The American health care system is already in crisis after Donald Trump and Republicans passed the largest cuts to health care in history to fund tax breaks for billionaires. New reporting from Axios shows that Republicans are now considering even deeper cuts to Americans’ health care to help pay for a $200 billion budget bill to fund the Iran war and immigration enforcement. The damage from the last round of Trump-GOP health care cuts is already clear as day: more than 15 million Americans are at risk of losing coverage, over 800 hospitals and clinics are shuttering or are at risk of closing, people are losing their jobs, and premiums are skyrocketing. Polling shows that health care affordability is a top concern for voters, and they reject any efforts to gut health care further. As always, Trump only cares about having enough money to pay for tax breaks for billionaires and wage foreign wars. Here’s what people are saying about deeper GOP cuts to health care to pay for war with Iran:
Elected Officials
Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY): “The 2026 @GOP platform: More money for war. More money for ICE. Less money for health care.”
Senator John Hickenlooper (D-CO): “The first time they hiked your health care costs, it was to fund tax cuts for the ultra-wealthy. This time, it’s to bankroll a $200B war in Iran. Priorities matter. This is wrong.”
Senator Ruben Gallego (D-AZ): “‘They got money for wars, but can’t feed the poor.’ [2Pac] was right then and he is right now.”
Senator Andy Kim (D-NJ): “Trump breaks it, we pay for it.”
House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY): “MAGA extremists are working behind closed doors to rip away healthcare to fund Trump’s reckless war in Iran. Shameless. Vote them all out in November.”
Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-CT-03): “Republicans are spending billions on a war with Iran and now they want to cut your family’s healthcare to pay for it.”
Rep. Gwen Moore (D-WI-04): “Republicans already gutted health care for million of Americans to pay for tax goodies to the GOP billionaire donor class. Now, they’re trying to slash health care again to fund another war in the Middle East and to fund ICE.”
Rep. Mike Quigley (D-IL-05): “They’re cutting your healthcare to pay for their war. Again. Americans want affordable healthcare—not another war in the Middle East.”
Rep. Dina Titus (D-NV-01): “America first? Clearly not. Promises made, promises broken by @HouseGOP.”
Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-MI-06): “There is money for war. There is money for billionaire tax cuts. But there is no money for your health care. In the richest nation on Earth, why are we not able to helping working families?”
Rep. Angie Craig (D-MN-02): “Republicans have already kicked millions of Americans off their health coverage to fund Trump’s billionaire tax breaks. They’re now plotting even MORE cuts to fund a war that no one asked for. All this from the party that campaigned on ‘America-first.’”
Rep. Brendan Boyle (D-PA-02): “Thanks to Trump, millions of Americans are losing their health care. Tens of millions more are seeing their costs go up. Now, Republicans in Washington want to rip health care away from even more people to fund Trump’s reckless war in the Middle East. It’s shameful.”
Rep. Ted Lieu (D-CA-33): “I will be a hard NO on this Republican budget bill.”
Rep. Don Beyer (D-VA-08): “After enacting the largest Medicaid cuts in history and allowing health care tax credits to expire so they can pay for tax cuts for the rich, Republicans now want to make further cuts to health care to pay for Trump’s illegal war of choice in Iran. Shameful. I’ll be voting NO.”
Rep. Seth Magaziner (D-RI-02): “Raising your health care costs to pay for war in the Middle East. There is nothing ‘America First’ about that.”
Rep. Nikki Budzinski (D-IL-13): “Republicans took away your health care to pay for billionaire tax breaks. Now they’re going to kick even more Americans off their coverage to pay for war in the Middle East.”
Rep. Shri Thanedar (D-MI-13): “Republicans are trying to cut your healthcare AGAIN to pay for Trump’s $200 billion war. This is after they already sent premiums for tens of millions of Americans skyrocketing by killing the ACA tax credits. No wonder their approval on affordability is in the dumpster.”
New York Governor Kathy Hochul: “Spending on wars > healthcare has been GOP policy for decades. Nothing new here.”
California Governor Gavin Newsom: “The GOP made nearly a trillion dollars in cuts to health care last year to give tax breaks to the rich. Now they want to cut more funding and further increase health insurance costs to fund Trump’s war with Iran. These people couldn’t be more out of touch.”
Maine Governor Janet Mills: “Maine people have already seen funding for their health care go to tax breaks for billionaires. Now Republicans want to cut health care even more to support an illegal war that nobody wants. This has to stop. End wars. Fund health care.”
Illinois State House Speaker Chris Welch: “Cutting healthcare to pay for an unnecessary war is not putting America first. SMH”
Pennsylvania State Representative Malcolm Kenyatta: “Republicans plan to further cut health care for us to fund a war the American people don’t want.”
Expert Voices
Tommy Vietor, Pod Save America: “Republicans want to cut spending on health care for American citizens to fund Trump’s disastrous war in Iran. America First is dead and buried under a pile of Epstein files and broken campaign promises.”
Jessica Tarlov, ‘The Five’, Fox News: “Healthcare cuts to fund tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans and to pay for a deeply unpopular war is insanely bad politics for the GOP, which means they’ll do it.”
Fred Wellman, Meidas Touch: “Cutting more Americans healthcare to fund an illegal war started by Trump without Congressional authorization. Absolutely monstrous.”
Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, American Immigration Council: “They want to pour even more of your money at immigration enforcement, even after they already gave $170 billion to DHS last year for that purpose, and even if it means cutting basic benefits for Americans.”
Alex Cole, Newsitics:“Cut healthcare to fund a war… while calling yourselves ‘pro-life’ is some next-level hypocrisy.”
Jesse Ferguson, Political Consultant: “!! ‘Republicans are considering reductions in federal health spending to help pay for a budget bill containing as much as $200 billion to fund the Iran war and immigration enforcement.’”
Nick Mark, Critical Care Time: “GOP: Let’s kick more people off their insurance to fund a war that is making gas and groceries unaffordable. The midterms can’t happen soon enough.”
Matthew Yglesias, Bloomberg: “Republicans want to yoke their unpopular, price-hiking war to their least-popular policy position? Okay…”
Jon Favreau, Pod Save America: “Didn’t realize Republicans had hired Democratic pollsters to write their policies.”