Out of power, disorganized and stung by their November election losses, Democrats have struggled to mount a coherent response to President Trump as he has unleashed a blitz of contentious nominations, explosive executive orders and an unforeseen rampage by Elon Musk and his acolytes through the executive branch.
Now, with Congress returning from its spring recess on Monday and Republicans under pressure to deliver on a legislative agenda, Democrats believe they have a prime opportunity for a reset. Republicans will be forced to begin providing politically charged specifics of their tax and spending program, handing the minority ample fodder for attacks.
House Republicans have so far been able to generalize about their spending plans in the budget outline that they barely squeezed through the House and Senate. But beginning this week in multiple House committees, lawmakers will have to explain in public how they would achieve $1.5 trillion or more in savings to go with hundreds of billions of dollars in new spending on the military and border enforcement, and trillions in tax cuts.
“Up to this point, Republicans have been lying about their intentions,” Representative Hakeem Jeffries of New York, the House Democratic leader, said in an interview. “As we move forward with the next phase of the budget process, it will become crystal clear in committee after committee the damage they are trying to do to the American people.”
Democrats say that no cut is too small to highlight. They intend to highlight the consequences of the G.O.P. plan, from reducing food assistance for the poor to eliminating clean energy tax credits. They plan to call special attention to possible Medicaid cuts, an issue they have raised repeatedly in recent months.
Republicans have insisted that their legislation will not eliminate health insurance or other benefits for those who need them, including Medicaid coverage. Multiple G.O.P. members of the House and Senate have said that they would not support any final package that slashes Medicaid.
But Democrats and independent budget analysts say that if Republicans have any hope of meeting their budget targets, they will have to wring significant savings out of the joint federal-state program for low-income Americans.
Democrats, who have spent part of the recess plotting strategy for the upcoming committee sessions, say that they realized Medicaid was a political soft spot for Republicans in January, when the Trump administration briefly froze a portal used to fund state programs, drawing an intense backlash from lawmakers and state officials. They have since focused on the likelihood of G.O.P. cuts, putting Republicans on notice about the political risks.
Republicans have floated options for reducing the cost of the program without cutting benefits, including by instituting work requirements and clearing the Medicaid rolls of undocumented immigrants. Representative Austin Scott, Republican of Georgia, suggested another approach in a recent Fox Business Channel interview, saying that the Republican-led Congress could cut the amount that the federal government reimburses states for people enrolled in the Affordable Care Act’s adult expansion group in Medicaid.
“Nobody would be kicked off of Medicaid as long as the governors decided that they wanted to continue to fund the program,” he said, implying that any cuts should then be attributed to the states, not Washington.
But Democrats will frame that as a cut. And they have pledged to hold the Republicans accountable as the legislation comes together.
“As Republicans flesh out the details of their massive tax giveaway for billionaires, people will not have to wait to learn what’s on the chopping block,” Senator Chuck Schumer, Democrat of New York and the minority leader, said in a statement. “Democrats are going to make sure everyone knows every detail of who is really on the losing end of Donald Trump’s deal.”
Derailing the Republican legislation will be difficult. Despite serious differences between the House and the Senate, as well as disagreements among Republicans in both chambers, congressional Republicans — with help from Mr. Trump — have managed to move the process forward. But the coming debate will be their most difficult yet.
Democrats are returning to Washington sensing that they are on better footing after an extremely difficult few months to start the year, when they looked for ways to stand up to Mr. Trump as he flexed his popularity and his willingness to work around Congress.
They may have hit a low point in mid-March, when they engaged in a nasty internal quarrel over whether a group of Senate Democrats led by Mr. Schumer should have provided the votes for a six-month government funding bill. They have been eager to pivot and direct their fire at the other party.
During the recess, Democrats appeared in Republican-led states and House districts to build opposition to the coming legislation, focusing daylong programs on preserving Social Security and Medicaid. Mr. Trump has helped them regroup with on-again, off-again tariffs that have rattled the markets and cut into retirement savings.
The Elon Musk-led reductions in the federal work force have spurred concern that government services could suffer, particularly with cuts at Social Security offices and veterans facilities. The drop in the president’s approval rating has not gone unnoticed by Democrats.
“Trump screws up in so many ways,” Mr. Schumer said in an interview. “We have to find every way he screws up and pound away at him and not just do it for a day. We gotta keep doing it.”
Democrats have also been buoyed by large public protests against the Trump administration and by a realization that voters want them to mount resistance, even if they can’t stop every one of Mr. Trump’s moves. That sentiment was crystallized by the enthusiastic response to the 25-hour airing of grievances against Mr. Trump on the Senate floor by Senator Cory Booker, Democrat of New Jersey.
To highlight the coming legislative fight, Mr. Booker joined Mr. Jeffries for a daylong sit-in on Sunday on the Capitol steps, where they and other Democratic lawmakers livestreamed a conversation about the implications of the Republican plan in the first of what is expected to be a barrage of criticism from Democrats. Mr. Schumer also announced that Senate Democrats would hold the floor into the night on Tuesday to mark the president’s first 100 days in office and hold a joint event with House Democrats on Wednesday.
“The fundamental shift that is happening, and that Cory embodied, is that we need to be a little less particular about what tactic to use to fight what’s going on,” said Senator Brian Schatz, Democrat of Hawaii. “The truth is, we are in a fight and we just need to start swinging.”
Democrats say the openings to do so will occur as Republicans fill in the details of their legislative approach.
“It is important that we continue to put our foot on the gas pedal and draw a clear contrast,” said Mr. Jeffries. “We are going to be aggressive in confronting the Republicans in every single committee.”
Carl Hulse is the chief Washington correspondent, primarily writing about Congress and national political races and issues. He has nearly four decades of experience reporting in the nation’s capital.
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