Rep. Jennifer McClellan (D-Va.) warned during an appearance on NewsNation’s “The Hill Sunday” that the tax cuts that have been floated in GOP budget proposals would hurt “millions of Americans” who rely on Medicaid and food stamps.
“This budget is going to make the tax cuts permanent on the backs of millions of Americans losing their health care and millions of Americans losing access to SNAP benefits,” McClellan told host Chris Stirewalt on Sunday.
Republicans have been trying to cobble together a budget resolution to advance President Trump’s agenda, including cementing tax cuts implemented during his first administration, while making deep spending cuts. Current savings proposals include establishing Medicaid work requirements on “able-bodied” adults and forcing states to share the cost of food assistance programs for the first time.
Republicans have pointed to potentially billions of dollars in savings captured if states implement new work requirements for some Medicaid recipients, but McClellan said she’s forcefully pushing back on the idea, as it could kick some people off the rolls who need health care coverage.
“In Virginia, when we expanded Medicaid, we looked at work requirements and found they were more trouble than it’s worth,” said McClellan, who was a Virginia state senator from 2017 to 2023 and state House member before that. “The administrative cost to create and run that system would eat up any life savings that Virginia would get.”
“States that have put work requirements in place have found that the administrative cost is higher than the savings,” she said.
Similarly, some Republicans have proposed that states take on some of the funding for the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), commonly called food stamps, as well as narrowing SNAP eligibility requirements and preventing future increases in monthly benefits.
