Democrats have settled on a message against the House GOP’s budget proposal: It’s so extreme that candidate Donald Trump might not approve.
“Someone should ask him if he even supports the Republican budget,” Rep. Ro Khanna told NOTUS.
The resolution, released on Wednesday by House Republicans, makes way for up to $4.5 trillion in tax cuts and sets a goal to cut spending by a minimum of $1.5 trillion. A fierce debate among Republicans is ongoing and will decide how much and where these cuts will come from. But Democrats warned that it could include cuts to critical safety net programs like Medicare, Medicaid and SNAP benefits — some of which the president vowed on the campaign trail not to touch.
“Is Trump reneging on his promises to the people?” California Rep. Judy Chu asked NOTUS. “This is clearly a giveaway to the wealthy in this country. I see nothing that helps Americans lower the cost of everyday living. In fact, it will hurt them more because it’s inevitable that there will be drastic cuts to vital programs.”
Trump told voters last year that he would not cut Social Security or Medicare as part of a broader populist message. The president reportedly expressed reluctance to Medicaid cuts earlier this year due to potential political consequences. House Speaker Mike Johnson said this week that Medicaid is not on the chopping block, just the “non-benefit-related” reforms to the program. (Johnson supports adding work requirements for able-bodied Americans to participate in Medicaid benefits.)
Democrats have noted that the savings Republicans want would be difficult to achieve without cutting social safety net programs. The plan calls for a reduction of $880 billion in spending in Energy and Commerce, which oversees Medicaid and Medicare. It also calls for at least $230 billion in cuts to Agriculture, which the SNAP program falls under.
“For Energy and Commerce, it’s mathematically impossible to achieve $880 billion in savings if you don’t cut Medicaid or Medicare,” Bobby Kogan, former Biden-Harris White House adviser to the Office of Management and Budget, posted on X. “There’s not enough money they have jurisdiction over. Republicans say they’re not cutting Medicare, so that means they’re cutting Medicaid.”
“For the Ag Committee, well, if you think they’re not touching SNAP, that means they’re cutting everything else by 74%. You think Republicans are cutting farm support by 74%?” Kogan added.
Rep. Nancy Pelosi reposted Kogan’s remarks on X, saying Republicans are putting Medicaid and SNAP “on the chopping block.”
“The Republican budget is all about enacting massive tax cuts for their billionaire donors and wealthy corporations,” House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries told reporters on Wednesday. “And they want to stick working-class Americans and middle-class Americans with the bill by ending Medicaid as we know it, by throwing people off of nutritional assistance programs.”
House Budget Committee ranking member Brendan Boyle said the proposal is a “Republican betrayal to voters that swung to Donald Trump because they believed his promises.”
“This is the same crowd that always cries crocodile tears about the size of our national debt whenever there’s a Democrat in the White House,” Boyle told reporters in a press call on Thursday. “Now, here they are dramatically increasing the national debt in addition to cutting Medicaid, Obamacare and food stamps programs that people rely on.”
Beyond what Democrats call contradictory proposals, they also questioned the absence of other Trump proposals that they might have supported, such as SALT deduction changes and ending a tax on tips.
“Where is JD Vance, who spoke in favor of expanding the child tax credit during the campaign?” Rep. Pete Aguilar asked reporters on Thursday.
Republicans rejected the idea that the president is abandoning the populist principles he ran on by potentially making cuts to safety net programs.
“The SNAP benefits were plussed up by Democrats,” North Carolina Republican Rep. Greg Murphy told NOTUS, referring to Joe Biden’s increase in monthly SNAP benefits. “They gave 400 extra calories with no nutritional value. If Democrats call cutting back on sugary drinks and fatty foods as being cuts, they don’t care about the health of the nation.”
Rep. Nancy Mace said that Republicans are following the promises Trump campaigned on.
“It’s what the country wants,” Mace said. “I know Democrats hate it but Trump is their president and the people voted for this.”
There is some disagreement within the Republican conference about safety net programs, with some Republicans reportedly concerned about how cuts could affect them in the midterms. Others are likely to push for even bigger cuts to spending.
Republicans hope to have a vote on the floor in the final week of February. In the meantime, Democrats plan to spend their time telling voters about what they say is a “Republican betrayal.”
“We’re going to keep telling them every day and every hour,” House Budget Committee Democratic Rep. Pramila Jayapal told NOTUS.
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Calen Razor is a NOTUS reporter and an Allbritton Journalism Institute fellow.