President Donald Trump and Congressional Republicans faced a significant set-back Thursday on a budget bill that would cut Medicaid and food assistance programs to pay for tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans — a plan that could carry devastating consequences for Connecticut.
Senate Republicans in Washington had hoped to pass the budget bill through the process of reconciliation, which would require just 50 votes, instead of the 60 votes typically necessary to effectively pass legislation in the chamber. Reconciliation and its lower vote threshold applies only to budget-related bills.
However, on Thursday, The New York Times reported that the Senate parliamentarian enforced the “Byrd Rule” and ruled that several provisions of the budget bill centered on policy, not budget, and would require 60 votes to pass.
With only 53 Republicans in the Senate and simmering tensions between moderate and conservative members of the caucus, Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., seemed unlikely to win 60 votes on a bill that would gut healthcare and food assistance programs for millions of Americans.
Some of the provisions disqualified by the parliamentarian include:
- Immigrant Medicaid eligibility
- Prohibiting states from increasing the provider tax on hospitals
- Expansion of Federal Medical Assistance Percentage (FMAP) for certain states providing payments for health care furnished to certain individuals
- Prohibiting Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) funding for gender affirming care
- Read more here.
The parliamentarian’s ruling was welcomed Thursday by state Sen. Matt Lesser, a Middletown Democrat who co-chairs the legislature’s Human Services Committee.
“Donald Trump and MAGA Republicans think the rules don’t apply to them, and this ruling is a huge win for Medicaid recipients, state economies, and Americans at large,” Lesser said. “The attacks on Medicaid are not only heartless, but they are an unfunded mandate on states across this country that would increase costs for low and middle-earners to give tax breaks to the 1%. This ruling stops MAGA Republicans from shifting billions of dollars in costs onto Connecticut taxpayers and health care providers, but there is still much more to be concerned about. We must stay vigilant and I await MAGA Republicans’ next plans to steal from the poor to give to the rich.”
A recent report from The Commonwealth Fund painted a devastating picture of the effects of the House plan passed in May, which the Senate has since expanded on.
The budget plan requires broad cuts to direct healthcare and food assistance programs, but these programs also have significant impacts to the national and state economies. In fiscal year 2026 alone, Medicaid and SNAP cuts are predicted to cause $1.16 billion in GDP loss for Connecticut’s economy, 9,400 Connecticut residents are expected to lose their jobs and local and state tax loss could exceed $120 million.
The nationwide impacts are also severe: over $112 billion in GDP loss, over one million American jobs lost, and nearly $9 billion in local and state tax loss.
