Americans Overwhelmingly Reject Trump’s Tax Scam As Senate Republicans Push Even Deeper Health Care Cuts
Yesterday, Republicans on the Senate Finance Committee released the full text of their version of Trump’s tax scam, making the largest cuts to Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act in history even larger to pay for tax breaks for billionaires and big corporations. An estimated 16 million Americans would lose life-saving coverage under the House version, including seniors, children, veterans, people with disabilities, workers who don’t get insurance through their jobs, and people who take care of their children or elderly parents – but Senate Republicans are pushing deeper cuts, even as polling shows that Americans overwhelmingly disapprove of Republicans’ massive health care cuts. Here’s the latest polling:
KFF: Poll: Public Views “Big Beautiful Bill” Unfavorably by Nearly a 2-1 Margin.
- Nearly two-thirds (64%) of the public holds unfavorable views of the ‘One Big Beautiful Bill’ passed last month by the House, nearly twice the share who view the bill favorably (35%), a new KFF Health Tracking Poll finds… When people hear facts and arguments about the bill’s impact on health care, support shrinks and opposition grows, including among MAGA supporters. For example, after being told that the bill would decrease funding for local hospitals, the share with favorable views falls to 21% and unfavorable views rise to 79%. Similarly, after being told that the bill would increase the number of people without health insurance by about 10 million, support falls to 25% and opposition rises to 74%. Among MAGA supporters, support drops by more than 20 percentage points after hearing each of the two arguments, resulting in less than half in the group viewing the law favorably.”
- “As Congress debates significant reductions in federal spending on Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act (ACA), the poll finds the public views the two programs more favorably than ever before. Regarding Medicaid, 83% of the public now views the Medicaid program favorably, including large majorities of Democrats (93%), independents (83%), and Republicans (74%). That’s up from 77% in January, with the biggest jump occurring among Republicans. Unfavorable views of the program now stand at 17%, down from 23% in January. Similarly, two-thirds (66%) of the public now have favorable views of the ACA, the highest level of support recorded in KFF polls since the law’s enactment in 2010. Favorable views of the ACA have been on the rise since 2017 during an unsuccessful attempt by Congressional Republicans to repeal the law during President Trump’s first term.”
Navigator: Majorities Oppose Republicans in Congress’ Proposed Budget Plan.
- “A majority of Americans (51 percent) now oppose the Republican budget plan following its passage in the House. Opposition outweighs support by 15 points, with just 36 percent supporting the GOP budget bill. Opposition to the bill has increased six points since May and has grown the most among independents.”
- “Learning that additional tax cuts would benefit those who are already rich leads 55 percent of independents and a 43 percent plurality of non-MAGA Republicans to oppose the budget plan… Giving new tax breaks to the rich and big corporations is a dealbreaker for Americans across partisanship: 87 percent of Democrats, 73 percent of independents, and 51 percent of Republicans say they could not support an elected official who voted to give new tax breaks to the wealthy.”
Washington Post: GOP budget bill faces nearly 2-to-1 opposition with many unaware: Poll.
- “…42 percent of Americans oppose the budget bill “changing tax, spending and Medicaid policies” that narrowly passed in May by the Republican-controlled U.S. House of Representatives, compared with 23 percent of Americans who support the bill…”
- “…44 percent say it’s unacceptable for about 8 million people to lose health insurance as a result of these [work] requirements as well as more frequent eligibility verification and state restrictions, while 32 percent say this is acceptable. When new requirements are not specified, the poll finds 63 percent saying it’s unacceptable for 8 million people to lose Medicaid health insurance.”
AP-NORC: Few want spending reductions on federal benefit programs.
- “A majority of adults think the federal government is already under-spending on key safety net programs including Medicare and Social Security. They also feel the country is not investing enough in education. Roughly half the public feel spending is too low for Medicaid and food and nutrition programs like SNAP.”
- “More Republicans say the government is spending too little on Social Security and Medicare than say it’s spending too much.”
HEADLINES
USA Today: Bad news for Trump’s tax bill: Poll finds majority of Americans oppose it.
- “…64 percent of Americans have an unfavorable view of the proposed bill, which passed the House in May and is currently being tweaked in the Senate… Like the KFF poll, the Post found support and opposition for the bill fell along party lines: 49% of Republicans supported the bill, while just 17% of independents and 6% of Democrats did.”
KFF Health News: ‘MAGA’ Backers Like Trump’s ‘Big Beautiful Bill’ — Until They Learn of Health Consequences.
- “The poll finds two-thirds of the public — including the vast majority of Republicans (88%) and MAGA supporters (93%) and half (51%) of Democrats — initially support requiring nearly all adults on Medicaid to prove they are working or looking for work, in school, or doing community service, with exceptions such as for caregivers and people with disabilities. However, attitudes toward this provision shifted dramatically when respondents were presented with more information. For example, when told most adults with Medicaid are already working or unable to work, and that those individuals could lose coverage due to the challenge of documenting it, about half of supporters changed their view, resulting in nearly two-thirds of adults opposing Medicaid work requirements and about a third supporting them.”
NBC News: Poll: Americans disapprove of Trump’s performance as Republicans manage splits over spending plans.
- “A slight majority of Americans (51%) said maintaining current spending levels on programs like Medicaid is the most important matter as Congress considers Trump-backed budget legislation this year… Democrats surveyed in the poll overwhelmingly said their priority is maintaining current spending levels on programs like Medicaid (79%), as do a slight majority of independents (53%).”
ABC News: AP-NORC poll: Many say Medicaid, food stamps underfunded amid GOP cuts push.
- “Americans broadly support increasing or maintaining existing levels of funding for popular safety net programs, including Social Security and Medicare, according to the poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research… About half of U.S. adults say “too little” funding goes to Medicaid, which is a government health care coverage program for low-income people and people with certain disabilities… About 6 in 10 Americans say there is not enough government money going toward Social Security, Medicare or education broadly.”
NPR: Medicaid keeps getting more popular as Republicans aim to cut it by $800 billion.
- “Three in 4 Republicans now say they view Medicaid favorably. That popularity boost comes as many more people are hearing about Republican cuts to Medicaid in the news… That budget bill is much less popular than Medicaid, the KFF poll found. Overall, 2 in 3 Americans have unfavorable views of the bill. Those who support President Trump do like the bill, but they also like Medicaid, Kirzinger says.”
- “‘If you tell people that it would decrease funding for local hospitals, unfavorability increases to nearly 8 in 10. If you tell people it would increase the uninsured [population] by about 10 million people, unfavorability increases to 3 in 4.’ Republican lawmakers have downplayed the projected financial impact to rural hospitals and the number of people who could become uninsured, aiming to frame the proposed changes as targeting those who don’t deserve coverage.”