by (Recorder of Georgia) The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimated Monday that Republicans’ enormous tax cut and spending package will result in almost 10 million people—mostly Medicaid recipients—losing access to health insurance and 2.4 million fewer people participating in a government food aid program each month.
According to the CBO, President Donald Trump and the GOP’s big, beautiful plan will result in a modest overall increase in resources for median-income American households.
However, CBO stated that significant modifications to Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, will result in a net loss of benefits for Americans at the bottom of the income distribution.
The measure severely restricts Medicaid and SNAP eligibility, and it was signed into law by Trump on July 4 after passing both chambers of Congress without any Democratic support.
According to the CBO research, those adjustments, especially when paired with federal tax cuts, will cause households in the bottom tenth of earners’ incomes to lose around 3% of their resources over the next nine years.
According to the congressional scorekeeper, households will not receive an equal share of the resource changes. According to the agency’s forecasts, resources will generally rise for middle-class and upper-class households while falling for those at the bottom of the income distribution.
According to the prediction, there would be a net loss of resources for households in the bottom two-tenths of the income distribution.
The average annual increase for households in the middle 20% of the income distribution would be between $800 and $1,200, or 0.8% to 1% of their income.
According to the CBO, households in the top tenth of the income distribution would get an average of $13,600 more each year between 2026 and 2034, or around 2.7% of their expected income.
However, according to the CBO, the income of the tenth of households with the lowest income would decline by roughly $1,200 annually, or 3% of their expected income.
Millions to lose benefits
The CBO estimated that by 2034, about 10 million people would no longer have access to health insurance. 7.5 million people in that group would no longer receive Medicaid services.
The CBO stated that 5.6 million people would lose access to care if a single provision of the law imposed additional work requirements on Medicaid users.
Additionally, the bill requires that at least some states cover a portion of the benefits and establishes new work requirements for SNAP beneficiaries. SNAP benefits had never compelled states to pay any portion of the expense.
About 2.4 million fewer people will participate in the program as a result of the adjustments to work requirements, the CBO said in a separate analysis released on Monday.
According to CBO, the federal government will save roughly $41 billion between 2026 and 2034 as a result of the adjustments to state cost-share under SNAP. The majority of the spending, $35 billion, is expected to be covered by states, according to the agency.
However, the increased state criteria would still probably result in 300,000 fewer people receiving assistance each month. The paper examined the policy options available to state officials in reaction to the additional cost-share, which may include lowering eligibility, reducing benefits, or discontinuing the program entirely.
Stealing from working families
Four congressional Democrats emphasized the CBO’s predicted regressive effects in a news statement.
Brendan Boyle, a Democrat from Pennsylvania who is ranked first on the House Budget Committee, stated that American households are having difficulty as prices continue to rise. What are the Republicans supporting President Trump, then? In order to offer billionaires a tax break, they approved a law that will worsen the situation by robbing working families.
According to Senate Budget ranking Democrat Jeff Merkley of Oregon, it is just incomprehensible that Trump and Republicans in Congress are supporting a package that would give the wealthiest 10 percent $13,600 more annually while the least fortunate 10 percent would lose $1,200 annually. In this case, billionaires benefit while households suffer.
Similar remarks were made in the release by New Yorkers House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer.
