The Issue That Can Damage Republicans the Most
The cuts to Medicaid in the budget bill would devastate a program that millions rely on and is universally popular, even among the president’s base.
Simple yet effective messaging.
Photographer: Leigh Vogel/Getty Images North AmericaAmid all the news that Donald Trump creates, and there’s a lot, one story stands out for its unrivaled potential to damage the president’s political standing: the Republican effort to pass a huge budget bill that, among other things, would kick millions of people off Medicaid. Above all else, this is what Democrats should be focused on.
The polling on this legislation is terrible, and with good reason. It’s one thing to ask for belt-tightening in a spirit of shared sacrifice, but the One Big Beautiful Bill Act doesn’t reduce the deficit at all — on the contrary, it adds nearly $3 trillion to the national debt. And that’s an underestimate. According to the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, if all its changes were made permanent, the bill would add closer to $5 trillion in new debt. Nor can economic growth avert this fiscal catastrophe. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that on a “dynamic scoring” basis — which usually reduces the cost of legislation — the price tag of the bill actually goes up by nearly $400 billion due to higher interest rates. This upward pressure on interest rates will spread through the economy and slow growth.