Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, grappling with an impending government shutdown just weeks away, is racing to push through a budget that reportedly slashes hundreds of billions of dollars from Medicaid while delivering the massive tax cuts promised by President Donald Trump, that reportedly would primarily benefit the wealthiest Americans—all while navigating a razor-thin majority, Republican defections, and unwavering Democratic opposition.
“The fiscal year 2025 spending plan would likely lead to about $800 billion in cuts from Medicaid over the next decade, part of about $2 trillion in overall spending cuts to help pay for $4.5 trillion in tax cuts plus boosts in defense and border spending,” Forbes reported Tuesday.
“The federal government’s Medicaid program provides health care coverage to more than 72 million Americans,” Forbes added. “While the resolution doesn’t explicitly call for cuts to Medicaid, skeptical lawmakers have warned there’s virtually no other way to achieve the $880 billion in cuts the resolution tasks the Energy and Commerce Committee with finding without slashing Medicaid spending.”
Johnson, who kicked off the new Congress with “the smallest House majority since 1931,” has admitted he has worked to delay Elise Stefanik, President Trump’s nominee for U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, from being confirmed until after a budget is passed.
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“If we get the budget resolution passed this week, which is the plan, then it’s possible that Elise Stefanik would go ahead and move on to her assignment at the U.N. as the ambassador there,” Johnson said on Monday. The New York Times called it “a blunt acknowledgment of the political reality of trying to pass a budget to enact President Trump’s agenda after he raided the House Republican ranks to fill out his administration.”
Meanwhile, Democratic Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries on Tuesday declared that “House Democrats will not provide a single vote to this reckless Republican budget. Not one. Not one.”
“The reckless Republican budget will be debated on the House floor today,” Leader Jeffries added on social media. “It represents the largest cut to Medicaid in American history. Children, families, seniors, hospitals and nursing homes will be devastated. House Democrats are a Hard NO.”
It’s not just Democrats.
U.S. Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) announced late Tuesday morning he is a “no” on Johnson’s budget.
“They convinced me in there. I’m a ‘no.'”
“If the Republican plan passes, under the rosiest assumptions — which aren’t even true, we’re going to add $328 billion to the deficit this year. We’re going to add $295 billion to the deficit the year after that, and $242 billion to the deficit after that,” Massie told reporters. “Why would I vote for that?!?”
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Massie said he was a “lean no” until the House Republican conference meeting earlier Tuesday. He said “the leadership’s talking points” convinced him to move to a solid no.
Meanwhile, CNN’s Manu Raju reported Tuesday afternoon that “members in the House GOP conference are telling me today that the holdouts must fall in line or the whole agenda will fall apart.”
Acknowledging the fragility of his budget battle, Speaker Johnson late Tuesday morning said, “there may be a vote tonight. There may not be,” according to Punchbowl News’ Jake Sherman.
Sherman adds, “Budget vote could slip, Johnson says.”
But Sherman also reported that Democrats could hand Republicans a win — by not showing up.
“One potential saving grace for @SpeakerJohnson on the budget resolution is that Democrats have struggled a tad with attendance of late,” Sherman reports. He says U.S. Rep. Raúl Grijalva (D-AZ) has not “voted since the first day of the Congress.”
U.S. Rep. Brittany Pettersen (D-CO) “just had a baby,” according to Sherman, and U.S. Rep. Frederica Wilson (D-FL) “has missed 26 votes.”
Meanwhile, U.S. Senator Chris Murphy (D-CT), one of the few Democrats who have been actively speaking out against President Trump’s agenda, responded:
“Maybe [Johnson’s] having trouble finding the votes [because] the bill kicks millions off their health care, strips insurance from sick kids, and closes hospitals – just to fund a giant tax cut for billionaires and corporations and that’s the most asinine unpopular idea like ever.”
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