Action 120 - sneaky cut to Medicare
The newest report from the Congressional Budget Office says that the Republicans’ Big Barbaric Bill--heretofore to be called the “death bill”--will trigger 500B in cuts to MEDICARE. This is in addition to the almost $800B in cuts to Medicaid and the roughly $279B in cuts to SNAP.
This morning (just after 2am, Wednesday, 5/21/25), at a middle-of-the-night House Rules Committee meeting, ranking member Jim McGovern asked Representative Brendan Boyle, the ranking member on the House Budget Committee, whether the bill would trigger cuts to Medicare. After confirming that these numbers came from the CBO report, Boyle's reply was:
"Look, this is really the breaking news, because when the Budget Committee kicked off this process approximately three months ago, there was a commitment by President Trump that there would be no Medicare cuts in this piece of legislation, and indeed, over the last several months, there has been no discussion of Medicare at all...Because of the size of the deficits, because of the PAYGO, or Pay as You Go Act, that would trigger sequestration of Medicare, and it would total over $500 billion. The official figure that CBO confirms is $535 billion in cuts to Medicare." He also confirmed that nowhere in the bill does it waive the statutory PAYGO cuts.
https://x.com/atrupar/status/1925073906827706673
https://newrepublic.com/post/195553/trump-republican-budget-bill-medicare-cuts-cbo
The House GOP, under Mike Johnson, has been trying to push this bill through by keeping its contents and ongoing changes to it as secret as possible, including conducting their meetings in the dead of night. As I have said before, it is clear that they want to make this bill happen before we the people realize quite how royally we've been screwed.
Maine is the oldest state in the country in terms of population age. That means that an inordinate number of our citizens rely on Medicare and Medicaid for our healthcare. The losses this bill will cause us will be DEVASTATING to our state. Time to get as many people as possible to rise up and be heard.
Call and write to your representatives and tell them if they support this bill, they will be voted out. We will kill their careers. Share the information about this bill with anyone who will listen and even with those who don't want to.Write letters to the editor to all our local newspapers decrying the deadly effects this bill will have.Plan to attend a June 14th demonstration/rally/protest (whatever you want to call it). Bring friends. Bring neighbors. Bring strangers. Let's do everything in our power to help make these gatherings HUGE.