Each day, new and worse cuts keep appearing in the Republicans’ budget bill.
The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office issued a report Tuesday finding that the GOP’s budget bill would automatically trigger over $500 billion in automatic cuts to Medicare, exposing President Trump for lying that Medicare wouldn’t be touched. The CBO estimates that there would be about $45 billion in cuts in 2026, and $490 billion in cuts between 2027 and 2034.
House Democrats immediately pounced. At a House Rules Committee meeting early Wednesday morning, ranking member Jim McGovern asked Representative Brendan Boyle, the ranking member on the House Budget Committee, whether the bill would trigger cuts to Medicare.
“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, “ Boyle responded.
“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,” Boyle continued, adding that the bill doesn’t waive statutory PAYGO.
Boyle: “This is really the breaking news … because of the size of the deficits, because of the paygo 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.” pic.twitter.com/29mGQj0mgi
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) May 21, 2025
In March, Trump promised that there would be no cuts to Medicare, Medicaid, or Social Security, with the White House even issuing a fact sheet attacking media reports that he and Elon Musk were open to such cuts. Now, though, the Republican budget bill includes $880 billion in cuts, largely to Medicaid, and Tuesday’s revelation confirms that Medicare cuts will be automatically triggered if the bill passes.
Some House Republicans are probably not going to tolerate Medicare cuts, with so many of the GOP’s elderly supporters depending on the program, and the budget needs almost unanimous Republican support to pass the House. Could these cuts sink the bill? And how will the White House explain that Trump won’t be keeping his promise?
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