Democrats try to flip the script on red tape

Washington Post

10-07-2025

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In today's edition … Trump's fiction about gas prices … Democrats are already publicly angling in the 2028 presidential fight … Republicans in Congress are warming to a sanctions bill against Russia … but first …
President Donald Trump's red-tape event in 2017 was not subtle: Stacks of paperwork. Large golden scissors. And a massive piece of red tape.
The message was clear. Trump, a Republican who campaigned on ending regulatory burdens and cutting government regulations, was physically cutting red tape in office. 'The never-ending red tape in America has come to a sudden, screeching and beautiful halt,' Trump said.
Trump's so-called Big Beautiful Bill, which the president signed into law earlier this month, does anything but that for many Americans — and Democrats have taken notice.
'It is doubling what you have to prove every year that you qualify for Medicaid. It is not just able-bodied adults who now have to do that much more or that much more often. … It is everyone,' said Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, a Democrat who has led the charge against this additional paperwork. 'What you see in the projections are the expectations that people will make mistakes on double the paperwork and thus lose their coverage for a period.'
Red tape and additional paperwork are central to this bill's attempt to cut the federal government's spending on Medicaid, the government health care program for a range of low-income Americans. Direct cuts to Medicaid benefits pose significant political risks for Republicans, and many have pledged not to support them. However, to cut the federal government's costs, the bill imposes a slate of additional paperwork on all Medicaid recipients, including stricter work requirements that require recipients to prove they are working and eligible for the program.
As Michelle Miller-Adams and Beth C. Truesdale, researchers at the nonpartisan, nonprofit W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research, put it: 'The reality is that requirements like these move people off programs not by requiring work but by requiring more reporting of work. Similar state-level policies have reduced the number of Medicaid recipients — but only by increasing the administrative burden on recipients, not by increasing the share who are employed.'
The researchers noted that Arkansas implemented work requirements in 2018. While more than 95 percent of recipients either met the state's work requirement or qualified for an exemption, the required steps to prove so led to 17,000 individuals losing their Medicaid coverage.
Republicans deny that the new requirements are merely a means to remove eligible people from Medicaid, arguing that verification requirements are a fair measure to protect the program.
Kush Desai, a Trump spokesperson, said Democrats are 'either too disingenuous or too dumb' to differentiate between regulations on businesses and 'the current federal government ensuring that thousands of dollars' worth of taxpayer benefits meant for America's most vulnerable aren't being fraudulently funneled to illegal aliens or able-bodied adults.'
But Democrats, like Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-New York), are rejecting that Republican view. 'They really aren't work requirements. These are red tape requirements,' Jeffries said this week on the What A Day podcast. 'These are paperwork requirements that are trying to deny people … who have earned the benefits. … Republicans are trying to find ways to disqualify them.'
Democrats now plan to use the new regulations against a party that has long championed less red tape and regulation for businesses.
'No amount of cynicism or shameless spin will change the fact that more Republican red tape will result in 17 million people losing their health insurance — and we will make these frauds own that reality for the next 15 months,' said Justin Chermol, a spokesperson for the Democratic campaign committee tasked with taking back the House.
The political messaging from Beshear and others turns conventional political wisdom — that Democrats favor a bigger government and Republicans are against red tape — on its head, said Donald Moynihan, professor at the University of Michigan's Ford School of Public Policy.
'This is a case where conventional wisdom fails,' Moynihan said. 'In fact, Republicans are much more supportive of a larger, more intrusive government — when it comes to accessing safety net benefits, you have to provide more information, you have to provide it more frequently, you have to spend more of your life interacting with bureaucracies.'
He added: 'For a long time, that paradox or contradiction was not clear in the way it has become very clear with the passage of the Big Beautiful Bill. It has just become harder and harder for Republicans to say, 'We are the party of small government.''
Beshear, who has now won two competitive gubernatorial campaigns and may run for president in 2028, said he is now urging his administration to 'use every bit of information we have to ensure those who qualify for Medicaid stay on it' and to find ways to 'help people fill out that paperwork right.'
Politically, however, the governor said he thinks this additional red tape on Americans is part of a broader Democratic messaging strategy aimed at countering the newly signed bill, one that he hopes will focus on real people's stories.
'When you remove health care from at least 200,000 Kentuckians, people die, people suffer,' said Beshear. He added later, 'People are going to lose their coverage because they fail to check this box or that box, and that is just wrong.'
Republicans in Congress are showing openness to a sanctions bill against Russia for dragging its feet to make peace in Ukraine. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) told reporters yesterday that he would take up the issue with Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-South Dakota) next week.
Trump has strengthened the push for sanctions by making his frustration with Russian President Vladimir Putin increasingly obvious, as we wrote about yesterday. He said he was open to a bill by Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina) and Richard Blumenthal (D-Connecticut) that would sanction the country's energy and defense industries and impose a hefty 500 percent tariff on any country that buys Russian energy. The bill has wide support across the Senate, with 80 co-sponsors.
The United States already imposed sanctions on Russia following its 2022 invasion of Ukraine and encouraged allies to diversify away from Russian energy. Several European countries, including Germany, were heavily reliant on Russian natural gas before the invasion but have made efforts to wean themselves off it. China and India are both still large consumers of Russian energy.
Trump, once again, falsely claimed that gasoline costs $1.99 a gallon in multiple states and accused his opponents of lying about price increases during his second term in office.
'Yesterday, … two states, three states were selling gasoline at $1.99. You haven't seen that for a long time,' Trump said during a meeting with African leaders at the White House. 'I brought costs way down, just about every cost. I can't think of a cost that went up.'
Then, referring to his opponents, Trump added: 'So what they do is they lie and say prices are going up. It's such a lie.'
There is zero evidence that any state is selling gas at $1.99 a gallon. According to the AAA Fuel Prices metric, the lowest average gas price can be found in Mississippi at $2.705. The average price nationwide is $3.162.
We asked the White House which three states Trump was referring to but did not receive a response. Some have noted that Trump may be referring to the wholesale price of gas, but even that price is higher than $1.99, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
Is the race to be the next Democratic presidential nominee heating up?
Yes, it's early. Yes, people are still tired from 2024. And yes, Democrats have a lot to focus on in opposing Trump.
But, also yes, things seem to be heating up.
Arizona Sen. Ruben Gallego, often mentioned as a possible 2028 Democratic candidate, will travel to Iowa next month. He plans to visit with voters at the famed Iowa State Fair, a frequent stop for presidential candidates, and hold a town hall with Iowa Democrats. While Iowa has fallen out of favor with Democrats in recent years, trips to the state often stoke presidential speculation.
Gallego even touted the visit with a polished hype video, featuring resplendent footage of barns and corn and people chanting the senator's name, all set to Queen's 1977 hit, 'We Will Rock You.'
California Gov. Gavin Newsom, another Democrat who may run, made a visit Tuesday to South Carolina, the state that led off the Democratic nominating process in 2024. 'I think it's really important for Democrats that we spend time in parts of our states, parts of our country, that frankly, we haven't spent enough time in, and so that's why I'm here,' Newsom said during his trip.
Our colleague Maeve Reston tracked Newsom across South Carolina and found Democrats excited, but also worried, about another Californian at the top of their presidential ticket.
There are ages between now and the 2028 presidential election, but the possible contenders are already making moves.
Minnesota Reformer (Minnesota): Preppers are an interesting, yet growing, bunch, and they will be gathering soon in Minnesota. This shirt is worth the click alone: 'Noah was a conspiracy theorist … then it rained.'
LebTown (Lebanon County, Pennsylvania): Rep. Dan Meuser, a Pennsylvania Republican, announced he will not run for governor in 2026, declining to challenge popular Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro.
Atlanta Journal Constitution (Atlanta): Can you hear the ripeness in a watermelon? Is this why people are always knocking on watermelons in the grocery store? And, as the story asks, should you pat or slap?
The Dallas Morning News (Dallas): Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said yesterday that he would convene a special session of the state legislature to respond to the devastating flooding in Texas and, among other things, to raise the possibility of redistricting the state's congressional delegation as Republicans fight to hold their House majority.
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