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.”