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mike johnson
'Hidden From the American People,' GOP Moves to Give Trump Unchecked Trade War Powers
"They slipped in a little clause letting them escape ever having to debate or vote on Trump's tariffs," said one Democratic critic. "Isn't that clever?"
Mar 11, 2025
Republican leaders in the U.S. House of Representatives on Tuesday snuck language into a rule on the GOP's stopgap funding bill that a pair of Democratic lawmakers warned would "effectively surrender congressional power over raising taxes and tariffs on the American people" to President Donald Trump as he escalates his trade war against the world.
The Republican move would prevent any Democratic vote to challenge the "national emergency" being invoked by Trump to levy sweeping tariffs on countries including Canada, China, and Mexico—and, according to remarks by the president during his joint address to Congress earlier this month, any nation that does not lower barriers to trade with the United States by April 2.
Trump has used the International Emergency Economic Powers Act to slap tariffs on Canadian, Chinese, and Mexican exports—although some products have been granted exemptions. The 1977 law empowers the president to control international transactions by declaring a national emergency. However, the measure has never been invoked in order to impose tariffs.
While House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) and some of his GOP colleagues said Tuesday that they believe they can push through the six-month funding measure that would avert a government shutdown, Democratic lawmakers condemned the Republicans' process, in which they say they were not included.
"Guess what [Republicans] tucked into this rule, hoping that nobody would notice?" Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.), the ranking member of the House Rules Committee, said on the lower chamber's floor on Tuesday. "They slipped in a little clause letting them escape ever having to debate or vote on Trump's tariffs. Isn't that clever?"
McGovern: Guess what they tucked into this rule, hoping that nobody would notice? They did this after everyone went home. They slipped in a little clause
letting them escape from ever having to debate or vote on trump's tariffs. pic.twitter.com/qza0T1UdyT
— Acyn (@Acyn) March 11, 2025
Reps. Don Beyer (D-Va.) and Suzan DelBene (D-Wash.), both members of the House Ways and Means Subcommittee on Trade, said in a joint statement Tuesday that "every House Republican who votes for this measure is voting to give Trump expanded powers to raise taxes on American households through tariffs with full knowledge of how he is using those powers, and every Republican will own the economic consequences of that vote."
"It speaks volumes that Republicans are sneaking this provision into a procedural measure hidden from the American people," added Beyer and DelBene, who together previously introduced the Prevent Tariff Abuse Act and the Congressional Trade Authority Act in a bid "to rein in Trump's abuses of tariff powers."
The lawmakers continued:
Today, Trump is further endangering the U.S. economy and hiking prices on the American people by increasing his destructive and pointless tariffs on Canada. There can be no doubt about how he will use the power Republicans are about to give him, and about the disastrous economic effects we have already seen from Trump's tariffs. While he babbles about making Canada the 51st state, your groceries and housing are getting more expensive and your retirement accounts are getting crushed—and House Republicans are supporting him every step of the way.
"The Constitution delegates authority setting tariffs, which are taxes, to Congress, and Congress retains the power to stop Trump from wrecking our economy," Beyer and DelBene added. "Yet House Republicans are choosing to surrender the power of their own votes to a reckless president, putting politics over the country and their constituents. We will continue urging our colleagues to come to their senses and save our economy from Trump's tariff chaos."
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CBO Report Confirms 'Republicans Are Lying' About Medicaid Cuts
"Their plan would force the largest Medicaid cuts in American history—all to pay for more tax giveaways to billionaires," said Democratic Rep. Brendan Boyle.
Mar 06, 2025
At a press conference last week, U.S. House Majority Leader Steve Scalise claimed Democrats are lying when they warn that Medicaid is in the Republican Party's crosshairs.
"The word Medicaid is not even in this bill," Scalise (R-La.) declared, waving the text of a budget resolution that House Republicans went on to pass over unified Democratic opposition.
But an analysis released late Wednesday by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) makes clear that deep cuts to Medicaid would be required under the House GOP resolution, which President Donald Trump has endorsed.
The analysis, produced at the request of leading House Democrats, shows that Medicaid accounts for 93% of projected mandatory spending under the jurisdiction of the House Energy and Commerce Committee over the next decade, not including Medicare.
That means Republicans would have to cut Medicaid, the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP), or Medicare to achieve the $880 billion in spending reductions that the House budget resolution instructs the energy and commerce panel to impose between fiscal years 2025 and 2034.
"This analysis from the nonpartisan CBO confirms what we've been saying all along: Republicans are lying about their budget," said Rep. Brendan Boyle (D-Pa.), the top Democrat on the House Budget Committee. "Their plan would force the largest Medicaid cuts in American history—all to pay for more tax giveaways to billionaires."
I keep hearing Republicans claim their budget doesn't cut Medicaid. We all know that's a lie — so I asked the nonpartisan CBO to look into it. Their analysis confirms it: the Republican budget delivers the largest Medicaid cuts in history to pay for giveaways to billionaires.
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— Rep. Brendan Boyle (@congressmanboyle.bsky.social) March 5, 2025 at 5:45 PM
According to the CBO, just $135 billion in spending under the House Energy and Commerce Committee's jurisdiction over the next decade would be available for cuts when excluding Medicaid, Medicare, CHIP, and programs that are "budget-neutral with revenues offsetting spending."
That would leave the GOP far short of the $880 billion in energy and commerce spending reductions proposed in the House budget resolution, which still must make its way through the Republican-controlled Senate before the GOP can move ahead with Trump's legislative agenda.
The CBO's analysis comes a day after Trump neglected to mention Medicaid during his first address to Congress of his second term, a decision that one advocate said confirms the president "knows his plan to cut nearly $1 trillion from Medicaid is so deeply unpopular that he would rather sweep it under the rug."
Rep. Frank Pallone, Jr. (D-N.J.), the top Democrat on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, said Wednesday that the CBO analysis "confirms what we've been saying all along: The math doesn't work without devastating Medicaid cuts."
"The reality is the only way Republicans can cut at least $880 billion within the Energy and Commerce Committee's jurisdiction is by making deep, harmful cuts to Americans' healthcare," said Pallone. "Republicans know their spin is a lie, and the truth is they have no problem taking healthcare away from millions of Americans so that the rich can get richer and pay less in taxes than they already do."
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Republicans Told to 'Stop Cowering' From Voters as They Back Unpopular Medicaid Cuts
"We expect every Republican who voted for the budget resolution to hold a town hall during recess on what parts of Medicaid and SNAP they want to cut," said the national director of the Working Families Party.
Feb 26, 2025
In the wake of their passage late Tuesday of a budget resolution that sets the stage for massive cuts to Medicaid and other key programs, House Republicans who supported the measure with near unanimity faced calls to explain their vote to constituents who will be directly harmed if the proposed cuts become law.
"We expect every Republican who voted for the budget resolution to hold a town hall during recess on what parts of Medicaid and SNAP they want to cut," Maurice Mitchell, national director of the Working Families Party, said in a statement following Tuesday's vote.
"If you stand behind this plan," Mitchell added, "stop cowering from your constituents."
In recent days, GOP lawmakers have faced angry audiences at town halls in their home districts as voters—including Republican constituents—express outrage over President Donald Trump and Elon Musk's lawless assault on federal agencies and the party's broader legislative agenda, which includes destructive attacks on key programs to help finance trillions of dollars in tax breaks largely for the rich.
"Every single swing district Republican voted to cut Medicaid so they can shovel cash to their billionaire backers."
The intensifying constituent wrath has left Republicans "weary and wary of in-person town hall meetings," NBC Newsreported Tuesday.
Citing an unnamed GOP aide, the outlet reported that "House Republican leaders are urging lawmakers to stop engaging in" town halls altogether.
In response to NBC's story, Indivisible co-executive director Ezra Levin noted that "there were like eight GOP town halls last week in the entire country."
"Ninety-five percent of GOP members were already hiding from constituents," Levin wrote on social media. "The fact that they think EIGHT is too many is a real sign of how scared they are of constituents and owning this agenda."
Last night, every single swing district Republican voted to cut Medicaid so they can shovel cash to their billionaire backers. If you’ve got an R representative, call now to let them know you’re furious: indivisible.org/resource/cal...
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— Leah Greenberg (@leahgreenberg.bsky.social) February 26, 2025 at 7:41 AM
Survey data indicates that the deep spending cuts congressional Republicans are pursuing are extremely unpopular, including with their own base. One poll released earlier this week found that 71% of Trump voters oppose Medicaid cuts and 60% oppose cuts to federal nutrition assistance.
Under the budget resolution that House Republicans passed late Tuesday, the committees that oversee Medicaid and SNAP are instructed to find over $1 trillion in combined cuts—a clear indication that the two programs are in the party's crosshairs, despite GOP leaders' claims to the contrary.
"This bill doesn't even mention the word Medicaid a single time," House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) told reporters Tuesday.
But as The New York Timesobserved, the resolution's instructions to the House Energy and Commerce Committee—which has jurisdiction over Medicaid—to slash $880 billion in spending over the next decade leaves Republicans with few options other than large cuts to the program that provides healthcare to more than 70 million low-income Americans, including children.
"If Republicans want to avoid major cuts to Medicaid, the largest pot of available money is in the other big government health insurance program: Medicare," the Times observed.
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) claimed Tuesday that Republicans are only targeting "fraud, waste, and abuse" in Medicaid—a statement that one expert called "a smokescreen for the tired, harmful playbook to gut the Medicaid program that was tried and failed in 2017 as part of the highly unpopular effort to repeal" the Affordable Care Act.
"House Republican leaders have not really moved on," Edwin Park, a research professor at the Georgetown University McCourt School of Public Policy's Center for Children and Families, wrote earlier this week. "Today, they are still pursuing the same kind of draconian Medicaid cuts that would take away coverage and access from tens of millions of low-income children, parents, pregnant women, people with disabilities, seniors, and other adults."
Shortly after Tuesday's vote, Protect Our Care announced a new flurry of ads targeting Republicans in competitive districts who backed the budget resolution, which still must be approved by the GOP-controlled U.S. Senate before the party can begin crafting its filibuster-proof reconciliation package.
The first round of ads, according to Protect Our Care, is aimed at Reps. David Valadao (R-Calif.), Ken Calvert (R-Calif.), Young Kim (R-Calif.), Dan Newhouse (R-Wash.), David Schweikert (R-Ariz.), Ryan Mackenzie (R-Pa.), and Scott Perry (R-Pa.).
"Instead of standing up for their constituents' health, Republicans fell in line to vote in favor of ripping away healthcare from millions of Americans—all so they can give a tax break to billionaires and big corporations," said Leslie Dach, the chair of Protect Our Care. "Medicaid is popular across the board with voters, no matter where they live or who they voted for."
"By ignoring the impact of these cuts on their constituents, every House Republican who voted for this horrific budget is playing a dangerous game," Dach added. "If Republicans proceed with these cuts, we will hold them accountable."
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