House Republicans this week moved forward with a sweeping legislative package that combines massive tax cuts for the ultra-wealthy and large corporations with deep, unprecedented reductions to core social safety net programs, including Medicaid and food assistance. The dual-track effort, advanced in party-line committee votes, marks a significant escalation of former President Donald Trump’s push for what he described as “one big, beautiful bill.”
The House Ways and Means Committee voted Wednesday to approve legislation that would deliver a slew of tax breaks benefiting top earners while providing little to no relief for low- and middle-income families. At the same time, the House Energy and Commerce and Agriculture Committees advanced their respective sections of the Republican reconciliation package, which collectively propose over a trillion dollars in cuts to Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) over the next decade.
The nonpartisan Joint Committee on Taxation released a distributional analysis of the tax proposal shortly after the committee hearing began. The analysis confirmed that the bill’s benefits are heavily skewed toward the wealthiest Americans and would ultimately raise taxes on the lowest-income families. According to Rep. Don Beyer (D-Va.), a member of the Ways and Means Committee, “A dirty little secret” of the legislation is that it would actually raise taxes on the bottom 20% of Americans by 2029—the year Trump is set to leave office.
“At every turn, Republicans voted down amendments designed to prevent the majority of benefits of their tax bill from flowing to rich people,” Beyer said following the vote. “The unavoidable truth is that Republicans’ core priority with this legislation was to benefit the wealthy at the expense of everyone else, and that is exactly what their bill does.”
Democrats on the committee introduced a series of amendments aimed at increasing the top marginal tax rate to its pre-2017 level of 39.6%, closing the carried-interest loophole, and blocking any tax breaks to centimillionaires and wealthy heirs. Republicans rejected every single one.
Meanwhile, the Energy and Commerce Committee worked through a marathon 26-hour session before voting 30-24 along party lines to approve a bill that would make the largest cut to Medicaid in U.S. history. According to the Congressional Budget Office, the legislation would strip healthcare coverage from as many as 13.7 million Americans by 2034 if enacted in its current form. The committee’s deliberations concluded in the early hours of Wednesday morning, a timing choice that drew criticism from Democratic lawmakers and activists alike.
“It’s outrageous Republicans forced this debate to occur late into the night when most of the country was asleep and couldn’t see what they were up to,” said Energy and Commerce Committee Ranking Member Frank Pallone Jr. (D-N.J.). “After 26 hours, Republicans failed to justify their draconian Medicaid cuts.”
“The truth is Republicans want to rush this legislation through because they know the American people will be outraged by what’s in the bill,” Pallone added. “President Trump repeatedly promised Republicans were not going to cut Medicaid, but that was a lie since Republicans just voted for the largest Medicaid cut in history.”
Rep. Lori Trahan (D-Mass.) emphasized the breadth of Democratic opposition and the extent of Republican intransigence: “During the 26-hour session, House Republicans rejected every single Democratic amendment… that would have protected Americans’ healthcare, lowered out-of-pocket costs for working families, kept pollution out of our children’s schools, and so much more.”
“Instead, every Republican member of this committee voted to preserve a cruel and reckless bill that will rip health coverage away from millions of Americans,” she said.
The budget plan also includes a $290 billion cut to SNAP, the federal food assistance program. Debate on this portion of the reconciliation package continued in the House Agriculture Committee, with advocates warning of widespread consequences for hunger and food insecurity across the country.
The full reconciliation package would cost an estimated $3.8 trillion through 2034. Kobie Christian, a spokesperson for the Unrig Our Economy coalition, described the proposal as “a reverse Robin Hood of the highest order.”
“From cutting healthcare to ripping away food assistance to rubberstamping cost-raising tariffs, Republicans in Washington are making life more expensive for working- and middle-class Americans by handing over their tax dollars to the super-rich,” said Christian. “Families need lower costs, not cuts to healthcare and billionaire tax breaks. Congress should be fighting to help working families, not the ultra-wealthy.”
The legislation has sparked outrage among health advocates, civil society groups, and progressive leaders, who argue that the budget represents a direct attack on essential public health and welfare infrastructure.
“This partisan bill is nothing more than an attack on the healthcare system on which we all rely, to fund tax breaks for billionaires and big corporations,” said Anthony Wright, executive director of Families USA.
“Many Republicans on that committee said they wouldn’t touch Medicaid and that the word Medicaid was not even in the bill,” Wright continued. “We can see that these were just empty promises, but we hope that other Republicans in the House and Senate come to their senses soon. The bill just doesn’t cut Medicaid, it guts Medicaid.”
Activists have taken to Capitol Hill in protest, with more than two dozen demonstrators arrested during direct actions against the proposed budget. The widespread condemnation also included sharp remarks from Sulma Arias, executive director of People’s Action Institute, who denounced the vote in unequivocal terms.
“Promises made; promises broken. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) said his party wouldn’t cut Medicaid. And then they did,” Arias said. “For months, Trump and House Republicans tried to hide the fact that they planned to cut Medicaid. We warned the public that they were lying, and after this week’s votes in committee, there can be no doubt.”
“Medicaid is a lifeline for millions; when politicians take it away, they kill people,” Arias added. “Through this budget, the billionaires and the bullies plan to do exactly that so they can steal these funds for themselves.”
The legislation now moves to the House Budget Committee for further review, with a vote expected in the coming days. If approved, it will head to the full House floor and then to the Senate, where it faces an uncertain future. However, the legislative maneuvering underscores the GOP’s commitment to advancing Trump’s 2025 agenda—and the high-stakes fight now underway over the future of America’s tax and healthcare systems.
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