A claim by President Donald Trump’s Director of the Office of Management and Budget is being met with strong criticism, including allegations of telling “lies.”
OMB Director Russell Vought, a self-described Christian nationalist and an architect of The Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025, claimed that the Trump budget bill—his so-called “Big, Beautiful Bill,” that critics charge is anything but—won’t lead to anyone losing health care coverage.
Critics and multiple analyses of the bill make clear that claim is false.
Asked about charges that “people will die” if the bill is enacted into law, with hundreds of billions in cuts to critical safety net programs including Medicaid and SNAP, Vought called the allegations “totally ridiculous,” and “astroturf.”
“This bill will preserve and protect the programs, the social safety net, but it will make it much more common sense,” Vought claimed.
But the Congressional Budget Office’s report stated that the budget, or reconciliation bill would lead to an “increase in the federal deficit of $3.8 trillion,” “$698 billion less in federal subsidies from changes to the Medicaid program,” and “$267 billion less in federal spending for SNAP.”
The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP), citing the CBO’s report, states: “Roughly 15 million people by 2034 would lose health coverage and become uninsured.”
The CBO estimated that, for example, 7.6 million people would lose Medicaid, 1.8 million would lose Affordable Care Act (ObamaCare) coverage, and another 4.2 million would lose coverage for subsidy non-renewal.
The Washington Post adds that “Similar conclusions have been reached from right- and left-leaning organizations, including the Tax Foundation, the Penn-Wharton Budget Model, the Manhattan Institute and the Center for American Progress.”
Vought also claimed that “one out of every five or six dollars in Medicaid is improper. We have illegal immigrants on the program. We don’t have able-bodied, working adults that don’t have a work requirement that they would have in TANF or even SNAP. And those are something that’s very important to institute. That’s what this bill does.”
“No one will lose coverage as a result of this bill,” he insisted.
Retired U.S. Air Fore Colonel Moe Davis, a former Guantanamo Chief Prosecutor, pointed to a New York Times report titled, “Trump and Allies Sell Domestic Policy Bill With Falsehoods.”
Davis wrote that “Trump and his comrades…are using their favorite strategy that I’ve labeled MSU (Making S— Up) to deceive Americans about their Big Beautiful Wealth Transfer to the Rich Bill.”
Critics, meanwhile, are blasting Vought.
“This has become a routine talking point from the White House and Republicans — and its unambiguously a lie,” wrote MSNBC columnist Michael A. Cohen, a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic Studies (CSS).
“The CBO says that approximately 7,600,000 people will lose coverage as a result of the bill’s Medicaid cuts,” wrote Bloomberg columnist Matthew Yglesias. “An additional 1,800,000 will lose ACA exchange coverage due to cuts there. Failure to extend subsidy enhancements costs another 4,200,000 their insurance coverage.”
“Outrageous lies. In Ohio alone the state has said 770,000 people will lose coverage,” observed U.S. Rep. Shontel Brown (D-OH).
“GOP response to credible estimates that ~8m people will lose insurance due to Medicaid cuts: 1) no one will lose coverage 2) only the freeloaders and bums will lose coverage (not deserving people like you!) 3) look we’re all going to die anyway,” noted MSNBC anchor Catherine Rampell, referring to Senator Joni Ernst’s remarks, among others.
“The White House is lying to you. At least 13.7 million Americans will lose their health care, according to the official non-partisan scorekeepers,” said U.S. Rep. Brendan Boyle (D-PA), the Ranking Member of the House Budget Committee.
“This makes my blood boil,” commented former Biden OMB official Topher Spiro.