In the marathon committee session, Democrats showed how best to challenge Republicans on Medicaid.
For a party that has been shut out of power in Washington, what happened this week in Room 2123 of the Rayburn House Office Building was a masterclass in resistance.
Over more than 26 sleepless hours that began on Tuesday afternoon and continued into Wednesday, Democrats on the House Energy and Commerce Committee pounded the panel’s Republican majority with 33 amendments, most of which were aimed at stripping the GOP’s “big, beautiful bill” containing politically toxic cuts to Medicaid. In the hallway outside, police arrested more than two dozen protesters, many of whom were in wheelchairs.
Every one of the amendments failed, as Democrats knew they would. But their coordinated assault on the centerpiece of President Donald Trump’s legislative agenda framed a powerful narrative that is shaping up to be the party’s most potent message heading into next year’s midterm elections.
As a final vote neared at last, Rep. Jay Obernolte (California) summed up what many of his fellow Republicans were probably feeling: “I’m kind of vacillating between, on the one hand, being encouraged, because this is really an exercise in democracy. You’ve heard passionate debate on a topic that’s important to everyone in this room for the last 26 hours. But on the other hand, I have to be honest, I found it to be also a deeply cynical performative partisan experience. So I’ll have to reflect on that some more after I’ve gotten some sleep.”
The marathon session laid bare the Republicans’ vulnerability on Medicaid. They claim to be rooting out waste and fraud from the system. But, in its essence, the bill amounts to a declaration of who should be deemed worthy of health care in this country.
The GOP’s twin arguments — that it is making the program more efficient and exercising fiscal responsibility — are also weakened by the fact that the savings the party hopes to achieve would go toward extending the 2017 Trump tax cuts that are due to expire at the end of the year.
The legislation would, for example, impose work requirements on able-bodied, single adults, though the majority of those who are under 65 and without disabilities already hold jobs. Experience in states that have work requirements suggests the real impact would come in the strain they place on Medicaid recipients to constantly verify that they are employed. For many, the burdensome paperwork would push them out of the program.
It also affects coverage for many people who buy their health coverage on exchanges that were set up under the Affordable Care Act. Pandemic-era tax credits that help to pay premiums would expire, boosting the cost by an average of 75 percent.
In all, the changes envisioned by the bill would mean that by 2034, an additional 13.7 million Americans would be without health coverage, according to an estimate by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.
In the committee’s meeting room, Democrats put names and stories that number — such as a 23-year-old college student with cerebral palsy named Sasha, who was in the audience with her mother.
Though the bill would not cut her benefits directly, Rep. Nanette Barragán (D-California) said, Sasha “could be buried in red tape, forced to navigate paperwork and eligibility checks.”
She also noted that Sasha is a constituent of committee member Rep. Tom Kean, a Republican from a swing district in New Jersey.
“Democrats stand with you, Sasha, in opposing any Medicaid cuts,” Barragán said. “We need just four Republicans to join us. I hope we can find them, and I hope one is your congressmember.”
Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-Michigan) introduced a 6-year-old boy with Down syndrome named George, who attended with his parents. His congressman is Energy and Commerce member John James, a Republican who is running for governor in Michigan. Dingell read a letter from George’s mother, in which she had written: “Losing Medicaid would cripple our family, absolutely destroy us.”
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-New York) noted: “They asked us to read this bill and we have.” She then ran through a list of its potential effects on the specific districts of GOP committee members — including heightened financial pressure on local hospitals. She warned that could mean the closure of medical facilities in New York, California and Colorado.
Energy and Commerce Committee Democrats came ready, and while they didn’t have the numbers to win any of the votes they forced, their tenacity warns of what lies ahead in the battle over Medicaid. Republicans will likely wish it was a fight they had never started.