‘Golden Age’ or ‘wrong and cruel?’ Kentuckians respond to U.S. House GOP passing Trump’s plan
By Sarah Ladd
Kentucky Lantern
Reaction in Kentucky to the “big beautiful bill” Republicans in the U.S. House passed early Thursday ranged from alarm to applause.
Democrats and health advocates say the cuts could result in Kentuckians losing access to medical care in a state already grappling with poor health.
Republicans, in general, say the bill wisely reins in Medicaid spending by returning the program’s focus to the people it was created to serve in 1965. Democrats in Congress expanded Medicaid in 2010, opening eligibility to low-income adults without disabilities in an effort to reduce the number of uninsured.
Despite the Medicaid cuts, the bill, endorsed by President Donald Trump, would enlarge the federal deficit, drawing objections from a few Republicans — prominent among them Kentucky U.S. Rep. Thomas Massie of Vanceburg.
Massie was one of only two Republicans to vote against the bill, which renews tax cuts enacted during Trump’s first term.
The Congressional Budget Office projects the bill would add $2.3 trillion to the federal deficit over 10 years as the tax cuts and new spending exceed its reductions in federal expenditures.
In a floor speech, Massie called the budget bill a “debt bomb ticking” and said, to applause, “If something is beautiful, you don’t do it after midnight.”
The measure squeaked through the House on a 215-214 vote after a night of negotiations.
It would reduce spending on Medicaid by $625 billion over 10 years and result in 7.6 million people going uninsured, according to estimates by the Congressional Budget Office.
‘It’s wrong, it’s cruel,’ says Democrat Beshear
During his weekly press conference, Gov. Andy Beshear, a Democrat, said the bill would “lead to more Kentuckians not being able to see a doctor, not having health care coverage, less revenue to support our rural hospitals and health systems, and it’s going to leave more of our kids and seniors going hungry.”
The bill shifts to state governments some of the cost of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), which provides food to low-income Americans. Melissa McDonald, executive director of Feeding Kentucky, which represents the state’s food banks, says the plan would increase hunger in Kentucky.
Beshear also warned of “people losing their ability to go see a doctor.”
“It’s wrong, it’s cruel,” Beshear said, adding that “those that will lose their health care coverage and food assistance” will pay for lawmakers’ choices.
Doug Hogan, the government relations director in Kentucky for the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network, told the Lantern that a “significant” number of cancer patients rely on Medicaid and that the program “is crucial for prevention, detection, treatment and survival of cancer.”
“Cuts have consequences, and we don’t want cancer patients caught in (the) middle of those consequences. Medicaid provides access to health coverage, which is one of the best predictors of whether or not a person survives cancer,” he said. “The proposed cuts in Medicaid could interrupt a person’s cancer care, or stop it altogether, and others would lose access to regular cancer screenings and prevention, which would have a devastating impact on cancer patients and their families.”
Politicians: ‘Golden Age’ versus ‘course for the iceberg’
In Massie’s 90-second floor speech opposing the budget bill, he compared it to the sinking of the Titanic, saying, “We’re putting coal in the boiler and setting a course for the iceberg.”
“This bill dramatically increases deficits in the near term, but promises our government will be fiscally responsible five years from now,” he said. “Where have we heard that before? How do you bind a future Congress to these promises? This bill is a debt bomb ticking. Congress can do funny math, fantasy math if it wants, but bond investors don’t.”
Kentucky’s other Republicans in the House supported the bill.
U.S. Rep. Hal Rogers — who represents a district where 44% of residents are enrolled in Medicaid, one of the nation’s highest rates of Medicaid dependence — said he didn’t take his vote in favor of the bill “lightly” and that it’s “a comprehensive, responsible plan for the decade ahead and beyond.”
“We must get rid of the waste, fraud and abuse, and it is our duty to secure this program, as well as SNAP benefits, for the American people in greatest need,” Rogers said in a statement.
A new Congressional Budget Office analysis released Tuesday showed the House package tilted toward the wealthy, projecting it would decrease resources for low-income families over the next decade while increasing resources for top earners.
Rogers, R-Somerset, touted the bill’s tax cuts, especially ending the income tax on tips and overtime wages, and said, “It secures Medicaid for Eastern Kentuckians living below the poverty rate by removing 1.4 million illegal immigrants from the program, along with 1.2 million ineligible recipients.”
U.S. Rep. Andy Barr, who is seeking the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate to succeed Mitch McConnell, also praised the “massive tax cut for families, workers, seniors, and small businesses” in a statement.
“Our bill also provides unprecedented resources for the border patrol to seal the border once and for all. We are on the doorstep of the Golden Age for America,” Barr of Lexington said. “It’s time to send this bill to President Trump’s desk.”
Andy Westberry, spokesperson for the Republican Party of Kentucky, said the House passage ensures “Medicaid will remain strong and focused on the Americans it was always meant to serve.”
“The House passage of The One Big, Beautiful Bill Act marks a major victory for working-class Kentuckians and their families,” Westberry said. “The fear-mongering, misinformation, and over-the-top pearl-clutching being peddled by Gov. Andy Beshear and other Kentucky Democrats is nothing more than a desperate attempt to prey on the fears of Kentucky families.”
Meanwhile, Colmon Elridge, the chair of the Kentucky Democratic Party (KDP), called the bill “harmful.”
“Rural hospitals will close, children and veterans will lose critical care and thousands of Kentucky families will struggle to put food on the table,” Elridge said. “Kentucky Republicans have betrayed the people they took an oath to serve. Kentuckians, and Americans, deserve better.”
‘An untenable choice’
The measure now moves to the U.S. Senate.
During a Thursday afternoon press conference, health and policy advocates called on the Senate to “reverse these grievous and extreme cuts,” as Dustin Pugel, the policy director for the Kentucky Center for Economic Policy, put it.
Pugel estimates the legislation could result in 345,000 Kentuckians losing Medicaid coverage. The program in its current form covers about 1.5 million Kentucky residents.
“This House proposal would not just eliminate coverage, but could also eliminate jobs, especially in rural areas, and it would damage our progress in tackling severe problems like addiction and even cost lives in the long run,” Pugel said.
Melissa Mather, a spokesperson for Family Health Centers of Louisville, said more than half of the 40,000 people served at her location in 2024 had Medicaid, a third of whom were children. Medicaid, she said, “keeps our doors open.”
Mather also expressed concern that Kentucky could revert to pre-expansion realities, when some had to choose between health care or food.
“Do we want Kentuckians to have to choose between buying groceries or their medicines?” Mather said. “Because I think that’s an untenable choice we’re asking people to make.”
A plea to the Senate: ‘Change course’
Sarah Hill of Lexington, who joined Pugel and Mather during the Thursday press conference, credits the 2010 Medicaid expansion with helping her during a “particular low point” in her life.
“I was unemployed and spent about a year sitting in an armchair in my mom’s house in Eastern Kentucky trying to figure out how to move forward when I couldn’t complete the most basic tasks like brushing my teeth or taking a shower,” said Hill, who said she’s struggled with mental health since the age of 14.
After Kentucky chose to open Medicaid to low-income adults without disabilities, she applied — “a Herculean effort on my part” — and was able to access medications she needed to stabilize and get a job, she said.
“If the proposed work requirements and regular check-ins were implemented when I had needed this assistance, I wouldn’t have received it,” Hill said. “I could not have done the paperwork needed to sign up, and then I could not have handled the stress of continually recertifying my need.”
Dr. Edward Miller, the division director of maternal fetal medicine and high-risk obstetrics at the University of Louisville and UofL Health, pointed out Kentucky’s poor health statistics: the state is one of the worst places in the country to have a baby, for example.
“We have some of the highest rates of smoking, hypertension, diabetes, in the country, and most notably, we have one of the highest detection rates of new cancers in the country,” Miller, also on the health policy call, said. “Now, what is decreasing access going to do? Well, you don’t have to be a doctor, you don’t have to be a researcher, to know that decreasing access to those at the most risk is only going to make us plummet further down those rankings.”
Hill, the former Medicaid participant, and others pleaded with senators to pull back on the proposed cuts.
“Our senators have a choice to change course on this, and I fear that if we do not choose to change course, we are going to be throwing away our workforce,” said Hill. “We are going to be throwing away rural people, and we are going to be throwing away the potential of thousands of Kentuckians, just like myself. I ardently hope that we are able to change course, change the discourse around these things, because being sick one time doesn’t mean you have to be sick forever.”
Liam Niemeyer contributed to this story.