One day after the Congressional Budget Office said the proposed House GOP budget was impossible without cutting Medicare and Medicaid, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., said the CBO assessment is proof of what Democrats have been saying since Republicans approved the budget blueprint last week.

What You Need To Know

  • One day after the Congressional Budget Office said the proposed House GOP budget was impossible without cutting Medicare and Medicaid, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said the CBO assessment is proof of what Democrats have been saying since Republicans approved the budget blueprint last week

  • “House Republicans and Donald Trump have proposed the largest cut to Medicaid in American history, and they’ve also put the target on the back of Social Security and Medicare,” Jeffries said during a press conference Thursday

  • Last week, House Republicans approved a budget resolution that includes $4.5 trillion in tax breaks and $2 trillion in spending cuts, $880 billion of which is expected to come from Medicaid

  • House Democrats are pushing back against House Republicans’ plan to extend government funding levels at current levels for the rest of the 2025 fiscal year, saying it violates last year's bipartisan Fiscal Responsibility Act

“House Republicans and Donald Trump have proposed the largest cut to Medicaid in American history, and they’ve also put the target on the back of Social Security and Medicare,” Jeffries said during a news conference Thursday.

“Let me be clear: House Democrats are going to stand on the side of the American people, which means standing on the side of Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, for veterans, nutritional assistance to children and families, and the health care of every single American,” he said, adding that every House Democrat voted against the House budget plan.

Last week, House Republicans approved a budget resolution that includes $4.5 trillion in tax breaks and $2 trillion in spending cuts, $880 billion of which is expected to come from Medicaid. The federal program provides health care to 70 million Americans.

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., told CNN last week that Medicaid cuts would not affect individuals’ benefits but would instead come from finding efficiencies.

House Democrats are now pushing back against House Republicans’ plan to temporarily extend government funding at current levels for the rest of the 2025 fiscal year to avoid a government shutdown beginning on March 14 if Congress can’t pass an appropriations bill that finances federal agencies.

“A yearlong continuing resolution is inconsistent with the bipartisan Fiscal Responsibility Act,” Jeffries said.

If Republicans decide to take the continuing resolution approach — a plan Speaker Johnson said he supported over the weekend — "it’s his expectation that Republicans are going it alone," Jeffries said.

Passed during the Biden administration last summer, the Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023 increased the federal debt limit, set up new discretionary spending limits and rescinded some unobligated funds initiated to address the COVID pandemic through the 2025 fiscal year, which ends Sept. 30.