California could feel the misery of House GOP math that doesn’t add up. Here’s why | Opinion

What does it say about GOP priorities when House Republicans, on a party-line vote, approve $2 trillion in spending cuts and $4.5 trillion in tax cuts?

It says they are trying to enrich the wealthy on the backs of poor people. It calls into question every campaign promise President Donald Trump made to working people during last year’s election campaign.

Were those promises a ruse? Will the rich get richer while working people pay the tab?

Let’s judge the president and a Republican-run Congress by their actions.

To be fair, the Republican-written legislation does not identify programs to cut or implement. It only identifies how many dollars each House committee will have to reduce. For example, the House Agriculture Committee will be tasked with finding at least $230 billion in cuts over the next decade.

The Energy and Commerce Committee will be responsible for cutting $880 billion over 10 years. It oversees public health (Medicaid), telecommunications, consumer protection, food/drug safety, and foreign commerce among others.

“This has been necessary because we promised to deliver President Trump’s full agenda, not just a part of it,” said House Speaker Mike Johnson after rounding up support from a group of eight recalcitrant Republicans, including Hanford’s David Valadao. “We’re not just going to do a little bit now and return later for the rest. We have to do it now.”

Last week, Valadao said he took Trump at his word that “Medicare, Medicaid, none of that stuff is going to be touched. We won’t have to.” He and seven Republican colleagues wrote a letter last week to Johnson encouraging the GOP not to make cuts to Medicare and Medicaid, or to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program and Pell grants.

“... it sounds like the president and myself and others are on the same page, we don’t want to touch Medicaid,” Valadao told The Hill. “We want to make sure that we’re all on the same page. If he’s on the same page as me, that makes me feel a little bit better about it.”

The math doesn’t match up

On Wednesday, Valadao stuck to his belief that Trump will not support cuts to Medicaid, a health insurance program that helps the poor.

“The President has been really clear that we’re not going to touch Medicaid and that’s the issue that you got a lot of activists out there talking about,” Valadao said. “This is sadly, political activists getting engaged trying to get people excited about something, and trying to get them to be active, when the reality is we’ve all been saying the same thing – we’re not touching Medicaid.”

It appears that Valadao – and other Republicans – need to learn some basic math.

“Republicans’ budget has a fundamental math problem,” Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a Democrat from New York, posted on X. “An $880 billion cut is an attack on Medicaid, not ‘waste,’ ‘fraud,’ and ‘abuse.’ Let’s be clear – anyone who votes for this budget (resolution) is voting to cut Medicaid.”

Here is the math: If the committee reduces every budget item unrelated to health care to $0, it would still come up more than $600 billion short, according to a New York Times analysis.

The left-leaning Center for American Progress has more numbers for Valadao to consider. His 22nd Congressional District could lose $4.95 billion in Medicaid funding and have 67,000 fewer enrollees per year based on Republican budget proposals.

The annual dollar losses for Central Valley districts – Valadao’s 22nd District, Adam Gray’s 13th District, Jim Costa’s 21st District and Vince Fong’s 20th District – total $16.03 billion.

Medicaid funding cuts would force states to either raise taxes or scale back program eligibility, limit benefits or lower reimbursement rates to providers, according to the Center for American Progress.

Some Republicans believe there is enough fraud and waste to get to the desired spending cuts, but experts believe that would result in a 10% savings.

We encourage Valadao, his seven colleagues and all House Republicans, to recognize the math that they have the votes to sink a final budget deal that slashes Medicaid and Medicare spending.

GOP plan is fool’s gold

The GOP budget resolution targets more cuts. The Central Valley’s vital agricultural community is raising concern about what $230 billion in cuts will mean. Republicans have signaled a willingness to trim the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), a USDA program that provides food assistance to the poor.

There are proposed $330 billion cuts to education/workforce, separate from Trump’s desire to eliminate the Education Department.

We don’t see how these unconscionable cuts will result in anything but pain to the heart of California’s agricultural community, throughout our state and across America. If these Republican-led actions come to pass, the promises Trump made to get elected will prove to be a fool’s gold for those who believed him and cruel hoax for everyone else.

This story was originally published February 28, 2025 at 5:30 AM with the headline "California could feel the misery of House GOP math that doesn’t add up. Here’s why | Opinion."