Democratic lawmakers keep saying House Republicans voted to gut Medicaid Tuesday night despite providing no evidence to back up their claims.
After House GOP leadership narrowly passed its budget resolution Tuesday evening, Democrats took to social media and blasted a unified message that passage of Republicans’ budget blueprint had just taken a wrecking ball to the popular entitlement program that enrolls more than 70 million Americans. Republican lawmakers fiercely pushed back against the allegation. The Daily Caller News Foundation asked the man behind the viral attack line — House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries — to provide evidence to back up what he was saying.
Jeffries, flanked by a “Save Medicaid” sign at his weekly press conference Thursday morning, appeared eager to take his Republican colleagues to task for allegedly voting to gut the program.
“Republicans are lying to the American people about Medicaid,” Jeffries told the DCNF’s Andi Napier Thursday. “The Republican budget authorizes up to $880 billion in cuts to Medicaid by directing the Energy and Commerce Committee to find those spending cuts.”
“Everybody knows who has had any connection to the congressional budget that if you are directing the Energy and Commerce Committee up to find up to $880 billion, if not more, in spending cuts that means Medicaid that will hurt children, hurt families, hurt everyday Americans with disabilities and hurt seniors,” Jeffries said. “I can’t say it any other way.”
DCNF reporter @AndiNapier: “Republicans have been adamant that Medicaid will not be gutted by this budget resolution. Where is the proof that Medicaid will be gutted?” @RepJeffries: “Republicans are lying. Prove me wrong.” pic.twitter.com/sFeGfmzAYA
— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) February 27, 2025
But Jeffries and House Democrats’ claim that the budget resolution cuts Medicaid has no merit because the resolution merely laid out deficit and spending instructions to respective committees and did not prescribe specific policy cuts, according to a source familiar with the matter.
Passage of the House budget resolution is also just the first step in the complex budget resolution process, and the blueprint that passed Tuesday simply instructs committees to come up with a certain level of spending or savings that will be incorporated into a forthcoming bill. The resolution does not instruct committees to make any specific policy changes, such as slashing Medicaid benefits.
Though the GOP budget blueprint provides instructions to the House Energy and Commerce (E&C) Committee — the panel with jurisdiction over Medicaid — to identify at least $880 billion in cuts over a 10-year period, the resolution does not tell the committee where to look for savings. The House E&C Committee is tasked with making significant cuts to help offset $4.5 trillion in deficit increases approved by the budget resolution.
“It is not lost on me that there will be spurious caricatures and distorted criticism that will be lobbed at this budget resolution,” House Rules Committee Chairwoman Virginia Foxx said Monday prior to the House Rules Committee adopting the budget resolution. “Despite what my Democrat colleagues are likely to assert, it does not contain any programmatic assumptions or cuts.”
“Let me repeat that: it does not contain any programmatic assumptions or cuts,” Foxx added.
“The Word ‘Medicaid’ is NOT EVEN in This Bill.”
Majority Leader Scalise REFUTES Democrat Talking Point That Republican Budget Cuts Medicaid pic.twitter.com/U7SW2bQUWO
— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) February 25, 2025
The fact that the budget resolution did not even mention the word ‘Medicaid’ has not stopped Democrats from framing the budget resolution’s passage around Republicans allegedly gutting their own constituents’ Medicaid benefits.
“99% of House Republicans just voted to gut Medicaid so they can lower taxes for the richest 1%,” Democratic Washington Rep. Pramila Jayapal wrote on X Tuesday night in a post that racked up half a million views. “They’re showing you exactly who they’re working for.”
Congressional Democrats, facing a record low approval rating from voters, appear to view the Medicaid attack line as a winning issue to lead the party back to electoral success. Democratic strategists are already looking to exact maximum political pain on vulnerable House Republicans for voting “yes” on the budget resolution, regardless of the truth around Democrats’ Medicaid claims.
“While Donald Trump and House Republicans promised to ‘love and cherish’ Medicaid, House Republicans have gone full Matt Bevin, and are planning to make deep cuts to fund $4.5 trillion in tax cuts for Elon Musk and other billionaires,” the Jeffries-aligned House Majority PAC (HMP) wrote in a Feb. 18 memo in reference to the former Kentucky governor who lost reelection after pursuing Medicaid reform. “In battleground congressional districts across the country, House Republicans are putting Medicaid on the chopping block — a move that would rip life-saving health care away from tens of thousands of their own constituents — roughly half of whom are children.”
The Jeffries-aligned super PAC notably authored the memo prior to the budget resolution’s passage and before House Republicans have chosen to pursue any policy changes through the budget reconciliation process.
“Prove me wrong,” Jeffries told reporters at the press conference Thursday. “There’s nothing more than I would like better that we as House Democrats would like better than for Republicans to prove us wrong, that they are not planning to cut Medicaid.”
HMP appears to be barreling ahead in positioning Medicaid as a “defining issue” for the 2026 midterms, claiming nonexistent cuts to the program have already occurred.
Andi Napier contributed to reporting.
All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact [email protected].
Read the full article here
