Recommendations of the Editorial team
While Donald Trump and the Republicans desperately seek funding for an illegal, unpopular war, that has long since slipped away from them, they are once again setting their sights on health care.
As Politico reported last week, House Budget Chair Jodey Arrington (R-Texas) has floated the possibility of including additional defense spending in an upcoming reconciliation bill and offsetting the additional costs through cuts to “government and social programs.” The Pentagon is demanding $200 billion from Congress for the ongoing US-Israeli war against Iran.
Axios confirmed the report on Monday. “There are other items that we are reviewing right now – particularly in the areas of fraud, waste and abuse, which we are working on with our members,” House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) told the news portal – using the exact language that Republicans have used in the past to justify their attacks on health care financing.
Big Beautiful Bill and Medicaid
The so-called Big Beautiful Bill that Republicans passed last year cut over $1 trillion from Medicaid and other health care spending and is likely to cost millions of people their health insurance. Trump and the GOP claimed the cuts to Medicaid and other social safety nets were designed to wipe out “fraud” from government spending. In reality, most Medicaid recipients are employed, fraud is rare – and the majority of Medicaid fraud that does occur occurs at the hands of providers, not the enrollees who end up being kicked out of their plans. Also last year, Republicans in Congress phased out enhanced health subsidies for insurance plans purchased through the Affordable Care Act (ACA), causing premiums to rise and millions more to lose their health insurance.
Now Republicans are again planning to cut financial support for ACA plans. According to a Congressional Budget Office analysis last year — prepared when a similar move to eliminate cost-sharing reductions was considered but ultimately scrapped — the now proposed cuts would cause an additional 300,000 Americans to lose health insurance and increase out-of-pocket costs for some ACA enrollees. That’s on top of the 14 million Americans who are expected to lose their insurance coverage by 2030 anyway as a result of the Big Beautiful Bill.
Rep. Arrington’s office did not respond to a request for comment from ROLLING STONE.
Resistance within our own ranks
Despite pressure from hardliners to meet the Defense Department’s funding request, additional money for the armed conflict with Iran is by no means uncontroversial within the GOP.
“I’m against the war, so I’m against continuing to fund it,” Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) told MS NOW. Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) has publicly stated that she will vote “no” on any additional aid for the Iran War. Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) said he first needs clear government war goals before agreeing to a “blank check.” And Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) expressed similar concerns. “That begs the question: How long is this going to take? What are the goals? Is that the first 200 billion? Is it going to be a trillion?” he said in a CNN interview.
The war against Iran is massively unpopular among the population – more than 60 percent of Americans reject it. This number is likely to continue to rise as the economic consequences of the ongoing closure of the Strait of Hormuz ripple through to domestic and foreign markets. The possibility that Trump could use American soldiers for a ground invasion of Iran will hardly help his numbers. But Republicans, who cannot afford to publicly contradict the demands of an administration to which they are unconditionally committed, are once again showing their willingness to let their own voters bleed for Trump’s antics.
