House Democrats Mount Aggressive Campaign To Oppose Extreme Medicaid Cuts

Over more than 26 hours this week, House Democrats on the Energy & Commerce Committee hammered Republicans for advancing a toxic bill that would enact the largest cut to Medicaid in history, according to The Washington Post’s Karen Tumulty.

All told, Republicans on the Committee – including vulnerable Reps. Gabe Evans (CO-08), Mariannette Miller-Meeks (IA-01), and Tom Kean Jr. (NJ-07) – rejected 33 amendments that would have extended Affordable Care Act tax credits, protected Medicaid, and taken on billionaire tax breaks.

At the same time, House Democrats shared stories of everyday Americans who would be harmed by the GOP’s tax scam—including Sasha, a constituent of Kean Jr., who was born with cerebral palsy and would be buried in red tape just to receive critical care.

This extreme GOP tax scam would kick nearly 14 million Americans off their health insurance in order to hand out massive tax breaks to billionaires like Elon Musk.

As Tumulty writes: “Energy and Commerce Committee Democrats came ready, and while they didn’t have the numbers to win any of the votes they forced, their tenacity warns of what lies ahead in the battle over Medicaid. Republicans will likely wish it was a fight they had never started.”

Read more from The Washington Post’s Karen Tumulty below.

Washington Post: 26 hours and 33 failed amendment votes: This is Democrats’ masterclass in resistance
By Karen Tumulty | May 15, 2025

• For a party that has been shut out of power in Washington, what happened this week in Room 2123 of the Rayburn House Office Building was a masterclass in resistance.

• Over more than 26 sleepless hours that began on Tuesday afternoon and continued into Wednesday, Democrats on the House Energy and Commerce Committee pounded the panel’s Republican majority with 33 amendments, most of which were aimed at stripping the GOP’s “big, beautiful bill” containing politically toxic cuts to Medicaid. In the hallway outside, police arrested more than two dozen protesters, many of whom were in wheelchairs.

• Every one of the amendments failed, as Democrats knew they would. But their coordinated assault on the centerpiece of President Donald Trump’s legislative agenda framed a powerful narrative that is shaping up to be the party’s most potent message heading into next year’s midterm elections.

• The marathon session laid bare the Republicans’ vulnerability on Medicaid. They claim to be rooting out waste and fraud from the system. But, in its essence, the bill amounts to a declaration of who should be deemed worthy of health care in this country.

• The GOP’s twin arguments — that it is making the program more efficient and exercising fiscal responsibility — are also weakened by the fact that the savings the party hopes to achieve would go toward extending the 2017 Trump tax cuts that are due to expire at the end of the year.

• The legislation would, for example, impose work requirements on able-bodied, single adults, though the majority of those who are under 65 and without disabilities already hold jobs. Experience in states that have work requirements suggests the real impact would come in the strain they place on Medicaid recipients to constantly verify that they are employed. For many, the burdensome paperwork would push them out of the program.

• It also affects coverage for many people who buy their health coverage on exchanges that were set up under the Affordable Care Act. Pandemic-era tax credits that help to pay premiums would expire, boosting the cost by an average of 75 percent.

• In all, the changes envisioned by the bill would mean that by 2034, an additional 13.7 million Americans would be without health coverage, according to an estimate by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.

• In the committee’s meeting room, Democrats put names and stories that number — such as a 23-year-old college student with cerebral palsy named Sasha, who was in the audience with her mother.

• Though the bill would not cut her benefits directly, Rep. Nanette Barragán (D-California) said, Sasha “could be buried in red tape, forced to navigate paperwork and eligibility checks.”

• She also noted that Sasha is a constituent of committee member Rep. Tom Kean, a Republican from a swing district in New Jersey.

• “Democrats stand with you, Sasha, in opposing any Medicaid cuts,” Barragán said. “We need just four Republicans to join us. I hope we can find them, and I hope one is your congressmember.”

• Energy and Commerce Committee Democrats came ready, and while they didn’t have the numbers to win any of the votes they forced, their tenacity warns of what lies ahead in the battle over Medicaid. Republicans will likely wish it was a fight they had never started.

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