reckless Plans to Gut Medicaid and Threaten Health Care For Millions of Americans

House Republicans are facing intense backlash and lying to the American people after voting to advance a budget resolution slashing Medicaid funding by nearly $1 trillion – all to give tax breaks to billionaires and big corporations. No matter what Republicans say this vote means, it will end in draconian cuts to Medicaid. It is mathematically impossible for Republicans to meet the requirements of their budget resolution without gutting Medicaid and ripping away health care.

Americans across party lines oppose cuts to Medicaid, and polling finds that a majority of Americans think the government should spend more on health care — not less. Medicaid is an essential pillar of our health care system with over 70 million Americans currently covered through the program. The GOP budget slashes Medicaid and would have a devastating impact on the most vulnerable Americans, including low-income seniors, children, veterans, people with serious disabilities, and people who take care of their children or elderly parents.

HEADLINES

Washington Post: Some Republicans Fear Medicaid Cuts Could Cost Them Their Jobs. 

  • “Trump and House GOP leaders insist they won’t touch Medicaid benefits and will simply target ‘fraud’ — but it’s not clear how they can meet their targets for spending cuts without big changes, experts say. The possibility of Medicaid cuts has become a headache for the most vulnerable Republicans in Congress — some of whom are vowing to reject any final bill that slashes it — and has handed Democrats a potent issue ahead of the 2026 midterms.”

HuffPost: Moderate Republicans Who Complained About Medicaid Cuts Voted To Advance Them Anyway. 

  • “All of the moderate House Republicans who complained last week about Medicaid cuts in the House Republican budget voted for the budget anyway on Tuesday… The budget resolution directs the House Energy and Commerce Committee, which oversees Medicaid, to come up with $880 billion in savings, or about 11% of Medicaid’s projected costs for the next decade.” 

ABC News: Republicans Pushing Forward on Medicaid Changes, Despite Potential Political Fallout. 

  • “House Republicans signaled they’re going full steam ahead on significant changes to Medicaid, despite pressure from Democrats and even some moderates in their party. The suggested overhauls to the program, which provides health care for lower-income Americans and those with disabilities, are part of an effort to slash federal spending and hit the House GOP’s goal of cutting $2 trillion over a decade from the federal budget.”

USA Today: Medicaid Insures 1 in 5 Americans. This is How the GOP Budget Could Impact Coverage. 

  • “The budget resolution starts a process that could result in significant changes to Medicaid, the federal-state health insurance program that covers nearly 1 in 5 Americans… President Donald Trump has repeatedly said he does not want cuts to Medicare, the federal health program for adults 65 and older and Americans with disabilities. So, experts say, that means Medicaid is a potential target for spending reductions.”

Forbes: Trump And Republican Budget May Drain Medicaid To Pay For Huge Tax Cut. 

  • “The Republican budget plan calls for trillions of dollars in regressive tax cuts. And the budget numbers tell us the most likely place to get money to partially pay for the tax cuts will be severe cut backs in Medicaid—the source of health insurance for over 25% of Americans and close to 60% of children, and a major source of basic health care from nursing homes to rural hospitals. The House’s action, and likely resulting crisis, is a major step towards next fiscal year’s budget.”

Vox: Is Trump Lying About Cutting Medicaid — Or Is Congress? 

  • “Because House Republicans passed a bill on Tuesday that calls for $2 trillion in spending cuts over 10 years. The bill asks the committee that oversees Medicaid and Medicare to identify $880 billion in savings. Given that Medicare (health care for seniors) is politically untouchable, that sounds like a call for steep cuts to Medicaid. Republicans have been reluctant to propose structural changes to Medicaid, as it’s unpopular to take away health insurance from people who need it — particularly while cutting taxes for the wealthy. Instead, Trump and other top GOP officials have pledged to root out “fraud.” That’s more politically palatable, but the math doesn’t work. There’s simply not enough fraud in the system to get anywhere near the scope of savings Republicans are looking for.”

Washington Post: Opinion: The House Republican Budget Leaves States Holding the Bag on Medicaid. 

  • “If the “big, beautiful bill” that House Republicans barely passed on Tuesday night ever translates into actual government policy, it will put the states in a huge, hairy hole. Many states would be faced with some ugly choices regarding their Medicaid programs: dropping people from the rolls, slashing their benefits or making up the difference by cutting spending on other priorities, such as education, public safety and transportation. None of which House Republicans are willing to acknowledge.”

Los Angeles Times: Opinion: Column: The Family-Values Hypocrisy of Cutting Medicaid. 

  • “The vote this week represents another cruel example of how certain conservatives have a long history of talking about family values while simultaneously abandoning actual families… House Republicans voted Tuesday to pass a budget proposal that keeps tax cuts (especially for rich folks) from the Trump 1.0 era by cutting costs in other areas. While Medicaid isn’t explicitly mentioned, it is de facto on the chopping block. That’s because the proposal instructs the House Energy and Commerce Committee to find ways to cut spending by $880 billion over 10 years. That committee oversees spending for Medicaid and Medicare among other, smaller programs. Finding that large of a sum of money to save would almost certainly require digging it out of Medicaid. (Republicans wouldn’t dare touch Medicare.)”
ashoup
In News

SIDE-BY-SIDE: Key Republicans 2024 Margin of Victory vs. Their District’s Medicaid Population

Vulnerable House Republicans Vote to Slash the Health Care Their Constituents Depend On

This week, Republican lawmakers in the House of Representatives voted to advance a budget resolution that includes slashing Medicaid funding by nearly $1 trillion in order to give tax breaks to the ultra-wealthy and big corporations. This budget resolution opens the door for Republicans to achieve their goal of cutting up to $2 trillion from Medicaid, ripping away health care from tens of millions of Americans. 

Ten key Republican lawmakers voted in favor of these devastating health care cuts despite their narrow margin of victory in 2024. At the same time, a significant number of their constituents depend on Medicaid for their health care. If these lawmakers continue to support these cuts, their own constituents will lose coverage. 

“By voting for Medicaid cuts, these members are turning their backs on their own communities,” said Protect Our Care Chair Leslie Dach. “These lawmakers won by a narrow margin in 2024, but they are willing to jeopardize coverage for their own friends and neighbors. By ignoring the impact of these cuts on their constituents, every House Republican who voted for this horrific budget is playing a dangerous game. If they go through with ripping away health care, they will face the ire of their constituents.”

House District
Number of People with Medicaid
2024 Margin of Victory
David Schweikert
(AZ-01)

138,438

16,572

David Valadao
(CA-22)

529,649

11,461

Young Kim
(CA-40)

175,171

40,361

Ken Calvert
(CA-41)

283,937

11,987

Nick LaLota
(NY-01)

165,128

42,745

Andrew Garbarino
(NY-02)

206,740

66,226

Mike Lawler
(NY-17)

238,549

23,946

Ryan Mackenzie
(PA-07)

215,398

4,062

Rob Bresnahan
(PA-08)

229,360

6,252

Dan Newhouse
(WA-04)

293,061

17,302

ashoup
In News

TODAY: U.S. Senator Tina Smith, State Senator Zaynab Mohamed & Advocates Join Protect Our Care Minnesota to Call Out the GOP Plan to Slash Medicaid Funding for Minnesotans

***MEDIA ADVISORY FOR THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 27TH, AT 11:00AM CT***

Republicans in Congress Want to Gut Medicaid to Fund More Tax Breaks For the Wealthy and Large Corporations

Saint Paul, Minnesota – Today, U.S. Senator Tina Smith, State Senator Zaynab Mohamed, and advocates will join Protect Our Care Minnesota to discuss the GOP’s latest budget plan to put billionaires over Americans. This conversation comes after every Republican lawmaker from Minnesota in the House of Representatives voted for a budget resolution that includes slashing Medicaid funding by nearly $1 trillion in order to give tax breaks to the ultra-wealthy and big corporations. This budget resolution opens the door for Republicans to achieve their goal of cutting up to $2 trillion from Medicaid, ripping away health care from tens of millions of Americans.

Recent reporting shows congressional Republicans intend to slash Medicaid funding by at least $880 billion to give tax breaks to the ultra-wealthy and big corporations, resulting in millions losing coverage, including children, new moms, seniors, and people with disabilities. Americans across party lines oppose cuts to funding for health care programs like Medicaid, and new polling finds that a majority of Americans think the government should spend more on health care — not less. Speakers will discuss how these unpopular cuts will hurt Minnesota families, jeopardize funding for hospitals, and strain the state budget.

Medicaid is an essential pillar of the nation’s health care system that has kept people healthier, kept rural hospitals open, and saved lives, but Republicans are more concerned with taking care of their billionaire friends instead of protecting Minnesota families. If the GOP gets their way, 72 million Americans will be at risk of losing critical health care coverage they need to stay healthy. For years, rising health care costs have been on the top of people’s minds, and they have been a core part of the public’s economic concerns. Speakers will call on lawmakers to protect access to health care for Minnesotans, not take it away.

WHO: Senator Tina Smith, State Senator Zaynab Mohamed & Sermoune Blaylock with SEIU Minnesota

WHAT: Virtual Press Conference

WHEN: Thursday February 27th, 11:00AM CT

WHERE: Register for the virtual event here (Registration required)

ashoup
In News

FACT CHECK: House Republicans Are Lying About Their Vote In Favor Of Nearly $1 Trillion in Medicaid Cuts

U.S. Capitol Building

It Is Mathematically Impossible For Republicans To Meet the Requirements of Their Budget Resolution Without Gutting Medicaid and Ripping Away Health Care From Americans

Last night, House Republicans voted to advance a budget resolution slashing Medicaid funding to the tune of nearly $1 trillion – all to give tax breaks to the ultra-wealthy and big corporations while raising taxes on the rest of us. House Republicans are now attempting to defend their votes to rip away health care from tens of millions of Americans while opening the door to cut up to $2 trillion from Medicaid, even though Americans across party lines oppose cuts to Medicaid, and polling finds that a majority of Americans think the government should spend more on health care, not less. 

These lies are coming from the very top – Republican leadership has been doubling down on lies about their budget resolution in order to get more members of the caucus on board. But make no mistake: Republicans are gaslighting the American people and their own members. There is no question that the resolution puts Medicaid on the chopping block. The bill tasks the Energy and Commerce Committee, which oversees Medicaid and Medicare, with finding $880 billion in cuts, putting millions of Americans’ health care in jeopardy. No matter what Republicans may say this vote means, it will end in draconian cuts to Medicaid.

FACT CHECK:

New York Times: “Mathematically, the budget committee’s instructions mean the committee would need to make major cuts to either Medicare, Medicaid or both. Congressional leadership has been signaling that Medicaid has been the main focus. … If the budget resolution is going to become public policy, it will require legislation that cuts health programs.”

Washington Post: “The House-passed budget proposal pretty clearly requires cutting Medicaid, and that’s a big political problem. … Republicans will need to get more specific if they want to pay for extending Trump’s tax cuts. And both the math and their comments make clear that will involve significant Medicaid cuts.”

Sahil Kupar, NBC News: “[The Republican budget] tells Energy & Commerce Cmte, which oversees Medicaid, to find cuts of $880 billion. Republicans openly say spending less on Medicaid will be part of that.”

New York Magazine: “Republicans are using their traditional tactic of not acknowledging that Medicaid cuts are Medicaid cuts.”

HuffPost: “House Adopts Republican Budget That Calls For Medicaid Cuts”

Eight House Republicans in a letter to Speaker Johnson last week: “The House Budget Resolution proposed $880 billion in cuts to programs under the jurisdiction of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, with Medicaid expected to bear the brunt of these reductions.”

Background

Polling shows strong opposition across party lines to cutting Medicaid from a majority of voters, including Trump voters, who have a favorable view of Medicaid and see it as an important source of health care. The GOP budget slashes Medicaid and would have a devastating impact on the most vulnerable Americans, including low-income seniors, children, veterans, people with serious disabilities, and people who take care of their children or elderly parents.

ashoup
In News

HEADLINES: Republicans Vote to Proceed with Massive Cuts to Medicaid

Health Care for More Than 70 Million Americans in Jeopardy 

Last night, House Republicans voted to advance a budget resolution that includes slashing Medicaid funding by nearly $1 trillion in order to give tax breaks to the ultra-wealthy and big corporations. This budget resolution opens the door for Republicans to achieve their goal of cutting up to $2 trillion from Medicaid, ripping away health care from tens of millions of Americans. 

Americans across party lines oppose cuts to Medicaid, and polling finds that a majority of Americans think the government should spend more on health care — not less. But Republican leadership is doubling down on lies about their budget resolution in order to get more members of the caucus on board. While they may claim it does not target any particular program, headlines across the nation make it clear: Republicans are gaslighting the American people and their own members. No matter what they may say this vote means, it will end in draconian cuts to Medicaid. 

HEADLINES

The New York Times: What Can House Republicans Cut Instead of Medicaid? Not Much.

  • “Conclusion: Health care is where the dollars are. The committee just doesn’t have enough other places to find the money. If the budget resolution is going to become public policy, it will require legislation that cuts health programs. Almost a trillion dollars is a lot of money, even in federal budget terms, and health care is where the money is.”

New York Magazine: Republicans Are Starting a War Over Medicaid Cuts.

  • “So now, Republicans are using their traditional tactic of not acknowledging that Medicaid cuts are Medicaid cuts. Even as his congressional allies debated exactly how much money to wring from the program to help pay for Trump’s border-security and tax-cut demands, Trump himself told Sean Hannity in an interview, ‘Medicare, Medicaid — none of that stuff is going to be touched.’”

Washington Post: Republicans Could Be Touching the Third Rail on Medicaid.

  • “And while Republicans have tried to massage that fact and argued this is merely the first step in a long process, targeting the entitlement program that provides health insurance to tens of millions of low-income Americans would seem unavoidable. Scores of data — and plenty of history — reinforce how politically dicey that could be. Americans hate entitlement cuts, and Republicans would seem to be in the process of handing Democrats a potent political weapon on that front.”

Common Dreams: ‘Showing You Exactly Who They’re Working For,’ GOP Votes to Gut Medicaid for Tax Cuts.

  • “House Republicans rammed through their budget blueprint late Tuesday after U.S. President Donald Trump intervened to pressure wavering members to vote for the resolution, which jumpstarts the process of enacting sweeping cuts to Medicaid and other programs to finance trillions of dollars in proposed tax cuts primarily for the rich.”

Alternet: ‘This Will Kill People’: GOP Blasted for Gutting Medicaid to Pay for $4.5 Trillion Tax Cut.

  • “By a slim 217-213 margin, House Republicans narrowly passed a bill Tuesday night that makes deep cuts to safety net programs like Medicaid and food stamps while simultaneously extending President Donald Trump’s tax cuts that disproportionately benefit the wealthiest Americans.”

Politico: House GOP Inches Closer to Medicaid Cuts.

  • “The approval also moves Republicans a step closer to majorly cutting Medicaid: It would task a key committee with jurisdiction over the program to find $880 billion in funding cuts over a decade. The bulk of those cuts would likely come from Medicaid, the health insurance program for low-income people jointly funded by federal and state governments.”

Axios: House Sets Up Possible Medicaid Overhaul.

  • “The safety net program emerged as a prime target after House Republican budget writers instructed the Energy and Commerce Committee to find $880 billion in cuts. That put moderate Republicans in a bind, concerned that reduced federal Medicaid dollars could force painful trade-offs for states and lead to significant coverage losses.”

The Hill: House Passes Trump Budget, Teeing Up Broader GOP Clash.

  • “Why do some Republicans fear political risks ahead of the 2026 elections? Because 71 percent of voters who back Trump say cutting Medicaid would be unacceptable, according to a Hart Research survey. And 82 percent of all voters say the same. Medicaid is a federal-state health care safety net for 72 million low-income Americans nationwide. The possibility of enacting tax cuts for the wealthy seemingly at the expense of the poor is seen as a risky narrative to sell to voters.”

HuffPost: House Adopts Republican Budget That Calls For Medicaid Cuts.

  • “The budget resolution calls for $4.5 trillion in tax cuts and $1.5 trillion in spending cuts. It received criticism from far-right lawmakers who said the spending cuts were too small and from moderate Republicans who said they were too big.”
  • “Republicans seemed taken aback by voters complaining in town halls last week about the budget’s plans to cut Medicaid spending.”

Newsweek: Did Medicaid Get Cut? What House Budget Resolution Means for Health Care.

  • “Trump has said multiple times that Medicaid would not be affected, telling Fox News last week that it would not be ‘touched.’ But the House Energy and Commerce Committee would have to find this money, out of Medicaid, Medicare and the Children’s Health Insurance Program. If the committee takes its cuts from everything that is not health care, reducing this spending to $0, it would still be more than $600 billion short, according to analysis by The New York Times.”

Fierce Healthcare: House Budget Plan Advances, Paving Way for Major Medicaid Cuts.

  • “Democratic lawmakers stressed the budget resolution slashes $880 billion over 10 years in spending from the House Energy and Commerce Committee. The bill’s text doesn’t explicitly say Medicaid will be cut, but the program would likely have to be fundamentally altered—beyond controversial but less extreme proposals like requiring work requirements—to cut spending at that scale.”

Healthcare Innovation: Republicans Pass Spending Bill with Dramatic Potential Medicaid Cuts.

  • “On a party-line vote on Feb. 25, Republicans in the House of Representatives passed a continuing resolution to keep the federal government running, that involves massive potential cuts to the Medicaid program.”

Wisconsin Examiner: Democrats Blast U.S. House GOP Budget, Predicting Potential Cuts to Medicaid.

  • “Congressional Democrats at a press conference lambasted the U.S. House GOP’s budget resolution Tuesday, expressing concerns over the impact of potential tax cuts for wealthy Americans at the expense of government programs like Medicaid.”

MSNBC: Opinion: GOP Leaders Play a Shell Game With Proposed Medicaid Cuts.

  • “What’s more, it’s important to emphasize just how much damage the GOP blueprint, if implemented, would do to the program. We’re talking about a plan that would cut $880 billion over the next decade, which is more than just a little trim. Even if Republicans were to impose new work restrictions on Medicaid recipients, that would (a) represent a cut of its own; and (b) produce savings of roughly $100 billion over 10 years according to the Congressional Budget Office. The remaining cuts would necessarily have to include additional cuts to health care benefits for struggling families.”

The Arizona Republic: Opinion: House Budget Cuts Medicaid to Give Billionaires Like Elon a Tax Break.

  • “We may not know the actual numbers, but we know the impact of deep cuts. People will die. Because that is what happens when the politicians you elect decide to eliminate health care for those who need it, including the elderly and children, in order to give a tax break to billionaires.”

Dallas Morning News: Texas Children Will Be In Danger With Medicaid Proposed Cuts.

  • “The fact is any cut made to Medicaid could devastate North Texas families. The Texas State Comptroller says a significant portion of the income small hospitals use for their operations comes from federal programs, such as Medicaid. If Medicaid loses funding, some providers, including pediatricians and family doctors, may have to deny coverage to young people who desperately need it. Additionally, some small hospitals that are already struggling to stay open and need Medicaid to support their budgets could close.”
ashoup
In News

STATEMENT: Protect Our Care Calls Out Republican Vote for Draconian Cuts to Medicaid and Launches New Ads to Hold Them Accountable

House Republicans Moved Forward With Extreme Budget Proposal That Slashes Medicaid Funding By Nearly $1 Trillion

Watch the Sample Ad Here 

Washington, D.C. – Tonight, Republican lawmakers in the House of Representatives voted to advance a budget resolution that includes slashing Medicaid funding by nearly $1 trillion in order to give tax breaks to the ultra-wealthy and big corporations. This budget resolution opens the door for Republicans to achieve their goal of cutting up to $2 trillion from Medicaid, ripping away health care from tens of millions of Americans. 

As part of the $10 million “Hands Off Medicaid” campaign, Protect Our Care is launching a new round of ads targeting 10+ Republican lawmakers who voted in favor of these cuts. The first seven ads will launch tomorrow in the following districts: David Valadao (CA-22), Ken Calvert (CA-41), Young Kim (CA-40), Dan Newhouse (WA-04), David Schweikert (AZ-01), Ryan Mackenzie (PA-07), and Scott Perry (PA-10).

Medicaid is an essential pillar of our health care system with over 70 million Americans currently covered through the program. The GOP budget slashes Medicaid and would have a devastating impact on the most vulnerable Americans, including low-income seniors, children, veterans, people with serious disabilities, and people who take care of their children or elderly parents. 

In response, Protect Our Care Chair Leslie Dach issued a statement:

“Instead of standing up for their constituents’ health, Republicans fell in line to vote in favor of ripping away health care from millions of Americans — all so they can give a tax break to billionaires and big corporations. This vote lays the groundwork for Republicans to slash trillions from Medicaid, which would devastate every single community with millions losing their coverage and costs skyrocketing for even more. 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. If Republicans proceed with these cuts, we will hold them accountable.”

Sample Ad Script for CA-41

Your representative in Congress, Ken Calvert, just voted to slash our health care to help pay for massive tax breaks for millionaires and billionaires. 

Nearly 15 million Californians count on Medi-Cal for their health care. And putting seniors, children with disabilities, working families and rural hospitals at risk to provide another tax break for the wealthiest among us is just plain wrong. 

Call Ken Calvert and tell him – Hands off Medi-Cal. 

Background

Polling shows strong opposition across party lines to cutting Medicaid from a majority of voters, including Trump voters, who have a favorable view of Medicaid and see it as an important source of health care. 

ashoup
In News

STATEMENT: Republican Leaders Are Gaslighting The American People and Their Own Members, Their Budget Will Slash Medicaid Despite What They Say

Washington, D.C. – Ahead of the vote tonight on the budget resolution, Republican leadership is doubling down on lies about their budget resolution, in order to get more members of the caucus on board. While they may claim it does not target any particular program, documents show that Republicans are plotting to cut Medicaid by at least $880 billion and up to $2 trillion in order to give tax breaks to the ultra-wealthy and big corporations. Americans across party lines oppose cuts to Medicaid, and new polling finds that a majority of Americans think the government should spend more on health care — not less. In response Protect Our Care President Brad Woodhouse issued a statement: 

“Republican leaders continue to lie through their teeth, gaslighting the American people and their own members into believing their budget resolution does not include massive cuts to Medicaid. This is an outright lie. A vote to pass their budget resolution is a vote to lock in cuts of at least $880 billion from programs that hard-working families rely on. With Social Security and Medicare off the table, the only way they will be able to find that amount of money is to take a hatchet to Medicaid. Millions will lose coverage, including children, new moms, seniors, veterans, and people with disabilities – all to give tax breaks to billionaires and big corporations. Every member of the House should vote no tonight and protect health care. Those who vote for these cuts and try to lie about it to their constituents are playing a dangerous game they are sure to lose.”

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