Last night, House Republicans pushed forward their budget resolution bill that puts billionaires first and working families last. Trump and his congressional allies like Rep. Scott Fitzgerald (WI-05), Rep. Glenn Grothman (WI-06), Rep. Bryan Steil (WI-01), Rep. Tom Tiffany (WI-07), Rep. Derrick Van Orden (WI-03), and Rep. Tony Wied (WI-08) plan to gut Medicaid and SNAP, leaving millions of Wisconsinites in the dust – all while they prepare massive tax handouts to fatten Trump’s billionaire backers’ pockets.
After this betrayal of working Wisconsinites by the Republican Party, Democrats reaffirm our commitment to fighting for working people across the country.
DNC Deputy Communications Director Abhi Rahman released the following statement:
“Trump and House Republicans are doing what they do best – taking money out of the pockets of Wisconsinites to enrich the ultra wealthy. Last night, Republicans betrayed the hardworking Wisconsinites who elected them to office by passing a budget bill that will make it harder to get health care or put food on the table – including for seniors, kids, rural communities, and people with disabilities. Meanwhile, Trump continues to give his billionaire backers like Elon Musk a seat at the table while watching them devastate and dismantle Wisconsin communities. Make no mistake: Yesterday was a win for billionaires – not for working Wisconsinites.”
House Republicans voted to move forward with a disastrous budget bill that puts Medicaid on the chopping block, threatening health care coverage for some of the 1,189,424 Wisconsinites who rely on it.
New York Times: “A move to lower federal spending on the Medicaid expansion population could effectively gut the program. Around 10 states that have expanded their programs have so-called trigger laws that reverse the Medicaid expansion if the federal government decreases funding for the population. … More than 21 million adults who were not eligible for Medicaid under pre-expansion guidelines received coverage last year.”
Center on Budget and Policy Priorities: “About 72 million people receive health coverage through Medicaid. It pays for 2 in 5 births in the U.S. and is the nation’s largest payer both of behavioral health services, which include mental health and substance use disorder treatment, and long-term care services, either at home or in nursing facilities.”
Center on Budget and Policy Priorities: “The loss of Medicaid means, for example, a parent can’t get cancer treatment, and a young adult can’t get insulin to control their diabetes. Cuts to food assistance mean a parent skips meals so their children can eat or an older person who lost their job has no way to buy groceries. … These cuts will affect people in every state and of all races and ethnicities, but the impacts will often be especially severe in poorer states and among Black, Latino, and Indigenous people and people in rural communities, who have higher poverty rates and thus are more likely to qualify for food assistance and health coverage. Rather than expanding opportunity, the budget would make it harder for people to afford the health care and food they need to survive and succeed.”
Republicans’ Medicaid cuts would be a disaster for seniors and farmers in Wisconsin.
New York Times: “Medicaid Cuts May Force Retirees Out of Nursing Homes”
Skilled Nursing News: “‘Devastating’: Medicaid Cuts in Republican Crosshairs, With Nursing Homes Seen as Bearing Major Pain”
“‘Any serious Medicaid cuts will have a major impact on long-term supports and services, broadly defined to include nursing homes, home health and personal care,’ [Brian] Ellsworth told Skilled Nursing News. ‘Those services comprise over a third of Medicaid spending nationally and would certainly be under the chopping block at the state level if serious cuts were made to Medicaid in Washington.’”
KFF Health News: “Republicans in Washington say they plan to use funding cuts and regulatory changes to dramatically shrink Medicaid, the nearly $900-billion-a-year government health insurance program that, along with the related Children’s Health Insurance Program, serves about 79 million mostly low-income or disabled Americans. …
“Advocates for poor people fear GOP funding cuts will leave more Americans without insurance, making it harder for them to get care.
“If the GOP’s plans to shrink Medicaid are realized, Democrats andhealth experts say, low-income people forced to buy private insurance would face challenges paying monthly premiums and the large copayments and deductibles common to commercial plans that typically don’t exist in Medicaid.”
Georgetown University Center for Children and Families: “Cuts to Medicaid Will Shift Costs to Families, Providers and Will Be Especially Harmful to Rural Communities”
“Non-elderly adults and children in small towns and rural areas are more likely than those living in metro areas to rely on Medicaid/CHIP for their health insurance. As a consequence, reductions in federal Medicaid funding being contemplated in Congress are more likely to cause greater harm to rural areas and small towns than metro areas.”
The budget bill also calls to gut SNAP, which would put the 705,400 Wisconsinites who depend on the program to put food on the table at risk of scrambling to figure out how they will afford their next meal.
Politico: “House GOP budget plan targets deep SNAP cuts”
“But the new plan to be marked up by the House Budget Committee on Thursday contains instructions for the Agriculture Committee to slash $230 billion across programs under its purview, meaning work requirements and changes to state waivers alone won’t reach that target number, said the lawmakers with knowledge about the ongoing talks.”
Center on Budget and Policy Priorities: “Millions of Low-Income Households Would Lose Food Aid Under Proposed House Republican SNAP Cuts”
“The budget resolution that the House plans to take up this week directs the House Agriculture Committee to cut programs in its jurisdiction by at least $230 billion through 2034, with these cuts expected to come largely or entirely from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and to be used to help pay for tax cuts for the wealthiest business owners and households.”
