'Families Lose and Billionaires Win': Senate GOP Signals Support for Medicaid Cuts
"Trump and Senate Republicans are showing who they truly care about as they slash programs for families to line the pockets of their billionaire friends," said Democratic Sen. Jeff Merkley.
Senate Republicans approved a budget resolution early Friday after rejecting a flurry of Democratic amendments aimed at preventing cuts to Medicaid, school meal initiatives, and other programs.
Republicans in the House and Senate are moving in the direction of legislation that would slash critical programs to help fund trillions of dollars in tax cuts, which would primarily benefit the wealthiest Americans. Both chambers' resolutions would also increase the U.S. military budget, which is approaching $1 trillion per year.
President Donald Trump has endorsed the House budget resolution, which is broader than the measure the Republican-controlled Senate passed in a mostly party-line vote on Friday morning, following a marathon "vote-a-rama." The two chambers must ultimately reconcile their differences to advance Trump's legislative agenda.
The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities noted after the Senate GOP unveiled its resolution earlier this month that "the budget framework lays a path for a future budget bill that could pay for increased military and homeland security spending with harmful policies that take food assistance and health coverage away from people who struggle to afford the basics and make college more expensive."
Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), the top Democrat on the Senate Budget Committee, said following the upper chamber's passage of the GOP resolution that "families lose and billionaires win."
"That's the heart of the Republicans' budget resolution," said Merkley. "This Republican budget proposes $1 trillion cuts to programs for working families by the end of this fiscal year. The only way to cut $1 trillion by September 30 is to gut entire agencies and all of their services, which families rely on. Trump and Senate Republicans are showing who they truly care about as they slash programs for families to line the pockets of their billionaire friends. Trump's tax plan is the Great Betrayal of working families."
"The American people are sick and tired of this bait-and-switch of Republicans campaigning on fiscal responsibility and then governing by driving up deficits and debt at the expense of critical programs," the senator added.
The Republican budget plan is simple: billionaires win, families lose. Republicans say it's about border security, but it's not. They want to rip away support for working Americans, gut critical programs like Medicaid, and balloon the deficit.
— Jeff Merkley (@jeff-merkley.bsky.social) February 19, 2025 at 10:38 PM
Among the Democratic amendments Senate Republicans rejected during the all-night voting session were proposals "against legislation that would cut funding from the school lunch or school breakfast programs," "against legislation that would reduce Medicare and Medicaid benefits for Americans," "to prevent tax cuts for the wealthy if a single dollar of Medicaid funding is cut," and halt the Trump administration's attack on National Institutes of Health funding.
"The Trump administration is working to destroy medical research as we know it with an illegal, unrealistic cap on the NIH reimbursement rate for indirect costs," Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), the sponsor of the latter amendment, said Friday. "That would mean: cancer researchers laid off, lifesaving clinical trials cancelled, and more. It also violates bipartisan appropriations law. I should know, I helped author that provision. And Republicans should know—they worked with me to pass it."
The Senate votes came after Trump endorsed a House GOP budget resolution that seeks to combine elements president's agenda—including tax cuts for the wealthy and border militarization—into one sprawling, filibuster-proof reconciliation bill.
Trump declared Wednesday that the House resolution, which calls for $880 billion in cuts to Medicaid over the next 10 years, "implements my FULL America First Agenda."
