Republicans are taking a huge political gamble as they try to find money for tax cuts by threatening to slash Medicaid, which covers more than 72 million people across the country — about one in four Americans overall, and about half of all children.
It disproportionately covers people with disabilities, the low-income elderly, and anyone needing long term care. And it fills in the gaps for millions of people who need mental health and nursing home services that aren’t otherwise covered by health insurance. Polls show the public health insurance program is viewed favorably by 77% of all Americans, and 84% of those on the program.
Yet under pressure from President Donald Trump and House Speaker Mike Johnson, all but one House Republican voted for a “budget framework” that could remove as much as $880 billion from Medicaid over the next 10 years. Johnson denied there would be deep cuts. “We’re going to take care of those who are rightful beneficiaries of the programs,” he confidently told CNN. He vowed instead to “carve out fraud, waste and abuse and find efficiencies.”
This is expert-level gaslighting. Johnson knows that $880 billion in savings is impossible to achieve by only targeting “fraud, waste and abuse.” And even if it were possible, it’s only about 19% of the $4.6 trillion needed to renew the tax cuts passed during the first Trump administration.
Johnson may have offered a clue when he spoke of “rightful beneficiaries.” Tightening eligibility, imposing funding caps on recipients, and cutting Medicaid payments to states are some of the cutbacks floated by Project 2025 now gaining traction with Republicans. Johnson also suggested that imposing a work requirement for most recipients “polls well” with voters.