This fact-check should kill Trump's lying lapdogs' evil scheme

One of my purposes in sending you this daily letter is to give you the truth about an important issue that Trump and his lapdogs in Congress are demagoguing — so you can spread the truth.

Right now, the Senate is taking up Trump’s “Big Beautiful budget bill” (really a Big Bad Ugly Bill) that just emerged from the House.

If enacted, it would be the largest redistribution of income in the nation’s history — from the poor and working class to the rich and super-rich.

How? The tax cut mainly benefits the wealthy. A major source of funding is at least $715 billion of cuts in health care spending, mostly from Medicaid.

It also contains a poison pill that would remove the power of federal courts to hold officials in contempt of court — fining or imprisoning them if they fail to follow court orders. As the courts push back against Trump, this is a critical power.

And the bill cuts Medicaid spending by requiring Medicaid recipients to work.

Republicans are spreading lies about this work requirement.

Here are the facts you need to know — and share:

1. 64 percent of adult Medicaid recipients already work.

Many recipients work in jobs that don’t typically offer health insurance and pay little — which makes Medicaid vital. These people aren’t freeloaders mooching off the system, as Republicans claim. They’re barely scraping by.

2. Adults on Medicaid who aren’t working have good reasons not to.

— 12% are primary caregivers.

— 10% have an illness or disability.

— 7 % are attending school.

3. So, 93 percent of all Medicaid recipients either already working or having good reason not to.

The entire work requirement would affect 7 percent at most. In reality, a work requirement would cause many more who are eligible to lose their Medicaid coverage. The current estimate is at least 8.6 million people.

4. The work requirement kicks eligible people Medicaid because of its burdensome and confusing reporting requirements.

It’s not really meant to put people to work. It’s a shady way of kicking people off Medicaid to fund tax cuts mainly for the wealthy.

In Arkansas, which tried a work requirement for Medicaid, more than 18,000 people who were eligible lost coverage mainly because of the paperwork reporting hoops they had to jump through.

5. When Arkansas enacted work requirements, there was no significant change in employment rates.

Because, again, Medicaid recipients already have high rates of employment to begin with.

6. If Republicans really want to put people to work, they’d make it easier to get Medicaid — not harder.

After Ohio expanded Medicaid, enrollees had an easier time finding and holding down a job.

Access to healthcare means people can manage chronic conditions, afford medication, or receive mental health treatment — all of which helps people keep their jobs.

Republicans are spouting lies about a work requirement for Medicaid because they’re really trying to push eligible people off it — to help finance their big tax cut mainly for the rich.

Senate Republicans can afford to lose only three Republican votes. Otherwise, the Big Bad Ugly Bill is dead. Please share these facts.

Robert Reich is a professor of public policy at Berkeley and former secretary of labor. His writings can be found at https://robertreich.substack.com/."