This week, Congressional Republicans passed a budget reconciliation bill that will worsen hunger and strip health care coverage from millions of families to partially offset trillions in tax cuts for the ultra-wealthy and corporations. President Trump is expected to quickly sign the legislation. The final bill still includes the largest cuts to Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) in history. In response, Maryland Center on Economic Policy President and CEO Benjamin Orr issued the following statement:
“Today marks the passage of one of the most harmful pieces of legislation in recent history, stripping millions of Americans of health care and food assistance to make the already ultra-wealthy few even richer.
As we reflect on what comes next, I am thinking of the thousands of Marylanders whose lives will be made even harder because of this legislation. The single mom skipping meals so that her kids can have more to eat. The rideshare driver who ends up in the emergency room with life-threatening medical issues because he lost his Medicaid-funded preventative care due to a paperwork error. The refugee family working to build a new life in our state that is cut off of the food assistance helping them make ends meet.
Now the work to minimize the harm of the cuts to public services falls to the states that are required to implement these new policies. We urge the Moore-Miller administration and the General Assembly to continue their efforts to protect as many Marylanders as possible from losing access to these essential supports that help them make ends meet.”
Additional Information About the Reconciliation Bill
Key details include:
- Nearly $1 trillion in cuts to Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act (ACA) marketplaces over ten years, resulting in about 15 million people losing health care coverage. An estimated 143,000 could lose coverage in Maryland from just one of the major provisions of the bill.
- Nearly $300 billion in cuts to SNAP, which would take away or cut food assistance for millions of people including 2 million or more children. In Maryland, an estimated 71,000 people could lose food assistance while $75 million to $373 million in costs for providing food assistance could shift to the state.
- Large tax cuts for high-income families while doing little — or worse — for low- and moderate-income families. In 2027, the tax cuts as a share of income are 10 times larger for households making over $1 million than households in the bottom 20 percent. In later years, the proposal actually raises taxes on households in the bottom 20 percent.
- Millions of children in working families with low incomes left out of even the temporary increase in the Child Tax Credit.