Washington, D.C — Yesterday morning, Punchbowl News highlighted the hammering congressional Republicans are taking for their votes to cut Medicaid and raise energy prices while also making devastating cuts to SNAP, all to hand even more tax breaks to billionaires.
Punchbowl highlighted the pressure congressional Republicans are under from local hospitals now at risk of closure, state legislators with new massive holes in their budgets, and ad campaigns led by Unrig Our Economy and other groups that hold lawmakers accountable for robbing their own constituents to pay for even more tax breaks for billionaires.
From Punchbowl:
Liberal outside group Unrig Our Economy is launching a new ad attacking Rep. Rob Bresnahan (R-Pa.) on Medicaid cuts. The $1 million ad buy in Pennsylvania’s 8th District, part of the group’s larger $10 million House campaign, features a constituent who says Bresnahan promised to her that he wouldn’t vote to cut Medicaid.
“Afterwards, when the votes were done, when I found out how he voted, I was very upset to hear that Congressman Bresnahan voted for the largest cut to Medicaid in history,” the constituent says.
Read key points from Punchbowl’s story here:
- What America is reading. Trump and GOP congressional leaders got the big spectacle they wanted on July 4. A White House signing ceremony for the One Big Beautiful Bill, lots of flags, fireworks, even a B-2 bomber flyover. Speaker Mike Johnson gave Trump the gavel he used to close out the House vote.
- But now comes the reality — and the headlines back home. Medicaid cuts of nearly $1 trillion. No extension of Obamacare subsidies. Tens of billions of dollars in SNAP cuts. Governors may be forced to call special legislative sessions to deal with gaping holes in their own budgets.
- In Maine, where Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) is up for reelection, two rural hospitals are in danger of closing, with another two potentially in trouble. Roughly 40,000 Mainers could lose health care. These Medicaid cuts were the main reason Collins was just one of three Senate Republicans to vote no, even as she fought for inclusion of a $50 billion rural hospital “stabilization fund” in the bill.
- In Pennsylvania, Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro – a potential 2028 White House contender up for reelection next year – warned that as many as 25 rural hospitals could go under while more than 310,000 Pennsylvanians lose Medicaid coverage. GOP Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (Pa.) was one of only two House Republicans to vote no.
- “They knew what they were voting for. They voted for it,” Shapiro said on Monday of the nine Pennsylvania House Republicans who backed the measure.
- North Carolina GOP Sen. Thom Tillis – who was under heavy pressure from Trump for criticizing the reconciliation bill – retired and voted no, putting a Republican-held seat in jeopardy next year. Tillis handed out flyers saying the Tarheel State would lose nearly $40 billion in funding and coverage for more than 660,000 residents would be at risk.
- Some news on this front. Liberal outside group Unrig Our Economy is launching a new ad attacking Rep. Rob Bresnahan (R-Pa.) on Medicaid cuts. The $1 million ad buy in Pennsylvania’s 8th District, part of the group’s larger $10 million House campaign, features a constituent who says Bresnahan promised to her that he wouldn’t vote to cut Medicaid.
- “Afterwards, when the votes were done, when I found out how he voted, I was very upset to hear that Congressman Bresnahan voted for the largest cut to Medicaid in history,” the constituent says.
To learn more about the campaign, visit UnrigOurEconomy.com or contact press@unrigoureconomy.com
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About Unrig Our Economy
Unrig Our Economy is a national campaign to fix the rules of our economy to make it work for working people. We know that when the middle class does well, all of us do well — which is why we’re fighting on behalf of working Americans and holding corporations, their wealthy executives, and the politicians who enable them accountable.