Out Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) tore Donald Trump apart for saying that he wouldn’t be cutting the three biggest federal programs—Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid—immediately before he demanded Congress cut nearly a trillion dollars from Medicaid’s budget.
“Trump a little over a week ago said on Fox News, ‘I’m not touching Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid.’ And he said it multiple times,” she said on MSNBC. “The next morning, he endorsed the Republican House budget, which calls for nearly a trillion dollars in cuts to Medicaid.”
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The provisions “undermine people’s ability to make decisions about their bodies, lives, and futures,” the senators wrote.
Baldwin then stressed that 8 million seniors get support for nursing home care from Medicaid and that a third of children get their health care coverage through Medicaid.
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Baldwin: "Trump a little over a week ago said on Fox News, 'I'm not touching Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid.' And he said it multiple times. The next morning he endorsed the Republican House budget which calls for nearly a trillion dollars in cuts to Medicaid."
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) March 3, 2025 at 6:22 PM
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Medicaid is the joint federal-state program that offers nearly free healthcare coverage for poor and disabled people. It cost the federal government $880 billion in 2023.
Trump and his top campaign donor, Elon Musk, have been trying to make significant cuts to federal spending, but they have mostly focused on minuscule portions of the federal budget, like foreign aid and subscriptions to newspapers.
Meanwhile, about half of federal spending goes to health insurance programs (Medicare, Medicaid, CHIP, and the Affordable Care Act) or Social Security, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. The military, interest on the debt, benefits for veterans and federal retirees, education, and economic security programs make up most of the rest of the federal budget.
“Social Security won’t be touched, other than this fraud or something we’re going to find,” Trump said late last month. “It’s going to be strengthened but won’t be touched. Medicare, Medicaid, none of that stuff is going to be touched.”
The very next morning, Trump posted to social media that he supports House Republicans’ budget plan “without question.” That budget plan calls for $880 billion in cuts from programs overseen by the House Energy and Commerce Committee, the committee that manages Medicaid spending.
The budget proposal contains $4.5 trillion in tax cuts, mostly for wealthy people.
Baldwin has long made healthcare access a key issue in her work, and she’s trying to apply public pressure to stop the Medicaid cuts. She announced yesterday that she is inviting Renee Scherck-Meyer – a stage 4 cancer patient who relies on Medicaid – as her guest for Trump’s address to a joint session of Congress tonight.
“Republicans are planning to rip away health care from more than one million Wisconsinites on Medicaid to pay for tax cuts for billionaires,” she said in a statement. “As Renee bravely battles cancer, the absolute last thing she should be focused on is whether she’ll have to ration or forego care because of Medicaid cuts. But that’s the reality she – and so many others – are facing.”
“I’m proud to share Renee’s story and fight against cuts to the health care program that so many Wisconsinites rely on and, in Renee’s case, need to stay alive.”
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