- House Republicans have released new details about the GOP tax plan, fueling debate about spending cuts that could impact Medicaid and other assistance programs. During a call on Monday, Democratic state officials roundly criticized the GOP budget bill, saying cuts to services would leave vulnerable adults and children struggling with unnecessary food insecurity and fewer resources to access medical care.
Democratic state financial leaders are pushing back swiftly and loudly on the GOP budget bill as new details have emerged about tax provisions ahead of a Tuesday House committee meeting. The budget bill sets the overall federal spending agenda, including targets and spending cuts that will fund tax reductions.
According to think tank Tax Policy Center (TPC), a preliminary analysis found that while all income groups would benefit from the tax proposal, more than two thirds of the tax cuts included would go to households earning $217,000 or more. The top 1%, those who make more than $1.1 million, would see one quarter of the tax cuts, TPC reported. Overall, the bill would cut taxes by some $5 trillion over the next 10 years, TPC found.
One of the key issues will be the impact on Medicaid, which could see $880 billion in cuts. Some Democrats have suggested health care related reductions would cut spending by $715 billion.
On Monday’s call, which included democratic treasurers from Massachusetts, Washington state, Illinois, and a controller from Houston, finance officials ripped into the budget bill.
“Republicans are pushing this Reagan-era thinking that if we just free up capital for the wealthiest Americans, that it will be reinvested and somehow stimulate domestic economies, expand employment, and share the wealth for all,” said Washington State Treasurer Mike Pellicciotti.
That view is “dated,” he said. Furthermore, immense volatility in American trade policy has pushed investors and businesses to rethink their capital strategies in the U.S., Pellicciotti said. Investors are now looking abroad for investment opportunities out of fear they can’t rely on solid economic policy in the U.S.
“The rules-based order that has dominated for nearly a century is undergoing an immense stress test, and those with the wealth and capital to insulate themselves and adapt to this new reality are going to do so,” Pellicciotti said.
Illinois Treasurer Michael Frerichs said House Republicans are executing the play President Trump called for by reducing health care spending to fund tax cuts for wealthy Americans. The impact, said Frerichs, will be that millions of Americans lose access to health care, including hundreds of thousands in Illinois.
“States don’t have an extra $715 billion in revenue,” said Frerichs. “What Trump Republicans are proposing is a budget that takes the taxes you pay the federal government and drastically cuts the programs that keep hearts ticking and cancer at bay to afford tax cuts for the rich.”
He complained that costs for groceries, clothing and electronics are rising as a result of Trump’s “chaotic, incoherent tariff war,” while the overall agenda will lead to “taxing Barbies and G.I. Joes, if you can even find them on store shelves.”
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Republican Rep. Brett Guthrie wrote a Wall Street Journal op-ed that Democrats would use the tax plan as “an opportunity to engage in fear-mongering” and would miscast the bill as an “attack on Medicaid.”
“In reality, it preserves and strengthens Medicaid for children, mothers, people with disabilities and the elderly—for whom the program was designed.”
Pellicciotti, during Monday’s call, said the combination of cuts to health care services and infrastructure, coupled with tax changes and trade policy, would to tectonic shifts that will erode the economic environment.
“Given additional capital via tax breaks, we would expect that wealthy investors will continue to move their money overseas,” said Pellicciotti. “The finance industry and private equity firms are going to do what earns their clients the greatest profit.”
