The White House is closing allegations of Democrats and anti-Trump "resistance" that would lose coverage under Republican Medicaid reform proposals, part of President Donald Trump's "big and beautiful bill" - Republicans claim fouls to data spins and say Dem uses it as a intimidation tactic.
The internal struggle is emerging when Democrats and Republicans are associated with Medicaid spending levels, which has become a prominent wedge between the parties involved, suggesting that the release of the new analysis shows that millions of people will lose health insurance in order to pay bills for Trump’s tax cuts.
While Democrats have merged data from two new reports from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) to support the claim that nearly 14 million will lose coverage, the White House and Republicans oppose it because not all assessed policy proposals are actually included in Republican legislation, and few are actually facing insurance losses.
Instead, Republicans believe that their proposed reforms are to implement work requirements, strengthen qualification checks and combat Medicaid for illegal immigrants, and retain the program for those who really need it.
Congressional Democrats held a rally and press conference to announce opposition to the Republican plan to cut Medicaid on Capitol Hill on May 13, 2025. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
Medicaid becomes the House flash point on Trump's budget bill
"President Trump is protecting Medicaid for every eligible American who relies on it for eliminating waste, fraud and abuse in the program," White House spokesman Kush Desai said in a statement to Fox News Digital on Tuesday. "By taking common sense measures to strengthen Medicaid, we will ultimately improve the care of the people the program is designed to serve: pregnant women, disabled people, seniors and low-income families."
"The president repeatedly stated that he would save Medicaid to ensure these generations remain a reliable and sustainable lifeline," Desai said.
A series of calculations by the CBO recently emerged to evaluate multiple different Medicaid proposals – further bringing Republicans and Democrats to each other’s Medicaid reform.
Experts say the first new analysis commissioned by Democrats and released on Thursday failed to look at the exact suggestions Republicans are considering, but instead shot the proposals Republicans might introduce in the dark.
This is because of D-Ore. Senator Ron Wyden and Rep. Frank Palone (DN.J.) However, most of the policies analyzed are not the same as those actually proposed by Republicans.
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Senator Ron Wyden (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
“That’s Democrats trying to guess what Republicans are going to do,” Ryan Long, a senior fellow at the Paragon Health Institute, told Fox News Digital Monday.
Michael Cannon, director of health policy research at the Washington-based liberal Cato Institute think tank, expressed a similar view on the initial CBO report.
Cannon told Fox News Digital Anoter that the first thing to know is that this is not a Republican proposal the CBO is working on. "They are similar to Republican suggestions, but these are proposals, and Democrats ask the CBO to review the purpose of criticizing these suggestions, using them as CBO scores as cudgels for Republicans."
While Democrats tagged the first scorer’s report as evidence that Republican policy would lead to “disastrous” Medicaid cuts and forced millions to cover up its coverage, the House Energy and Commerce Committee said in a post about X that Democrats were trying to “fear Americans.”
Ultimately, the CBO's report released Thursday evaluated five different initiatives that would curb Medicaid spending, thus freeing up billions of dollars in spending but jeopardizing health insurance for as many as 8.6 million people.
House Republicans reveal Medicaid job requirements in Trump's "Big and Beautiful Act"
Other analysis released by the CBO on Monday claimed that if the measure fails to expand the additional 5.1 million Americans that will expire in 2034 may lose coverage and include a provision to fully enforce market integrity rules designed to undermine the verification of qualifications.
Although neither of the proposals were included in the Republican legislation, Democrats added the figures from both CBO reports and asserted that approximately 13.7 million people would not be able to insure under Republican policy.
Meanwhile, the latest CBO analysis released a Medicaid proposal on Tuesday included in the Republican measures, finding that adding job requirements, new qualification checks and removing illegal immigrants from Medicaid would result in 10.3 million people losing coverage and would leave 7.6 million people uninsured.
When FOX News Digital was approached, the CBO declined to comment.
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Rep. Frank Pallone (Alex Brandon/AP)
Additionally, Cannon delayed the charges and any recommendations would actually cut Medicaid funds. Although Medicaid spending increases by 4.5% per year, the assessed CBO proposal will only curb growth of at least 3% per year.
But ultimately, Cannon said the report was a mechanism used by Democrats to create fear as Republicans seek their own legislative victory.
"Democrats certainly want to beat Republicans," Cannon said. "They want to win the election, and they think that if they can scare people, they can do it... They don't want Republicans to get political victories, like tax cuts, so that's the best weapon they can stop tax cuts. They're making the most of the taxes, so that's the case with the CBO score."
The tensions between Republicans and Democrats over Medicaid funding stem from a larger battle with Trump’s budget plan, which is passing Congress.
R-La. Mike Johnson, spokesman, is seeking to obtain the measure at the finish line ahead of Memorial Day.
Meanwhile, the House Energy and Commerce Committee announced a portion of the measure on Sunday that addressed Medicaid as the panel found $880 billion in spending cuts by demand to cut other Trump priorities.
Specifically, the Commission’s proposals present policy initiatives, including new job requirements for certain robust adults aged 19 to 64 years of age.
The measure also limits the amount of expanded Medicaid population expenditure established by the Affordable Care Act (ACA), which allows states to increase their Medicaid coverage to 138% of those with poverty levels.
Similarly, the issuance of Medicaid coverage to illegal immigrants points out that federal Medicaid reimbursement funds under the measure have decreased. That would require the state to charge an additional fee.
Spokesman Mike Johnson tried to get the measure at the House finish line before Memorial Day. (J. Scott Applewhite/AP)
Still, Democrats claim that the effort will seize “millions of Americans” of health insurance.
"It's not cutting fat around the edges, it's cutting fat on bones," Pallone said in a statement Sunday night. "The vast majority of savings in this bill will come from taking health care away from millions of Americans. There is no cut anywhere in the bill 'waste, fraud and abuse' - they're cutting people's health care and using the money to bring tax breaks to billionaires."
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Brett Gusri (R-Ky.), chairman of the Housing Energy and Commerce Commission, said Democrats are trying to "scare" Americans.
Guthrie told Fox News Digital Sotherd that “Democrats are stepping on incorrect reports that include policies that are not even in the bill.”
Fox News's Elizabeth Elkind contributed to the report.