As the new tax and spending policy brings changes to several government programs from Medicaid to student loans and food assistance benefits, U.S. Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-Holly) hosted a tele-town hall Tuesday night to break down the impacts Michiganders can expect to see from the law.
"This bill will affect pretty much every single person listening in one way or another," Slotkin noted, before breaking down the law's changes to health care…
The federal clawbacks are so significant that governors are warning they are entirely unable to make up the difference. "It's billions of dollars that we don't have," Hobbs said as the Senate passed the bill. "Even if we cut every single thing in the state, we don't have the money to backfill all these cuts."
By design, the bulk of the Medicaid and SNAP changes won't take effect until after the midterms, a legislative maneuver intended to shield Republicans from immediate electoral consequences that could also give governors more time to reconfigure state funding formulas. But state appropriators say they are already mapping out how to account for the steep federal losses, and may need to start moving around funds in next year's budgets.
"Do we fund food for hungry families, or do we fund our community colleges?'" said Arizona State Rep. Oscar De Los Santos, the Democratic minority leader. "Do we fund food for hungry families, or do we pay public school teachers? That is the position that Trump and the Republicans have put us in."…
https://www.politico.com/news/2025/07/14/trump-megabill-budget-nightmare-states-00449924
Mozaffarian called the choice to cut the Farm to School Grant "a bizarre decision that goes completely against the goals to make America healthy again".
Nestle believes that misalignment between promise and practice is purposeful. The Trump administration and Maha movement have "hijacked the food movement in order to use it as publicity for the kind of cuts that are being made", she said. It's also being used to "forward an agenda which is exactly the opposite of what you would hope" – one that's focused more on cutting programs than reforming industry.
Nestle says the administration's calls to end subsidies for "junk food" with Snap are disingenuous, and just a guise for cutting the program altogether. "The business about taking sodas out of Snap is a cover for cutting Snap benefits," she said. The current Republican budget bill, which Trump signed into law last week, proposes a 20% cut to the program.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/jul/08/rfk-jr-junk-food
Ocasio-Cortez highlighted the contradictions in the bill that Democrats can be expected to campaign on over the next two years, pitting its spending on immigration enforcement against the loss of social benefits for working-class Americans.
She noted that Republicans voted for permanent tax breaks for billionaires while allowing a tax break on tips for people earning less than $25,000 a year to sunset in three years. She also noted that cuts to Medicaid expansion will remove tipped employees from eligibility for Medicaid and remove subsidies for insurance under the Affordable Care Act, and reduce Snap food assistance benefits.
"I don't think anyone is prepared for what they just did with Ice," Ocasio-Cortez wrote on Bluesky. "This is not a simple budget increase. It is an explosion – making Ice bigger than the FBI, US Bureau of Prisons, [the] DEA and others combined. It is setting up to make what's happening now look like child's play. And people are disappearing."…
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jul/04/democrats-trump-bill
With their eagerness to cut the social safety net, Republicans seem to be treating millions of Americans who earn less than $50,000 as undeserving takers. "People earning under $50,000 are major targets of the Republican agenda. Their health coverage is targeted. Their food security is targeted," said Marr. "They are left out of key provisions expanding tax cuts, like the child tax credit. They are most at risk from the Republican tariffs. They'll be hurt across the board."
Marr said the budget bill treats "these people very harshly".
"It's the harshest bill we've ever seen since budget deficits became an issue 40 years ago," he said. "This is the first bill that simultaneously targets programs for poor people and working-class people to pay for it, and then takes that money to pay for tax cuts for very wealthy people. It makes poor and working-class people worse off. That's not been done before."…
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jul/03/trump-budget-bill
"In this bill, you provide a $2 billion tax break for gun silencers, but you cut SNAP benefits for vulnerable families, which, by the way, is on average $2 per person, per meal," McGovern went on, raising his arms for emphasis.
"Jesus Christ, what are you people thinking?" he added...
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/jim-mcgovern-whats-wrong-with-you-people_n_6865993ee4b01e8bcb42c2e0
"That nugget of misinformation from the secretary", he said, is like a seed that will continue to grow, so that people start "thinking undocumented immigrants are getting benefits they're not".…
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/mar/20/trump-food-stamps-snap-school-lunch-immigration
