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reconciliation bill
Pentagon and Immigration Spending in GOP Bill Could Instead Protect Medicaid Coverage
"Stealing money away from life-sustaining programs to fund war, weapons, and death should be an immediate nonstarter for every member of Congress," said one advocate and author of a new report.
May 23, 2025
With the House GOP's Medicaid-slashing reconciliation bill now headed to the Republican-controlled Senate, a trio of groups on Thursday highlighted that the tens of billions the reconciliation legislation allocates for the Pentagon and the Trump administration's immigration crackdown efforts could instead be used to protect and expand health insurance access for millions.
House Republicans' reconciliation bill includes $163 billion for the Pentagon and for mass deportation and border-related expenses that U.S. President Donald Trump has requested be allocated in fiscal year 2026. Those dollars could instead go toward providing 31 million adults with Medicaid, or providing 71 million people with Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits, according to a report titled Trading Life for Death: What the Reconciliation Bill Puts at Stake in Your State.
The report is a joint publication from the progressive watchdog Public Citizen, the progressive policy research organization the Institute for Policy Studies (IPS), and the National Priorities Project (NPP), which is a federal budget research organization and a project of IPS.
In a statement on Thursday, Lindsay Koshgarian, program director at NPP and one of the authors of the report, framed the reconciliation package as a "direct redistribution of resources from struggling Americans to the Pentagon and militarization."
The reconciliation bill, which passed 215-214 in the House of Representatives on Thursday, includes tax cuts tilted toward the wealthy that would add $3.8 trillion to the national debt, a roll back in clean energy tax credits, sweeping cuts to Medicaid and SNAP to the tune of nearly $1 trillion, and an increase in the maximum payment available through the child tax credit until 2028—though the bill is designed so that it would block an estimated 4.5 million children from accessing the credit, according to the Center for Migration Studies.
Under the legislation, an estimated 8.6 million people would lose Medicaid coverage over the next 10 years, according to a May 11 analysis from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office. The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities estimates that 11 million people would be at risk of losing at least some of their food assistance under the changes to SNAP.
Millions more could lose their healthcare due to Obamacare decisions/provisions.
Per the report, the militarized spending increases for 2026 would more than enough to fund Medicaid for the millions who are at risk of losing their health insurance under the bill, and the millions at risk of losing their SNAP benefits.
In addition to highlighting that the bill includes a huge cash injection for the U.S. Department of Defense, the report argues the Pentagon does not need more money. "The United States is already the world's largest military spender, allocating more taxpayer dollars to the Pentagon than the next nine countries combined," according to the report, which also notes that the department has never passed an audit.
The three groups also quantify the tradeoffs between defense spending and healthcare at a more granular level.
For example, the bill includes a $25 billion initial investment in Trump's "Golden Dome" project, a multilayered defense system that Trump has said will be capable of "intercepting missiles even if they are launched from other sides of the world and even if they are launched from space," according to CBS News.
In just one congressional district, Tennessee's 2nd District, taxpayer funds going toward the investment in the Golden Dome could instead be used to put 12,310 people on Medicaid, according to the report. In Texas' 21st District, taxpayers' funds redirected to support the Golden Dome could provide Medicaid to 13,589 people.
"If implemented, this budget would rip the rug out from under everyday Americans relying on Medicaid and SNAP to survive, just to further enrich Pentagon contractors," said Savannah Wooten, People Over Pentagon advocate at Public Citizen and report co-author, in a statement on Thursday. "Stealing money away from life-sustaining programs to fund war, weapons, and death should be an immediate nonstarter for every member of Congress."
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'Sheer Cruelty': Outrage as GOP Moves Ahead With Measure to Defund Planned Parenthood
"This is nothing more than an attempt to end abortion in the United States, and they are willing to take away birth control, cancer screenings, STI testing and treatment and more to do it," said the head of the reproductive healthcare group.
May 15, 2025
As the U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee on Wednesday voted along party lines to advance legislation that includes a measure which seeks to cut Medicaid funding for the abortion and healthcare provider Planned Parenthood, reproductive rights defenders are sounding the alarm on the impacts that such a move would have.
"This provision is about punishing Planned Parenthood health centers for providing abortion care, and threatening access to affordable birth control, wellness checkups, and cancer screenings for millions of people across the country in the process," said Alexis McGill Johnson, the president and CEO of Planned Parenthood, in a statement on Wednesday.
"It is indefensible how far abortion opponents, who claim to care about women and families, are willing to go to shut down health centers and line the pockets of billionaires and big corporations," McGill added.
The measure is part of a sweeping GOP spending and tax cuts bill currently making its way through Congress. The House Energy and Commerce Committee's portion of the legislation also includes cuts to Medicaid and takes back unspent funds from Inflation Reduction Act grant programs.
The outlet NOTUSreported Wednesday that the measure pertaining to Planned Parenthood would bar the organization from receiving federal funds, even via Medicaid payments. According to the 19th, the language of the measure does not specifically call out Planned Parenthood, but is crafted to apply to the organization.
The proposed cuts would impact Planned Parenthood's ability to offer services like birth control, cancer screenings, and pap smears. Medicaid is already barred from providing funds for abortion care, which only account for a small percentage of the services that Planned Parenthood's affiliates provide.
"It's no surprise that a goal of this reconciliation bill is to force Planned Parenthood health centers to shut down. Republicans have been trying—unsuccessfully—to shut down Planned Parenthood for decades," said Mini Timmaraju, president and CEO of Reproductive Freedom for All, an abortion rights and reproductive freedom group. "Plain and simple, this legislation will mean millions of people will have nowhere to go for basic health care."
"The sheer cruelty and enormity of their actions, and the harm they will inflict on the very people they were elected to represent, is unconscionable," Timmaraju continued.
Rachana Desai Martin, chief U.S. program officer at the Center for Reproductive Rights, on Tuesday denounced the fact that Trump has already frozen millions in funding for Planned Parenthood through the Title X program.
Planned Parenthood has said freezing that funding "effectively blocks people from getting birth control, STI testing and treatment, and lifesaving cancer screenings."
Speaking Tuesday, before the committee advanced its portion of the bill, Martin said that the Center for Reproductive Rights stands with Planned Parenthood and all reproductive healthcare providers and that "these baseless, politically motivated attacks against reproductive health care providers must stop."
A leaked preliminary estimate from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) reported on by Mother Jones this week estimates that the measure aimed at Planned Parenthood would cost taxpayers $300 million over the next ten years. According to the outlet, spokespeople at CBO did not offer comment on how they came to that $300 million figure.
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GOP Unveils Plan to Give $150 Billion More to Pentagon
"Any additional money pumped into this system is likely to be wasted," said one analyst. "The only beneficiaries will be weapons contractors."
Apr 28, 2025
Congressional Republicans on Sunday released legislation that would pump an additional $150 billion into the Pentagon—a morass of waste and profiteering—over the next decade as part of a sweeping reconciliation package that's also expected to include deep cuts to Medicaid and tax breaks for the wealthy.
The House Armed Services Committee, a major target of weapons industry lobbying, unveiled the plan for what it called "a historic investment of $150 billion to restore America's military capabilities and strengthen our national defense." The panel said the legislation was developed "in close conjunction" with Senate Republicans and President Donald Trump, who is separately pursuing a $1 trillion U.S. military budget for the next fiscal year.
The legislation would direct the new Pentagon funding toward a number of initiatives backed by the president, including a "Golden Dome" missile defense system that experts have called a massive boondoggle that could benefit Elon Musk.
The bill, which is scheduled for a committee markup on Tuesday, also includes $4.5 billion to speed production of the B-21 stealth bomber, a Northrop Grumman-made aircraft capable of delivering nuclear weapons.
William Hartung, a senior research fellow at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, said Sunday that the GOP's proposed Pentagon spending increase is "a glaring example of misplaced priorities."
"This is no time to throw more money at a weapons manufacturing base that is already maxed out," said Hartung. "Any additional money pumped into this system is likely to be wasted. The only beneficiaries will be weapons contractors, who will be glad to accept the new funds whether they can use them effectively or not."
"Given that the Pentagon and its contractor network are having a hard time spending existing funds well," Hartung added, "Congress should think twice before sending more taxpayer money their way."
The Republican push for additional Pentagon funding comes as Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is facing calls to resign for sharing plans for a U.S. military attack on Yemen in at least two private group chats.
Earlier this month, as Common Dreamsreported, Hegseth endorsed Trump's push for a $1 trillion U.S. military budget, which would mark the highest level of spending since the Second World War.
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