Republicans in Congress cannot reach their goal of cutting at least $1.5 trillion in spending over the next 10 years for President Donald Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” on taxes and immigration unless they cut Medicaid or Medicare benefits, lawmakers’ nonpartisan bookkeeper reported Wednesday.
Trump and the GOP are seeking to extend provisions of the president’s 2017 tax cut law – which would cost nearly $5 trillion – while also pushing hundreds of billions of dollars in new spending on border security, mass deportation campaigns and national defense investments.
To do all that without sending the national debt soaring, Republicans are looking for spending cuts to pay for the new spending and lower tax rates. But Trump has said the GOP shouldn’t cut benefits for Social Security, Medicare or Medicaid. Those are the three largest social safety net programs, which together accounted for roughly $3.2 trillion of the country’s $6.75 trillion of total spending in the 2024 fiscal year.
Congressman Tom Kean, Jr. falsely claimed the Republican Party’s “bold, optimistic vision for America’s future” is rejuvenating a “booming” economy although manufacturers have turned to layoffs in recent weeks.
Amid the Trump administration’s mass job cuts at federal agencies, canceled contracts and fears of a widening trade war layoffs of U.S. workers surged to 172,017 in February, climbing to levels that haven’t been recorded since the last two recessions.
An internal memo from Christopher Syrek said that the Department of Veterans Affairs is chopping 80,000 positions and 17 other federal agencies have laid off roughly 62,530 government workers in the first two months of 2025.
“It appears the administration wants to cut even more workers, but an order to fire the roughly 200,000 probationary employees was blocked by a federal judge,” said Andrew Challenger, senior vice president at Challenger, Gray & Christmas. “It remains to be seen how many more workers will lose their federal government roles.”
Technology companies announced a total of 22,042 job cuts in 2025, while retailers eliminated 45,375 jobs so far, or nearly six times as many as the same period last year.
Since Trump took office, more than a dozen companies in New Jersey filed notices indicating impending layoffs, the total of which is 2,451 employees, but jobs are being shed nationwide.
Microchip plans to eliminate 2000 jobs and cease manufacturing operations at its Tempe, Arizona, wafer fabrication facility. Computer and printer manufacturer HP is laying off between 1,000 and 2,000 workers around the globe, according to a Feb. 27 securities filing.
Some actions were part of long-term corporate cost-cutting strategies, while others came amid rising uncertainty in the industry over the impact of the Trump administration’s new tariff policies.
Department of Government Efficiency was attributed to 63,583 layoffs, economic conditions were blamed for 36,257 dismissals, while bankruptcy was the reason for 35,411 job cuts and store, unit, or plant closures accounted for 28,095 firings.
More than 60 million Americans rely on Social Security, Medicare or Medicaid for medical coverage, retirement security, survivor benefits and unemployment caused by disability. Cutting benefits in any of them could be politically toxic.
But the House GOP’s budget, which passed last week in a hairline vote, asks the committee responsible for federal health-care spending to find at least $880 billion in savings over 10 years. And the Congressional Budget Office said Wednesday that reducing costs that much won’t be possible without cuts to Medicare, Medicaid or the Children’s Health Insurance Program.
Without those programs, funding within the Energy and Commerce Committee’s jurisdiction totals $381 billion, and of that amount, more than half is already paid for by collection programs or user fees. That means that even if the committee eliminated every program besides those safety net benefits, it would be able to save a maximum of $135 billion – far less than the $880 billion the budget calls for.
“This analysis from the nonpartisan CBO confirms what we’ve been saying all along: Republicans are lying about their budget,” said Rep. Brendan Boyle (Pennsylvania), the top Democrat on the Budget Committee. His office requested the CBO report. “Their plan would force the largest Medicaid cuts in American history – all to pay for more tax giveaways to billionaires. This is a complete betrayal of the middle class, and Democrats will keep fighting to stop them.”
The budgets that the House and Senate each passed last month are the first steps in a budget-reconciliation package, a bill that Republicans can route through arcane procedures to get around a Democratic filibuster in the Senate and pass the legislation with a simple majority.
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) has insisted that the measure will not cut safety net benefits and that Congress can find savings simply by rooting out waste and fraud in the programs and adding new eligibility provisions, such as work requirements.
In an interview with CNN late last month, Johnson said work requirements for Medicaid were “what everybody supports,” arguing that the low-income health insurance program is not intended “for 29-year-old males sitting on their couches playing video games.”
“We’re going to find those guys, and we’re going to send them back to work,” he added.
Johnson also told NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday that Republicans have broad support for addressing “fraud” and “inefficiencies” in the social safety net programs.
“That’s what we’re talking about. Ensuring efficiencies, ensuring that the programs are strengthened so that they can remain solvent and help the people they’re intended to help,” he said.
But eliminating fraud and adding new work requirements will probably fall well short of the GOP’s budget goals, according to the programs’ financial reports and nonpartisan projections. That has provoked anxiety among some lawmakers who represent large numbers of people who rely on Medicaid that cuts to the program that are on the horizon.
Members of the House GOP’s Congressional Hispanic Conference wrote to Johnson last month with concerns about potential cuts to Medicaid.
“As we consider reconciliation cuts, we must be strategic,” the group wrote. “We need to uphold fiscal responsibility while ensuring that essential programs — programs that have empowered Americans to succeed — are not caught in the crossfire.”