Legislation has passed Congress and was signed into law by the president, ironically named the “Big Beautiful Bill” that harms millions of Americans while greatly benefiting a few thousand. Among the various cruel and harmful program cuts will be the $900+ billion being cut over time from the Medicaid program. These crafty, extreme conservative politicians were wise enough to have most of the Medicaid cuts take place after the upcoming 2026 mid-term elections. They hope their voters won’t feel the pain until after they have hoodwinked them into voting again for them by downplaying the pain that will be primarily inflicted on their lower-income voters but will impact most Americans.
The Medicaid program is the most perilous federal program impacted by the recently passed legislation. As of November 2022, Medicaid and CHIP (Children’s Health Insurance Program) covered more than 91.7 million individuals in the United States at a cost approaching $800 billion. The highest level of expenditures under Medicaid/CHIP is the 32% ($250+ Million) paid for the care of 9.4 million disabled (physically, developmentally, and mentally disabled). The smallest age group is those over 65, involving 8 million individuals living in some type of long-term care facility that costs Medicaid $144 billion. Children aged 0-20 account for 38% ($104 million), or 26 million children participating in Medicaid/CHIP. Eliminating any portion of the Medicaid/CHIP program would undoubtedly put some very vulnerable children and adults at great risk and would mean needless lost lives. Cutting Medicaid will mean real pain to millions of people. Can’t wait until the well-oiled noise machine of Republican misinformation and lies gets cranked up in early 2026, defending their legislative action. They will likely not really defend their legislative action; they really can’t with a straight face, but delude, confuse, and misdirect their voters about the impact of their sinister legislative action.
There have been rumblings that, even given the poor reception from the American public for this so-called “Big Beautiful Bill” plans are underway to cut Medicaid further and cut even more federal programs and services. The Office of Management and Budget (OMB), now headed by one of principal authors, Russell Vought, of the Project 2025 plan, has been put in charge of slashing federal spending and not doing so in concert with Congress, traditionally responsible for deciding federal spending. The budget process was designed so that the U.S. House initiated spending legislation because they were the legislative body most closely represented by the people. It appears that Congress has abdicated the power of the purse to the White House and, more specifically, OMB. We can expect devastating results from this abdication of power.
There has been discussion of a so-called “pocket recession” where the president, without consulting with Congress, simply pockets funding intended by Congress to be spent for a specific purpose. It is becoming clearer that under the reign of the current president that Congress is largely an annoyance and is only needed to rubber-stamp what the president wants when Republican controlled.
When, or will it be if, the Democrats gain a majority in the House of Representatives and, less likely, the Senate, they will have to do much work undoing the harm to our society done by the current president and then effectively monitor his unconstitutional and corrupt actions. They must reverse the portion of the tax cut that greatly benefited the wealthiest and major corporations while keeping most other components of the tax cut benefiting lower- and middle-income individuals and families. Medicaid, Medicare, and Social Security need to be reformed and improved to be more efficient, but reform should not be allowed to be used to provide cover for savagely cutting these important federal programs.
There is a concerted effort taking place to reshape the U.S. into a society that only works for the wealthiest and corporations. If you pay close attention most of negative consequences of the actions that have been taken by the current president and approved by the Republican Congress fall most heavily on lower-income households and could very much change how they are impacted by these societal changes. “Make America Great Again” may be a good political slogan, but the actions taken by the government in support of this slogan will likely not make America great for millions of individuals and families across the country. But then again, perhaps the goal was never to “Make America Great Again” for everyone but just the most affluent and corporate interests and the country seems to be on track to do just that. Good luck if you are not affluent or don’t have high-level corporate ties, your lives will just get harder.
