Congress Officially Passes Trump’s Bill to Kick Millions Off Medicaid

Republicans are clapping each other on the back after passing one of the most destructive pieces of legislation to ever target the American poor and middle class. Donald Trump and the GOP’s so-called “Big Beautiful Bill” belly-flopped through Congress not because it makes sense economically, environmentally, or morally — but because the president asked for a bill to sign, and his cronies delivered. 

In a 218-214 vote, the massive legislative package — passed using budget reconciliation — made it through the House of Representatives on Thursday, two days after the Senate passed it on Tuesday. It will now head to the White House, where Trump is expected to sign it into law in a ceremony on the Fourth of July. What a great night it was,” Trump wrote on Thursday as Republicans closed in on passing the legislation. “One of the most consequential Bills ever. The USA is the ‘HOTTEST’ Country in the World, by far!!!”

Trump’s push to have the bill on his desk by the Fourth of July holiday threw members of the House into a mad scramble to make it back to the Capitol in time for voting this week. Some lawmakers packed up their cars and made lengthy road trips to Washington, D.C., as major airports in the area canceled or delayed hundreds of flights in response to intense summer storms. But in the Trump era, the optics of an Independence Day passage is paramount.

“The president of the United States is waiting with his pen,” House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) said to Republican cheers before the vote. “The American people are waiting for this relief. We’ve heard enough talk; it’s time for action. Let’s finish the job for him.”

Trump celebrated with a Truth Social post announcing a signing ceremony at the White House on Friday. “Together, we will celebrate our Nation’s Independence, and the beginning of our new Golden Age. The people of the United States of America will be Richer, Safer, and Prouder than ever before,” he wrote.
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The bill’s passage on Thursday was preceded by spirited debate on the House floor, including a marathon speech by Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.). Jeffries informed Republicans he would be taking his “sweet time” in addressing concerns about the bill. “People will die. Tens of thousands, perhaps year after year after year, as a result of the Republican assault on the health care of the American people,” he said. “I’m sad. I never thought I would be on the House floor saying: This is a crime scene.”

Republicans tried to justify the cuts with lies about how they would only impact Americans too lazy to get a job. “Able-bodied people, 35-year-olds sitting at home playing video games, they’re going to now have to go get a job,” Rep. Steve Scalise (R-La.) said as Republicans laughed behind him. “That’s a good thing for them because their mom doesn’t want them sitting in the basement playing video games anyway.”

The mythical 35-year-old couch potato leeching money out of welfare programs that could be benefiting other more deserving people has been the central strawman of the GOP’s justification for the bill’s deep cuts to Medicaid, the nation’s government health insurance program for low-income and disabled Americans.

The legislation imposes sweeping bureaucratic hurdles to Medicaid coverage, demanding all supposedly able-bodied adults under the age of 65 either volunteer or work 20 hours a week in low-wage jobs to maintain their insurance. The Medicaid provisions are expected to force over 10 million Americans off the program, and that is the point. Combined with the GOP’s changes to health insurance marketplaces created by the Affordable Care Act — and their refusal to extend subsidies for such plans — around 17 million Americans are expected to lose their health care coverage, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office. Rural hospitals that depend on Medicaid patients and federal funding for these patients may be forced to close programs or outright shut down as a result.
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The so-called “Big Beautiful Bill” is deeply unpopular with the public, not surprisingly, and has prompted protests and disruptions at the Capitol, town halls, and other events hosted by Republican lawmakers. The sprawling package grants a permanent extension to Trump’s wealth-favoring 2017 tax cuts, and numerous windfalls to other GOP pet projects. The extension of the tax cuts is expected to increase the national debt by over $4 trillion, a bump that Republicans have only partially offset by savaging Medicaid, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), renewable energy investments, and other programs supporting working Americans. 

In addition to cutting over $1 trillion from Medicaid, the bill is expected to force at least 2 million monthly SNAP recipients off food assistance, a loss that is expected to impact one million children every month. Meanwhile, the price of utilities will increase as the GOP cuts green energy tax credits, in a move that could also cause Republican communities that benefited from Biden-era development incentives to bleed jobs and investments. 

In response to frustration from the public — and even from within the Republican caucus — members of the Trump administration have oscillated between insisting that the bill’s passage will usher in an age of prosperity, and admitting that they don’t actually care if poor people get screwed over — as long as their own priorities are met. 

Vice President J.D. Vance, who cast the tiebreaking vote to advance the legislation through the Senate, wrote on Tuesday that the “One Big Beautiful Bill” must pass because it increases funding for deportations, and seeks to strip undocumented migrants of any meager benefits they may receive. He wrote that everything else in the bill — including “the minutiae of the Medicaid policy — is immaterial compared to the ICE money and immigration enforcement provisions”. 

On Wednesday, Trump argued on Truth Social that people complaining about his administration taking a blowtorch to the social safety net were focused on the wrong things. “Nobody wants to talk about GROWTH, which will be the primary reason that the Big, Beautiful Bill will be one of the most successful pieces of legislation ever passed,” he wrote. 

The president claimed that “hundreds of Billions of Dollars in Tariffs are filling up the coffers of Treasury.” Estimates place the actual number at less than $100 billion in the first six months of the year — a drop in the bucket compared to the $2.4 trillion generated by federal income taxes in 2024. 
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“Our Country will make a fortune this year, more than any of our competitors, but only if the Big, Beautiful Bill is PASSED! As they say, Trump’s been right about everything, and this is the easiest of them all to predict. Republicans, don’t let the Radical Left Democrats push you around,” Trump added.

Republicans did what Trump wanted, and practically tripped over themselves to appease him — shoving low-income and working-class Americans into even more dire economic conditions than they’re already in as the president continues to remake the nation around the interests of the rich.