In a desperate attempt to save President Donald Trump’s "big, beautiful" budget that cuts taxes for his rich friends, House Republican leadership is lying to both their own members and the public about what is in the legislation, saying it doesn't call for cuts to Medicaid and food stamps.
“The word Medicaid is not even in this bill,” Rep. Steve Scalise (R-LA) said at a Tuesday news conference on Capitol Hill, the same statement he made to Republican lawmakers in a closed-door conference meeting. “Democrats are lying about what’s in the bill.”st
However, while it is technically true that the word “Medicaid” isn’t explicitly in the budget, the level of cuts the budget demands would necessitate massive slashes to the health care program that covers 72 million low-income Americans.
Rep. Brendan Boyle (D-PA), ranking member of the House Budget Committee, explained at a Tuesday news conference on Capitol Hill:
"Their resolution calls for at least, as a floor, $880 billion to be cut by what is under the purview of the Energy and Commerce Committee. If Energy and Commerce Committee said, 'We don't want to cut Medicaid, instead we will cut literally everything else we possibly can, 100%.' That only gets you about halfway to the $880 billion. So by definition, they have to, at a minimum, cut hundreds of billions of dollars from Medicaid."
It’s not just Medicaid cuts that Republicans are lying about. Rep. Jason Smith (R-MO), chair of the House Ways Committee, claimed in an interview with Fox Business’ Maria Bartiromo on Tuesday, that the budget doesn't cut food stamps when it does.
Bartiromo: What do you want to say to those people who are upset about these cuts to the SNAP and nutrition assistance—$230 billion in cuts to SNAP and nutrition assistance?
Smith: For one, you can't say that it's cuts to SNAP. This resolution just says the ag committee has to cut more than $200 billion. What you have is other people like the Democrats going out there and saying, ‘You’re going to cut Medicaid, you’re going to cut benefits.’ Nowhere, Maria, in the resolution does it say what the cuts are. It just sets the goal and the target rate of how much we’re going to cut.
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BARTIROMO: What do you want to say to those people who are upset about these cuts the SNAP and nutrition assistance? $230b in cuts to SNAP and nutrition assistance.
JASON SMITH: For one, you can't say that it's cuts to SNAP. This resolution just says the ag committee has to cut more than $200b.
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) 2025-02-25T14:56:36.417Z
But the level of cuts Republicans are demanding from the House Agriculture Committee would necessitate slashing food stamp benefits. In fact, Politico reported earlier in February that two GOP lawmakers admitted that the GOP budget requires food stamp cuts.
Democrats, meanwhile, spent Tuesday explaining the perils of the House Republican budget, holding a news conference on the steps of the Capitol with people who would be impacted by Medicaid cuts to try to spark backlash.
"I am one of the more than 630,000 Virginians who will be kicked off Medicaid if Republicans in Congress get their way," Katina Moss, a Virginia Medicaid recipient said at the news conference. "Yes, that's right. They want people like me to lose our health care in order to pay for Donald Trump's tax cuts for the rich. As a Gen Xer with elderly parents, Medicaid supports my family's well-being. It allows me to run my own business, care for my parents, and still have health care for myself. Medicaid works. But now Republicans in Congress are looking high and low for ways to pay for another round of tax handouts for billionaires like Elon Musk, and their eyes are locked in on Medicaid."
Republicans, for their part, are supposed to vote on the budget at 6:30 PM ET on Tuesday. However, at press time it appeared that Republicans don't have the votes from their own members to pass the bill, calling into question whether the vote will happen at all.
Punchbowl News’ Jake Sherman reported that Johnson did not sound optimistic about the budget’s odds.
“There may be a vote tonight. There may not be,” Johnson told Sherman.
That means there is time yet for voters to call their lawmakers and urge them to vote against the budget. A list of House Republicans with the largest populations of Medicaid recipients, and their office phone numbers, can be found here.
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