Illinois Democratic Congress Members Sound the Alarm on Medicaid, SNAP Cuts

Bridgette Adu-Wadier | July 7, 2025, 7:01 pm

President Donald Trump’s sweeping tax and spending bill is now law, after days of heated debate and close votes in Congress.

While Republican backers say the plan will cut taxes, Democrats are sounding the alarm on cuts to social services.

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Over the next decade, the legislation would cut $930 billion to Medicaid and $186 billion to food and nutrition programs like SNAP.

People will also face steeper work requirements to keep receiving those benefits. Currently, able-bodied people without dependents ages 18 through 54 have to work at least 80 hours a month to qualify for coverage. The new legislation raises that age limit to age 64 and includes parents of children 14 and older.

U.S. Rep. Jonathan Jackson, D-Chicago, said the law would shift cost burdens on to middle and low-income people, who would be disproportionately impacted by cuts to social services.

“This is brutal; it’s ugly,” Jackson said. “What happens when your parents have a stroke and now your children are in the house but you have to take care of your parents? Can your parents get on your insurance? Does that mean your parents are now your dependents?”

The bill also expands the budget for Trump’s border and security agenda, allocating about an extra $350 billion toward immigration enforcement efforts like detention centers, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) personnel and border wall construction.

Republicans who voted for the bill say it would bring in more tax savings for working families and make Trump’s tax rates and brackets from his first term permanent.

But despite these benefits, the spending bill was passed with pretty much a party-line vote after strong, unanimous opposition from Democrats. Just two Republican representatives and three Republican senators voted against the bill.

U.S. Rep. Sean Casten, a Democrat whose district includes portions of the west and southwest suburbs, said the plan will still blow up deficits and impose costs that outweigh any potential bipartisan provisions.

“Talking about a tax on tips in the context of $5 trillion in deficits and billionaire tax cuts – this is sort of like somebody saying, ‘I’ve got a cake I made out of horse manure but you’re really going to like the eggs,” Casten said. “Whether there’s one little thing that’s small, that’s OK, is really not the point.”