The Midnight Medicaid Cuts: Why The GOP's Reconciliation Bill Is A Raw Deal For The American People
In the early hours of the morning, while most Americans were asleep, House Republicans convened a hearing that stretched into an eight-hour marathon to push through a sweeping 1,100-page reconciliation bill.
The timing was no coincidence. It was a calculated attempt to avoid scrutiny and quietly advance a legislative agenda that disproportionately benefits the wealthy, undermines essential public services, and fuels divisive culture wars.
This bill is not about economic growth or fiscal responsibility. It's the latest chapter in a long-standing political grift: one where working families are told to tighten their belts while the powerful receive handouts disguised as policy.
At the heart of the bill are aggressive cuts to Medicaid and food assistance—critical lifelines for millions of Americans. By moving up the timeline for mandatory work requirements to 2026, House Republicans are putting an estimated 14 million people at risk of losing their healthcare and three million households in danger of losing food security. These aren't just numbers—they represent real families who are already navigating an economy marked by uncertainty, inflation, and widening inequality.
Meanwhile, the bill remains generous to the wealthiest Americans, offering trillions in tax breaks to those who need them least. But it doesn't stop there. In a bizarre twist, it also includes a provision to create $1,000 'Trump Accounts' for babies born between 2025 and 2029. Ostensibly designed to support long-term savings, these MAGA-branded investment funds are more about political branding than substantive policy. It's a campaign slogan masquerading as a fiscal tool.
Simultaneously, the bill strips healthcare access from some of the country's most vulnerable populations. It imposes a sweeping ban on Medicaid and CHIP funding for gender-affirming care, not just for minors, but for all recipients. This isn't about protecting public funds; it's a targeted attack on the transgender community, one that erodes the foundational principle that healthcare should be accessible to all.
And if the stakes weren't high enough, the bill also includes provisions that compromise public safety. Language quietly added in the final hours eliminates the federal tax and registration requirement for gun silencers, long established as safeguards to help law enforcement trace weapons used in violent crimes. As Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon (D-Pa.) noted, this change is not just reckless—it's radical.
Even more troubling, an earlier draft of the bill included language that would have shielded former President Trump and his administration from contempt citations if they violated court orders. While the provision was ultimately removed, its mere presence reflects a dangerous willingness to circumvent the judiciary and concentrate power in the executive branch.
The bill also threatens access to reproductive and preventative health services by targeting Planned Parenthood. If passed, up to one-third of Planned Parenthood health centers—nearly 200 facilities—could be forced to close due to funding restrictions tied to abortion and gender-affirming care. This would severely limit access to cancer screenings, birth control, and general health care in underserved communities.
One of the most telling moments during the hearing, Rep. Teresa Leger Fernández (D-N.M.) held Republicans accountable for the sheer absurdity—and hypocrisy—of their priorities. When questioning a provision that repealed the federal excise tax on indoor tanning services, she asked the bill's sponsor to read the line item aloud. He refused.
'Oh, he doesn't want to read it,' Rep. Leger Fernández said. 'This is in their bill. They don't want to read a line from their own bill.'
Fernández then delivered a blistering critique: 'So if you have a tanning bed, you get a little bit of a tax break. And if you need a hospital bed in rural America, I'm sorry, you're out of luck.'
Her words underscored the bill's deeply skewed values, where luxury perks are prioritized over basic healthcare access.
This is not a comprehensive plan for economic recovery or public well-being. It's a deeply flawed document that prioritizes political loyalty, culture war distractions, and corporate interests over the everyday needs of American families. It represents the erosion of public trust, transparency, and responsible governance.
While some provisions—such as the nonprotection of public lands in Utah and Nevada—were rightfully removed, and attempts to strip federal employees of earned retirement benefits were reversed, these adjustments cannot redeem a bill that is fundamentally out of step with the priorities of the American people.
As this bill heads to the Senate, lawmakers—and the public—must remain vigilant. Because this isn't just bad policy. It's a dangerous precedent. Governance should be transparent, equitable, and rooted in service to the people, not pushed through under the cover of darkness to serve the ambitions of a few.
The American people deserve better.
SEE ALSO:
SPLC: U.S. Hate Groups Declined—Is It Really A Good Thing?
Harvard Fights Back Against Trump International Student Ban
SEE ALSO
The Midnight Medicaid Cuts: Why The GOP's Reconciliation Bill Is A Raw Deal For The American People was originally published on newsone.com
Black America Web Featured Video
CLOSE
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Hill
35 minutes ago
- The Hill
Bondi: 68 arrested overnight in DC
Attorney General Pam Bondi said on Sunday that authorities arrested 68 people overnight in Washington, D.C., amid a federal crackdown on crime in which President Trump has sent the National Guard to the nation's capital and federalized the police force. 'Over 300 arrests in D.C. — and counting: Just last night, our federal and DC law enforcement partners made 68 arrests and seized 15 illegal firearms,' Bondi said in a post on the social platform X. 'Homicide suspects, drug traffickers, and more are being charged. I'll continue to stand with you as we make DC safe again!' Trump last week said he would take federal control of D.C.'s police department and deploy the National Guard to the city. The president's moves have drawn heavy blowback from Democrats and D.C. residents. White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller, who also recently compared the nation's capital to multiple foreign war zones, said in a post on the social platform X that 'graffiti is coming down in Washington, DC.' 'Graffiti left untouched to scar public spaces is the visual declaration of a society's surrender,' Miller said in his Sunday post. On Sunday, Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) dismissed Trump's recent crackdown on the nation's capital as a 'stunt' and suggested, like other Democrats, that the effort is meant to distract from other events in the news. 'What's happening here in Washington, D.C., is just a stunt. Donald Trump didn't like the fact that the walls were closing in on him, that his own base was questioning why he wouldn't release the Epstein files, why he was protecting very powerful people,' Murphy told NBC News's Kristen Welker on 'Meet the Press.' 'He didn't want to talk anymore about the fact that our health care system is about to collapse because of the cuts that they have made, that premiums are going to go up by 75 percent on Americans,' the Connecticut senator added. But Republicans and the administration have argued the federal crackdown is a necessary step given high murder and crime rates in D.C., while suggesting that Democrats running cities have done a poor job handling the issue.
The Hill
an hour ago
- The Hill
Dismantling the Justice Department tax division will cost us billions
The Department of Justice is poised to make a grave mistake: dismantling its tax division, America's frontline defense against ultra-wealthy tax cheats. As sophisticated tax fraud surges, gutting this division would severely weaken enforcement and deterrence, inviting more evasion by the ultra-wealthy. It would send a message to those at the top: complex evasion schemes will go unpunished. Tax enforcement in the U.S. is already on life support, with tax evasion costing U.S. taxpayers approximately $447 billion each year, a figure that dwarfs popular claims of government waste. Yet fraud prosecutions haven't just declined over the last decade; they've collapsed, dropping nearly 50 percent between 2014 and 2023. Shockingly few big-time tax evaders face justice, with only 363 individuals convicted of criminal tax fraud in 2023. As one IRS investigator candidly told us, 'There's never been a better time to commit tax fraud.' Without a Department of Justice tax division, that is bound to get much worse. The stakes could not be clearer. Consider a few recent successes from the tax division's record. In the Anderson Ark case, the division unraveled an offshore evasion scheme, recovering nearly $100 million for taxpayers and shutting down a fraud operation that victimized thousands of Americans. It also secured a stunning $2.6 billion plea deal from Credit Suisse for its role in helping wealthy Americans evade taxes. In the ongoing case involving the late billionaire Robert Brockman, prosecutors are pursuing more than $1.4 billion in taxes and penalties from alleged offshore income, making it the largest individual tax fraud indictment in U.S. history. These cases highlight the tax division's extraordinary value. Its specialized prosecutors consistently recover far more than the division's modest $106 million budget, making it one of the federal government's smartest investments. The Credit Suisse settlement alone recovered more than the division spent in two decades. This is exactly the kind of return taxpayers deserve. Without a centralized tax division, complex cases like these will likely go unseen and unprosecuted. For example, cases like Anderson Ark, which span the country and extend overseas are likely to be ignored by regional U.S. Attorneys' offices, which are focused on local priorities. The biggest, most complex cases require concentrated expertise, along with the resources and institutional attention span that regional offices lack. The Brockman case alone required five expert prosecutors over seven years. Distributing elite tax litigation specialists to regional offices, where they'll be assigned cases outside their expertise, isn't just inefficient. It's demoralizing. Some of the tax division's top prosecutors have already resigned in anticipation of the restructuring. The inevitable result is emboldened tax evaders and billions in lost revenue and penalties. It also sends a clear message to taxpayers: The Department of Justice is no longer cultivating the deep expertise needed to prosecute complex tax fraud. If your scheme is sophisticated enough, you will likely get away with it. If you are ever indicted, you will fight it, knowing the Department of Justice lacks the focus and firepower to win. Our tax system fundamentally depends on voluntary compliance and public trust. Weak enforcement threatens both. The top 1 percent already evade taxes at three times the rate of taxpayers in the bottom half of the income scale. The automated matching systems the IRS relies on aren't designed to catch billionaires; they disproportionately target middle-income earners with straightforward returns. Catching sophisticated tax evaders requires equally sophisticated enforcement, precisely what a robust, centralized tax division provides. Without it, wealthy tax cheats will increasingly view evasion as a low-risk gamble, leaving billions unpaid and forcing ordinary Americans to cover the difference. Congress and Department of Justice leadership must recognize what is at stake and reverse course. The tax division is not just another bureaucratic unit. It is America's strongest defense against sophisticated tax fraud and financial crime. The division deserves reinforcement, not dismantling. This isn't a political issue, but one of fundamental fairness. Preserving and strengthening the tax division will uphold justice, reinforce public trust and save taxpayers billions. Corey Smith, a 33-year Department of Justice tax division veteran, led the Brockman criminal prosecution as senior counsel. Jens Heycke is the author of 'Death, Taxes, and Turduckens: Unraveling History's Biggest Tax Heist and the Broken System That Enabled It.'
The Hill
2 hours ago
- The Hill
Murphy dismisses Trump's DC crime crackdown as a ‘stunt'
Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) on Sunday dismissed President Trump's recent crackdown on Washington, D.C., as a 'stunt.' 'What's happening here in Washington, D.C. is just a stunt. Donald Trump didn't like the fact that the walls were closing in on him, that his own base was questioning why he wouldn't release the Epstein files, why he was protecting very powerful people,' Murphy told NBC News's Kristen Welker on 'Meet the Press.' 'He didn't want to talk anymore about the fact that our health care system is about to collapse because of the cuts that they have made, that premiums are going to go up by 75 percent on Americans,' he added. 'And so, true to form, he just decided to create a new news cycle.' Earlier this week, Trump announced he was taking federal control of D.C.'s police department and deploying the National Guard in the city in an effort to fight crime. Trump's recent moves in the nation's capital have drawn heavy blowback from Democrats and reignited calls for statehood for the District, which does not have voting representation in Congress. On Saturday, South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster (R) announced that he had authorized the deployment of 200 National Guard troops to help 'restore law and order' in D.C., also saying that they could be recalled if there was a South Carolina disaster. 'I've authorized the deployment of 200 S.C. National Guardsmen to support President Trump in his mission to restore law and order to our nation's capital. The federal government will pay for this deployment under Title 32,' McMaster said on the social media platform X. 'Our National Guard will work to assist President Trump's mission, and should a hurricane or natural disaster threaten our state, they can and will be immediately recalled home to respond,' the governor added. The Hill has reached out to the White House for comment.
