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Vulnerable House Republicans are already being met with the political consequences of their vote to pass a far-right budget blueprint that will inflict massive pain upon American families.
Less than 24 hours after passing their extreme budget scheme to fund tax breaks for their billionaire backers and wealthy corporations, vulnerable House Republicans across the country are getting called out for voting to decimate affordable health care and take food off the tables of millions of American families – which will undoubtedly put their increasingly fragile House majority at risk.
Read more below on how House Republicans are being held accountable for their disastrous cuts to Medicaid:
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.
- If they had balked at the budget, the moderates could easily have blocked it […]
- 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.
- In his remarks on the House floor before Tuesday night’s vote, Valadao presented[…]that the House adopting the budget could, in fact, lead to Medicaid cuts down the line.
Washington Post: The House GOP’s budget irresolution
- But even days before the 217 to 215 vote, the political peril was becoming evident for House Republicans. Nearly half the federal spending cuts proposed in the resolution would come through the House committee that oversees Medicaid, and Democrats argued that cuts to the program were all but inevitable.
- The Center for American Progress, a liberal think tank, released a list of 15 GOP-held districts that it said would see “large” Medicaid losses if the House Energy and Commerce Committee fully cut from Medicaid under the budget blueprint. Many of those districts are represented by some of the most vulnerable House Republicans.
- In a memo released Monday, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee argued that vulnerable House Republicans would be “sealing their political fate” by supporting the budget resolution. The DCCC reiterated the sentiment after the vote, saying in a statement on Republicans’ support for the resolution that “no amount of their desperate lies will save them from the political fallout of this vote.”
- Privately, many House Republicans tell our colleague Marianna Sotomayor that drafting policies to match the strict spending levels will result in cuts and that Democrats are not “fearmongering,” as GOP leaders alleged yesterday, that cuts would affect social benefits such as Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).
New York Times: As G.O.P. Eyes Medicaid Cuts, States Could be Left With Vast Shortfalls
- House Republicans hunting for ways to pay for President Trump’s tax cuts have called for cutting the federal government’s share of Medicaid spending, including a proposal that would effectively gut the Affordable Care Act’s 2014 expansion of the program.
- Cutting Medicaid spending, which is expected to be central to fulfilling the budget plan that House Republicans adopted Tuesday night, could result in millions of Americans across the country losing health coverage unless states decide to play a bigger role in its funding.
- Medicaid now funds almost half of all births in the United States, and represents more than half of spending on long-term care. More than 70 percent of Americans say they want Medicaid to stay as it is, according to a survey conducted last year by KFF, a nonprofit health policy research group.
Bucks County Beacon: Congressman Brian Fitzpatrick Votes for Trump-backed Budget That Eyes $1 Trillion in Health Care and Food Stamp Cuts
- There was only one Republican who had the courage to vote against a budget that by nearly all honest accounts will punish poor and working class families. That Republican was not Congressman Brian Fitzpatrick.
- The GOP-controlled House, with Fitzpatrick’s critical support, voted 217 to 215 Tuesday night to approve a budget resolution […] instructing key congressional committees to cut spending – over $2 trillion – in order to subsidize $4.5 trillion in tax breaks that Democrats point out will disproportionately benefit the wealthiest Americans.
- The House budget Fitzpatrick supports calls for a $880 billion reduction in health care spending over the decade, which could include programs like Medicaid, Medicare (would they dare?), and the Affordable Care Act. According to the Center for American Progress, estimates in spending reductions for Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) would amount to $1.31 billion in funding loss for Fitzpatrick’s First Congressional District over 9 years and result in 25,000 of his constituents being dropped from the rolls in these two programs.
- That’s 25,000 local families impacted by these Fitzpatrick-backed proposed cuts.
AZCentral: Despite reservations, all AZ Republican congressmen vote to pass GOP budget package
- Ciscomani had yet to publicly take a position in the hours leading up to the vote, writing on Tuesday afternoon that he would “continue to consider all options on the table.”
- Ciscomani wound up voting for the package.
- Among those guidelines, it directs the House Energy and Commerce Committee, which oversees Medicare and Medicaid, to cut at least $880 billion over 10 years. Meeting that target would be virtually impossible without significant cuts to those programs, and Republicans widely were expected to take aim at Medicaid.
- Medicaid cuts could be felt acutely in Arizona, where the program covers the cost of health care for 2 million of the state’s roughly 7 million residents.
RealVail: House looks to extend Trump tax cuts while slashing Medicaid benefits for millions
- Democrats and some Republicans have voiced concerns about the impacts proposed cuts could have on Medicaid benefits. Last week, U.S. Reps. Diana DeGette, a Denver Democrat, and Jason Crow, a Centennial Democrat, talked about how people would lose access to health care in their districts and across Colorado.
- Evans’ office did not return Newsline’s request for comment on the budget resolution and the demonstration at his office.
- The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a nonpartisan research and policy institute, estimated over half a million Coloradans would be at risk of losing their coverage if the government implements work requirements for Medicaid coverage. That includes about 73,000 people in the 8th Congressional District.
- “Defunding Medicaid is not a policy choice.
It is a death sentence and an imposition of cruelty and suffering,” said Rebecca Miller, a hospice nurse in Adams County and a mother of three. “We cannot defund this because when we take care of the most vulnerable, we build a better future for everyone.”
NJ Globe: N.J. House Republicans fall in line on critical budget vote
- The U.S. House passed a GOP-led budget resolution tonight that could lead to both substantial tax cuts and major funding decreases for crucial federal programs – and despite some apparent qualms, New Jersey Reps. Jeff Van Drew (R-Dennis), Chris Smith (R-Manchester), and Tom Kean Jr. (R-Westfield) all supported it.
- The budget resolution that passed today directs the House Energy & Commerce Committee to cut $880 billion in spending, which many people – including Rep. Frank Pallone, the top Democrat on the committee – say would inevitably come in part out of Medicaid.
Rio Grande Guardian: Gonzalez: Medicaid, Pell Grants, Head Start, and SNAP provide lifeline for many Americans
- The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee also issued a press release about the House Republican budget vote. The group pointed out that Congresswoman Monica De La Cruz voted for the budget.
- Editor’s Note: The DCCC issued a “fact sheet” on what the budget means for Congressional District 15. Click here to read it.
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