When I asked him about the fury parts of the base feel toward a business-as-usual Democratic leadership, he rejected the premise of my question. Traveling all over the country, he said, he interacts with people who “are thankful that Democrats are out there fighting on their behalf repeatedly.” Then he turned the conversation back to Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security.
A major question is whether Jeffries’s quotidian focus on policy can break through the Trumpian onslaught. The next few months should reveal the answer. In the opening days of this administration, Congress has been an afterthought, with Republican representatives declining to either check Trump or do much lawmaking. But the next phase of Trump’s agenda runs through the House, where Republicans are negotiating a budget bill extending his first-term tax cuts, now set to expire at the end of the year, while cutting social programs, including Medicaid. Given the narrow Republican majority in the House, and the likelihood of a Democratic takeover in the midterms, it could be the only significant piece of new legislation Trump gets to sign.
“There’s nothing more urgent that we could be doing right now than stopping Republicans from jamming their reckless and extreme budget down the throats of the American people,” said Jeffries.
Given Republican control of Congress — and the fact that budget bills can pass the Senate with a simple majority — it’s unlikely that the legislation can be thwarted. But he still holds out hope that Republicans might fail to come up with a bill that their competing factions can agree to. After all, assuming Jeffries keeps Democrats united in opposition, House Republicans can afford only three no votes. Should at least four Republicans defect, said Jeffries, “everything will fall apart, which is a good development for the American people, and the one that we’re trying to make sure takes place.”
Though Trump has said he wants to protect Medicaid, the debate among Republicans in Congress isn’t whether to cut it, but by how much. A House budget resolution passed in February instructs the Energy and Commerce Committee to find $880 billion to cut from the programs under its jurisdiction, which would require taking an ax to Medicaid. Some so-called moderates, however, say they’ll accept only Medicaid cuts of $400 billion to $500 billion — still a giant bite, but less than what conservatives are demanding. On Wednesday, 32 House conservatives said in a letter to Mike Johnson, the speaker, that their support for the bill depends on “strict adherence” to the framework in the budget resolution. (There’s also a separate, parallel fight between blue- and red-state Republicans over federal tax deductions for state and local income taxes.)
