Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) says that middle class Americans believe that the “massive” Medicaid cuts tucked into the budget resolution passed narrowly by the House of Representatives this week — legislation that represents the Trump agenda wholesale — only targets “poor people.”
Sanders predicts the cuts will blindside Americans who don’t realize how their “middle class” lives are intertwined with the programs set to be deeply cut. Two in three nursing home residents, for example, receive Medicaid assistance, Sanders points out.
The Senator claims that citizens are in for a rude awakening if they think the programs the Trump administration and a compliant Congress want to cut won’t affect them.
“They think it only affects poor people,” the Senator says, before emphasizing Medicaid’s role providing healthcare for millions of children, community health centers, the elderly and others. The cuts will “cripple” the health care system — already under stress — and “raise hospital bills,” Sanders says. “It’ll be a disaster for virtually all Americans.”
Medicaid provides 40% of the funding for community health centers.
Medicaid supports 2 out of 3 people in nursing homes.
Medicaid provides health care to 41 million children.
Trump and his Republican friends want to enact massive cuts to the program.
We won’t let them. pic.twitter.com/xsWwxasiwB
— Bernie Sanders (@SenSanders) February 25, 2025
Questioned on the cuts, Republicans have pointed out that the resolution doesn’t mention Medicaid by name. Saying that the resolution is just a starting point, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) said: “So there’s nothing specific about Medicaid in the resolution. The legislation comes later, so this is the important first start.”
[Trump had vowed recently to leave Medicaid untouched, but Johnson pushed through a budget resolution that requires House Energy and Commerce Committee, which houses Medicare, to cut $880 billion.]
The vote was 217-215, with only one Republican, Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY), voting nay. The budget includes $4.5 trillion in tax cuts over the next decade, with a target of $2 trillion in spending cuts.
In Massie, Sanders has unusual company in his bashing of the GOP move. Though Massie’s politics and objections are of a different nature from those of Sanders, both lawmakers reject the Republican priority of cutting taxes for the rich. Massie doesn’t believe the “rosy” view of counting on growth to make up for the difference in revenue. Sanders doesn’t think the rich need the money, especially since the system has already resulted in a widening gap between the super-rich and everyone else.
The Tennessee Holler describes Massie’s position on his fellow Republicans this way: “They don’t care about the debt and never did. This was all a dance to get their trillions in tax cuts for the rich.”
Rep. Massie, the lone Republican NO, says the Republican budget will add $20 trillion to the debt over 10 years.
They don’t care about the debt and never did. This was all a dance to get their trillions in tax cuts for the rich. (Again) pic.twitter.com/FoKpi6jaKO
— The Tennessee Holler (@TheTNHoller) February 26, 2025