Jeffries’ Medicaid reset
The top House Democrat pushes Medicaid messaging blitz after Senate funding showdown.
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House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) is urging his members to take part in a caucus-wide day of action on Tuesday focused on Medicaid—just days after he refused to explicitly back Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) amid a strategic split between the two Brooklyn Democrats over government funding.
Allow me to explain: With the funding fight behind them, congressional Republicans are pivoting to their next major legislative push: enacting President Donald Trump’s agenda, including an extension of his 2017 tax cuts.
As GOP lawmakers craft their proposal, Democrats are preparing to hammer them over the trillions in domestic spending cuts they’ve proposed to offset the cost of those tax breaks.
What they’re saying: A House Democrat told me their district event would highlight Medicaid’s role in state healthcare systems.
“So many doctors and hospitals are open because they get Medicaid,” the member said. “This is the power we have to push back against the ravaging of the government.”
Rep. Troy Carter (D-La.), who serves on the committee overseeing Medicaid, told me last month that Democrats have had success localizing the GOP’s proposed cuts, making clear that they wouldn’t just impact Democratic strongholds.
“This is going to impact you. And you will see, and you have seen, the increased feeling of voters’ remorse because people are realizing they’ve been duped,” Carter said. “These cuts are impacting the very people who supported Trump in 2024.”
House Republicans argue Democrats are fearmongering, noting that the word “Medicaid” is absent from the budget document and insisting the program isn’t explicitly targeted.
But Democrats counter that the math doesn’t add up—Medicaid would inevitably take a major hit given the scale of the proposed spending reductions.
In his own words: “This Medicaid cut that Republicans are trying to visit upon the American people will close hospitals, including in rural America, and close nursing homes,” Jeffries said on MSNBC’s The Weekend. “They’re going after grandma and grandpa and people who rely on Medicaid in order to see a doctor. It’s scandalous. And that’s why we’re going to continue to strongly oppose it.”
In the know: Tuesday’s day of action is part of a broader Democratic effort to raise awareness about Medicaid’s significance and fight Republican attempts to slash its funding.
Before the funding fight, Democrats spent weeks attacking the GOP budget plan, which calls for $880 billion in Medicaid cuts to offset the $4.5 trillion cost of extending Trump’s tax cuts.
They see echoes of 2017 when Republicans’ attempt to repeal the Affordable Care Act became a political liability and helped fuel the Democratic takeover of the House in 2018.
Now, Democrats are betting that positioning themselves as defenders of a program covering 72 million Americans will yield similar electoral benefits.
How we got here: Last Thursday, Schumer announced that he would supply one of at least eight Democratic votes needed to advance the House-passed GOP funding bill.
His decision followed Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) and Trump rallying Republicans—including hardliners who typically oppose spending bills—behind the package, ensuring its passage despite near-unanimous House Democratic opposition.
House Democrats urged their Senate counterparts to hold the line, hoping to force Johnson to take up their preferred four-week funding extension.
Instead, Johnson sent House members home, forcing the Senate to either accept his bill or take the blame for a shutdown.
Schumer defended his decision, arguing the Senate faced different political dynamics:
House Democrats could oppose the bill without stopping it.
If all Senate Democrats rejected it, the government would shut down.
He accused Trump of deliberately pushing for a shutdown as a political distraction and argued that the former president “owns” the current government dysfunction, economic instability, and stock market downturn.
The move sparked an immediate backlash from House Democrats, who criticized the failure to leverage the Senate filibuster against a bill they viewed as harmful.
Ahead of a key procedural vote, Jeffries and his leadership team—Minority Whip Katherine Clark (D-Mass.) and Caucus Chair Pete Aguilar (D-Calif.)—returned from their retreat to reaffirm opposition and pressure Senate Democrats to do the same.
In a striking moment, Jeffries refused to say whether he still had confidence in Schumer.
“Next question,” he responded when asked directly at a press conference. “This is not about one individual. This is about the American people.”
Throughout the conference, he repeatedly dodged questions about Schumer’s leadership, instead refocusing on opposition to the bill.
Ultimately, 10 Senate Democrats joined all but one Republican (Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.)) in advancing the bill to final passage in a 62–38 vote.
The Democratic yes votes: Sens. Catherine Cortez Masto (Nev.), Dick Durbin (Ill.), John Fetterman (Pa.), Kirsten Gillibrand (N.Y.), Maggie Hassan (N.H.), Angus King (I-Maine), Gary Peters (Mich.), Brian Schatz (Hawaii), Schumer, and Jeanne Shaheen (N.H.).
The bill passed 54–46, with Paul as the lone GOP ‘no’ vote. King and Shaheen flipped to support it.
President Trump signed it into law on Saturday.
Not so fast: Jeffries told MSNBC that he and Schumer had not spoken since the vote but planned to do so today.
“Chuck and I disagreed on the approach and outcome regarding what we viewed as a reckless Republican spending bill,” Jeffries said. “At the same time, we agree on the overwhelming majority of issues moving forward—including our fight against the largest potential Medicaid cut in American history.”
He called on his caucus, governors, local officials, and advocacy groups to unify in that fight. But while Jeffries may want to move on, his members are still fuming.
“We did our part,” one House Democrat texted me. “Disappointing AF to see how we all got treated by the Senate.”
During a 30-minute Q&A at the House Democratic retreat, Caucus Vice Chair Ted Lieu (D-Calif.) and Aguilar pointed to past Senate letdowns, particularly the 2023 D.C. crime bill episode.
In a surprise move, former President Joe Biden declined to veto the congressional override of the bill, marking the first time in over 30 years that Congress overturned a D.C. law.
Many House Democrats felt blindsided, believing they had taken a principled stand to uphold D.C. home rule based on an expected Biden veto.
They felt Senate Democrats failed to coordinate before breaking ranks, deepening a long-simmering trust gap.
“All of these experiences help shape our tactics, our responses. And those of us who lived through the DC crime bill and those efforts—look, it’s not lost on us,” Aguilar said. “And now the new members who came into Congress are having to have their own experiences working with the Senate in real-time.”
Looking ahead: The House will soon consider a Senate-approved fix to prevent $1 billion in funding cuts to D.C., which were included in the GOP’s spending bill.
The measure ensures D.C. can use its locally raised tax revenue—even on policies Republicans oppose.
While the Trump administration has signaled support, it remains unclear whether House Republicans will follow suit.