Panel: Medicaid Cuts? Never Heard of Them: Reframing The Big Beautiful Bill

Did you promise your constituents that you wouldn’t touch Medicaid, then vote for the largest cuts to the program in history?

You’re not alone.

Across the country, millions are losing their healthcare coverage and millions more are seeing their healthcare costs skyrocket, courtesy of our Big Beautiful Bill. In our defense, those tax breaks we gave to billionaires and corporations weren’t going to pay for themselves.

On the campaign trail, it’s only a matter of time before someone asks about your vote to cut Medicaid. This panel will teach you how to look your constituents dead in the eye — and tell them you didn’t.

Panelists

Mariannette Miller-Meeks:

The congresswoman from Iowa learned pretty quickly that her vote to gut Medicaid wasn’t very popular. So when a constituent asked her why she voted for the bill — which cut nearly $1 trillion from the program and put more than 24,000 constituents in her district at risk of losing their healthcare — what was her response? Lie and pivot to eggs.

“No one cut Medicaid. Have an egg. Have a great day.”

Mike Lawler:

New York’s congressman repeatedly promised that he would not cut Medicaid — at one point saying he was “very clear” that he would “not support any proposal that cuts benefits or reduces services for Medicare or Medicaid.”

Unfortunately, his constituents took him at his word (rookie mistake). Lawler voted for the Big Beautiful Bill, which puts health coverage at risk for more than 32,000 New Yorkers in his district.

Susan Collins:

The senator from Maine touts her vote against Medicaid cuts. In this panel she’ll teach you her strategy: skating by on a technicality.

Sure, Collins didn’t vote for the final passage of the Big Beautiful Bill — which is projected to cost 49,000 Mainers their health coverage — but she did cast a pivotal vote to advance the bill to the floor, the one that made its final passage possible in the first place.