Leaked GOP memo uncovers Republicans' plan to steal from the needy to give to the rich

A memo obtained by Politico uncovers GOP's "menu" of options to gut Medicare, Medicaid, food and housing assistance programs, student debt forgiveness, and more.

While millions of Americans cannot afford healthcare and other basic necessities, Republicans in Congress have their sights set on major cuts to Medicare, Medicaid, student debt forgiveness, and other crucial programs that Americans overwhelmingly support and rely on to make ends meet.

These spending cuts – many of which were first outlined in Project 2025 – are being proposed in order to fund Trump’s mass deportations and tax cuts for the wealthy, which are estimated to cost upwards of $10 trillion according to some House Republicans.

The wealthiest Americans and beneficiaries of Trump’s tax breaks were seated in the front row of Trump’s inauguration, ahead of his own cabinet nominees.

In a leaked memo obtained by Politico, the GOP’s potential spending cuts are itemized in a “menu” of options totaling more than $5 trillion dollars.

Trump and House leadership hope to implement these spending cuts via budget reconciliation, a “fast-track process for consideration of bills,” which is set to begin in the next few weeks and must be completed by March 14th in order to avoid a government shutdown.

So, what is on the chopping block to pay for Bezos, Zuckerberg, and Musks’ tax cuts?

Healthcare

A staple of Trump’s second term game plan is to repeal anything Joe Biden touched, regardless of whether it helped the American public. The first section of the leaked memo is titled “Repeal Major Biden Health Rules ($420B)” with no additional detail.

See the full leaked memo obtained by Politico here

Cuts to Medicaid (nearly 1/3 of federal Medicaid spending over the next decade), Medicare, and the Affordable Care Act are more specific and make up the majority of the proposed “menu” of options.

Here are some examples of what is on the chopping block:

• Per-capita caps on Medicaid funding, which would give states a fixed amount of funding based on population instead of a set percentage of the state’s actual Medicaid costs (the current model). This would be especially problematic if a state’s healthcare needs increase based on unforeseen circumstances, like natural disasters or rampant diseases.

• Repeal American Rescue Plan FMAP Incentive, which was an incentive put in place by the Biden administration to encourage states to expand healthcare coverage to more people.

• Repeal the Prevention Public Health Fund": The fund pays for things like: tobacco use prevention, programs to prevent childhood lead poisoning, grants to help states address their most urgent health infrastructure needs, and more.

I could go on, but the gist is clear: these proposed cuts to healthcare spending will rip healthcare away from tens of millions of Americans – disproportionately impacting children, seniors, working and low income families, and people with disabilities.

None of this comes as a shock, as the major cuts being proposed were first outlined in Project 2025.

Source: Edwin Park, Georgetown University Center for Children and Families

Professor and public health expert Edwin Park details what states will be forced to do in order to compensate for significant cuts in federal funding:

“states will either have to dramatically raise taxes and drastically cut other parts of their budget including K-12 education, or, as is far more likely, institute deep, damaging cuts to Medicaid… programs that serve tens of millions of low-income children, parents, people with disabilities, and seniors.”

The American public clearly knows that cutting Medicare and Medicaid funding is a horrible idea, as more than 80% of Americans oppose cutting these programs.

For more info, check out the full report from Navigator Research.

“Ending Cradle-to-Grave Dependence” aka Food Assistance Programs

Republicans are also targeting cuts to the tune of $347 billion in food assistance and other social safety net programs that millions of Americans rely on to make ends meet. This comes at a time when Americans supposedly voted for Donald Trump to address the cost of living crisis.

The proposals include:

• $20 billion in cuts to Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), a program that provides basic assistance to help low income people pay for things like food, housing, and child care.

  

  Full source here

• Cutting $22 billion in spending on Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (aka SNAP/ food stamps) – “the nation’s most important anti-hunger program” which currently only provides about $6.20 per person per day.

• “Reform” the Thrifty Food Plan, cutting $274 billion. The Thrifty Food plan determines the standard for SNAP benefits, and is the estimated cheapest weekly cost of food that is nutritionally adequate. The latest report from 2021 comes out to about $830/ month for a family of four. Cost savings of $274 billion would only be possible by lowering the already abysmal standard for the nutrition and resources low-income families need in order to survive.

Hayes Brown, MSNBC

Other major cuts

The memo also includes propsals for major cuts to “end the student loan bailout” entirely and reverse more than $450 billion in climate related investments that were set to be made in the coming years. The climate policies and investments at risk created clean manufacturing jobs, provided funds to improve our infrastructure to withstand worsening extreme weather (which is only becoming a more urgent need), expanded access to clean drinking water, laid the groundwork to slowly transition to electric vehicles, and so much more.

Notably absent from the list of options for cost savings is the Department of Defense’s bloated budget – about $825 billion in 2024. Did you know the Pentagon has failed every single audit they have undergone since they were legally required to start doing them in 2018?

But of course, let’s cut healthcare and food assistance amid a cost of living crisis instead.

In Conclusion

It is abundantly clear that Republicans will use the next four years to gut anything that helps everyday Americans in order to pay for handouts to the wealthy / corporations. Trump and his MAGA Republicans mastermind chaos to keep us distracted and divided while they work to implement their extremist agenda right under our noses, ripping away healthcare, human rights, and social programs Americans rely on and pay for with our tax dollars.

Do not take the bait. Republicans need us distracted and overwhelmed in order to pull this of.

Republicans have one of the narrowest majorities in Congressional history and will need all hands on deck if they want to pull off these extreme spending cuts to transfer even more wealth to the richest Americans.

So, call your Representatives and Senators, let them know you do not support any cuts to Medicare, Medicaid, or social safety net programs, and spread the word about this before it is too late!