For Americans who rely on Medicaid and/or food benefits, it looks like a treacherous storm is on the way. And it’s going to take more than an umbrella to protect them from what’s next.
That’s because despite the promises he made during his campaign, the president wants Congress to approve his policy bill and budget that would result in steep cuts to both Medicaid and food benefits for millions of Americans.
With a July 4 deadline looming, Senate Republicans have even proposed steeper cuts than their colleagues in the House and want to extend new work requirements with cuts of more than $800 billion over the next 10 years. The result would be more than 7 million Americans would be ineligible for Medicaid.
According to a report released by the Kaiser Family Foundation, many eligible enrollees would be subject to losing coverage because of the “administrative burden” of reporting requirements associated with work mandates. So, while the Energy and Commerce Committee, which oversees Medicaid, was tasked with finding $880 billion in cuts, the reality is there’s no way to enact them without making changes to Medicaid.
Most Republicans, following in lockstep with the president, who wants to codify new tax breaks as part of his “big, beautiful bill,” clearly don’t care about Americans who are living day to day and check to check. Trump’s budget does include tax breaks for seniors, with a bigger $6,000 deduction for low- to moderate-income senior households earning no more than $75,000 a year for singles and $150,000 for couples. But it also includes $2.4 trillion to the nation’s deficits over the decade.
Further, it would leave fewer people without health insurance, due largely to the proposed new work requirements and other changes.
As for the tax breaks, the biggest, totaling $12,000 a year, would go to the wealthiest households with middle-income households seeing tax breaks of between $500 to $1,000 a year. Meanwhile, the poorest Americans would see a tax hike of roughly $1,600.
Cuts to food stamps (SNAP) and Medicaid will disproportionately harm Black communities due to higher participation rates in these programs compared to other racial groups and would inevitably lead to increased food insecurity, decreased access to healthcare, and exacerbate existing racial disparities in health and economic well-being.
Some say the storm clouds are converging, however, it’s clear the tornado is already here.