Although Democrats were unable to stop President Donald Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill from becoming law, their relentless attacks on its provisions — particularly their fearmongering over cuts to Medicaid — have left a lasting negative impression on many voters.
By framing the bill as a ruthless assault on vulnerable Americans, the Democrats, the legacy media, and even a few Republicans — North Carolina Sen. Thom Tillis and Nebraska Rep. Don Bacon come to mind — succeeded in planting doubt and stirring public anxiety about this legislation.
Here are some recent headlines from the legacy media that are stoking fear about the law:
The New York Times: Republican Bill Puts Nation on New, More Perilous Fiscal PathThe Washington Post: Senate GOP tax bill includes largest cut to U.S. safety net in decadesSalon: “Existential risk”: Trump’s bill could raise energy costs, lose 900K US jobs
In a recent op-ed, The Wall Street Journal editorial board wrote, “No one is ‘gutting’ the safety net: The GOP will have to rebut the Democratic and media distortions about their reforms or lose the 2026 election.”
They are right. Republicans have 16 months to replace this false perception with the truth. They must make it their highest priority. Failure to do so will all but guarantee the loss of their majority in the House, and could even put their control of the Senate at risk.
We’ve seen it all before. Democrats are experts at creating false narratives and presenting them as the truth. Remember when Trump was an agent of Russia? The Hunter Biden laptop story was part of a Russian disinformation campaign? And despite the fact that Trump is on record offering National Guard troops to then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Washington, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser ahead of Jan. 6, 2021 — and was rebuffed — by the end of the day, the Left’s spurious version of events, that Trump had incited a riot to prevent the election from being certified, was firmly in place.
Republicans must demonstrate to the public how profoundly Medicaid has been exploited — not only by ineligible recipients but also by the states themselves — and explain how the reforms in the new law are designed to curb these abuses.
First, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, the poverty rate for 2023 (the most recent full year of data available) was 11.1%. Yet, The New York Times reports that roughly 20% of Americans are currently enrolled in Medicaid. The Wall Street Journal estimates the figure to be closer to 25%. To put it mildly, these numbers suggest that Medicaid may be serving a broader population than originally intended, raising questions about misuse or overextension of the program.
So, why are so many people living above the federal poverty level receiving Medicaid benefits? Well, you can thank the Affordable Care Act. Medicaid enrollment ballooned during the Obama administration. Originally intended as a safety net for Americans whose incomes fell at or below the federal poverty limit, the Obamacare expansion of Medicaid in 2014 allowed those with incomes up to 1.38 times that threshold to qualify. Thus, many “able-bodied, prime-aged” adults entered the program and continue to receive benefits today. This group is referred to as the “expansion population.”
According to health policy research site KFF, since its inception in 2014, 41 states (and the District of Columbia) have adopted and implemented this program.
The new legislation has introduced a 20-hour per week work requirement for those whose incomes exceed the poverty level. But, contrary to the Left’s talking points, the work requirement does not apply to the disabled, pregnant women, or those caring for a child younger than age 14.
It does apply to the “able-bodied, prime-aged” people who would prefer to receive a monthly check from the government rather than go to work.
And, as mentioned above, some states have manipulated the program for their own gain.
The Wall Street Journal reports:
The other main provision is tamping down state scams to hoover up more federal dollars. The main losers here are large hospital systems that have been doing well on the largesse.The GOP bill also includes sensible measures such as asking states to check their Medicaid expansion rolls every six months and more scrutiny on ObamaCare subsidies. That is necessary because the Biden Administration waved millions onto health entitlements. The Paragon Institute estimates that 6.4 million people are enrolled in fully subsidized ObamaCare plans but don’t meet the eligibility criteria. Apparently this is what Democrats support….The law also tries to tighten up waivers that states have abused to eliminate the work rules. The other major change is asking states with high improper payment rates to have skin in the game and pick up a share of benefit costs, which are currently billed 100% to the federal taxpayer.
In a separate op-ed, the Journal’s Kimberley Strassel provided a point-by-point rebuttal of the Democrats’ allegations against the new law. Regarding their claim that it’s an attack on the social safety net, she wrote:
Repeat and repeat again: Republicans are not cutting spending on Medicaid or food stamps; the House and Senate bills merely slow those programs’ (unsustainable) rate of growth. Republicans accomplish this by implementing modest work requirements for able-bodied adults, by pushing back on a scheme states use to inflate federal Medicaid spending, and by asking states to be more diligent in identifying fraud. Our recent breakdown of the CBO [Congressional Budget Office] forecast of who would “lose” Medicaid by 2034 shows a population of able-bodied adults who aren’t complying with the work requirement, illegal migrants, and people who qualify for other subsidized coverage.
According to the CBO forecast, most of those whom Democrats warn will lose their Medicaid benefits “don’t work even part-time or are illegal migrants.” [Emphasis added.]
The CBO also claims that 1.4 million recipients “do not meet citizenship and immigration status requirements for Medicaid enrollment.”
The American Enterprise Institute recently reported: “For Medicaid recipients who do not report working, the most common activity after sleeping is watching television and playing video games. They spend 4.2 hours per day watching television and playing video games, or 125 hours during a 30-day month.”
I don’t think Republicans will find it particularly difficult to explain the provisions in the bill. The changes are focused on eliminating fraud and waste. Recall that the only people truly outraged when the Department of Government Efficiency revealed the grand larceny taking place within the U.S. Agency for International Development in February were those who had been profiting from the grift.
If Republicans want to prevent the final two years of Trump’s presidency from being derailed by needless investigations and partisan obstruction, it is imperative that they publicly expose the Democrats’ disinformation campaign and set the record straight.
Republicans must tattoo this message on voters’ minds.
Elizabeth writes commentary for Legal Insurrection and The Washington Examiner. She is an academy fellow at The Heritage Foundation. Please follow Elizabeth on X or LinkedIn.
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