Officials in New York are sounding the alarm over looming budget cuts proposed by Republicans in Congress that would likely damage the living standards of millions across the state. Four million New Yorkers are on Medicaid in New York State, and nearly half of them in the Big Apple, which is also home to 1.8 million receiving benefits from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (i.e. food stamps). Roughly 560,000 of those SNAP recipients are children.
“Trump and the Republican reconciliation bills aimed at hollowing out Medicaid and SNAP will go beyond their original vendettas against the unemployed and poor, ‘woke’ medicine, or undocumented immigrants—this budget hurts millions of people fighting to remain in this increasingly unaffordable city,” said NYC Comptroller Brad Lander, who is also running for mayor. “Draconian figures like Trump have tried to gut our social safety net before, but hardworking New Yorkers and their families will remember every time they visit a hospital or go to bed hungry.”
The slashes to social spending are part of President Trump’s so-called “big beautiful bill,” which would also make permanent the tax cuts passed during his first term, in 2017. The budget had been stalled in committee last week as hardline Republicans sought even deeper cuts, but in a rare Sunday night session, the Republican-controlled House Budget Committee allowed the bill to move forward.
Even though New York State is a net contributor to the federal government, paying out $89 billion more than they received in 2023, a spokesperson for Gov. Kathy Hochul made clear that the potential cuts to New York’s obligations would not make up difference, saying that “it’s impossible for any individual state to backfill the massive cuts being proposed in Congress.” Instead, the state has joined the numerous lawsuits the Trump administration is currently facing over its summary funding cuts and clawbacks.
A pillar of Trump’s new spending plan is a work requirement for Medicaid recipients. Having been tasked with finding an astronomical $880 billion in savings over the next ten years, the House Energy and Commerce Committee has proposed a work requirement for Medicaid, which the Congressional Budget Office estimates will lead to a savings of over $300 billion. The requirement, however comes at an obvious drawback, as the CBO also estimates that such a policy would render 7.6 million Americans uninsured. Between the work requirement and overall cuts, over two million New Yorkers are expected to lose their healthcare coverage, according to Gothamist.
The Republican budget will likely be brought to a vote on the House floor later this week.
