After facing angry constituents at town halls over the Trump administration’s destructive cuts to the federal government, House Republicans are contending with fresh rage from voters over their vote to pass the "One Big Beautiful Bill Act."
Rep. Mike Flood, a Nebraska Republican whose district backed Donald Trump by a 13-percentage-point margin in 2024, faced constituents at a town hall on Tuesday who booed him for voting for the budget bill that slashes the social safety net in order to only partly pay for tax cuts that benefit the richest Americans.
Flood's constituents were irate that he voted for the bill that will rip Medicaid and food stamps away from millions of low-income Americans, and ultimately lead people in the lowest income brackets to see their take-home pay reduced in order to fund hundreds of thousands in tax cuts for the wealthiest few.
According to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office:
CBO estimates that household resources would decrease by an amount equal to about 2 percent of income in the lowest decile (tenth) of the income distribution in 2027 and 4 percent in 2033, mainly as a result of losses of in-kind transfers, such as Medicaid and [the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program] (see the figure). By contrast, resources would increase by an amount equal to 4 percent for households in the highest decile in 2027 and 2 percent in 2033, mainly because of reductions in [the] taxes they owe.
“I voted for it in sync with almost the entire Republican conference,” Flood said at the town hall, according to a local media outlet that attended. “Because at the end of the day I have to focus on the things that matter and it celebrates the country that we love and continent that we love.”
Of course, that vote should have come as no surprise since Flood has said he wants to cut not only Medicaid but also Social Security.
Pro-Medicaid activists wait to enter the House Energy and Commerce markup of the FY2025 budget resolution in the Rayburn House Office Building, in Washington, D.C., on May 13.
"[The GOP budget] will be littered with a collection of ideas, some of which Americans are going to really not be for, but hey, if we don't sacrifice, if we don't understand that this is going to be a painful process, nothing’s going to change," Flood said in early February as Republicans were debating what kind of cuts to make in order to further benefit the wealthiest Americans.
At Tuesday’s town hall, Flood also admitted his ignorance regarding some of the other terrible provisions in the legislation, including one that would make it harder for federal judges to hold parties in contempt of court for refusing to follow court orders—such as those about returning immigrants that the federal government wrongly disappeared to foreign prisons.
“This provision was unknown to me when I voted for the bill,” Flood said, after stating that he believes judges should be able to enforce their rulings.
Maybe, just maybe, Flood shouldn't have voted for a bill that was debated in the dead of night and amended just a few hours before the House voted for it.
Flood isn’t new to getting yelled at by his voters. At a town hall in March, he defended co-President Elon Musk's cuts to the federal government—and was booed relentlessly.
But for him to now face anger in a conservative district over what will be the signature piece of legislation this otherwise do-nothing, GOP-led Congress has done should be a troubling sign for Republicans in the 2026 midterm elections.
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