House GOP passes budget that guts Medicaid to give tax cuts to the rich

On Thursday, House Republicans passed a budget blueprint that moves them one step closer to cutting taxes for the rich while at the same time slashing Medicaid and food stamps.

Republicans passed the budget by a vote of 216-214, with all Democrats and two Republicans—Reps. Thomas Massie of Kentucky and Victoria Spartz of Indiana—voting against it. 

The fate of the budget blueprint was in doubt, as Republican hardliners wanted assurances that the budget would require the steep cuts to federal expenditures—which will most likely come from Medicaid and food stamps. But they all fell in line under pressure from House Speaker Mike Johnson and Dear Leader Donald Trump.

Ultimately, the vote was the critical first step in the budget reconciliation process Republicans are using to pass Trump’s agenda without the need for any Democratic votes. 

But now comes the even harder part: The blueprint merely instructs House committees to find $1.5 trillion in cuts to the federal budget, which the GOP will use to only partly pay for extending the tax cuts Republicans passed and Trump signed into law in 2017.

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The vast majority of those cuts—$880 billion—are likely to come from Medicaid, the program that provides health insurance to 83 million low-income Americans. Another $230 billion will come from the House Agriculture Committee, which is likely to slash food stamps to meet that goal.

Until now, Republicans lied by saying that their budget wouldn’t slash Medicaid and food stamps—something they could do because the budget only included topline numbers each committee was instructed to cut. But now GOP lawmakers will have to actually put pen to paper and lay out the specific cuts they will make. 

And when Medicaid is on that list, Republicans could find themselves in a world of political hurt.

Cutting Medicaid and food stamps in order to pay for Trump’s tax cuts for the rich is deeply unpopular. A Civiqs poll conducted for Daily Kos in March found that 63% of registered voters were against making cuts to Medicaid and food stamps to pay for tax cuts.

Even Trump’s own pollster conducted a survey that found cutting Medicaid is a political loser. That survey, released April 2, found that 74% of voters have a favorable view of Medicaid—including 61% of Trump voters. That same poll found just 23% of voters support cutting Medicaid in order to pay for tax cuts. 

Democrats are hammering Republicans for voting for the budget.

“The budget passed by House Republicans today steals $880 billion from Medicaid to give tax breaks to billionaires and big corporations,” former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi wrote in a post on X. “By voting for this cruel bill, Republicans have betrayed hardworking Americans by raising costs for those already struggling to make ends meet.”

“House Republicans just passed their pro-billionaire anti-middle-class budget blueprint,” Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA), vice chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, wrote in a post on X. “While Trump’s tariffs raise costs for families, Republicans are full steam ahead on their plan to cut programs like Medicaid & SNAP to hand out more tax cuts to billionaires.”

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