Congressman Joe Morelle says efforts from the White House and Congress to slash funding for Medicaid, food assistance benefits, and more are misguided and dangerous, and show "a blatant disregard for American families."
"This administration remains laser focused on rewarding their billionaire friends at the direct expense of America's working families," Morelle said during a brief news conference Monday at the Frederick Douglass Greater Rochester International Airport before boarding a flight to Washington.
Democrats have assailed President Donald Trump’s “One Big, Beautiful Bill” with attacks tailored to blue-collar voters who have shifted toward the Republican Party.
"We've witnessed it time and again,” Morelle said, “from the freeze on federal funding to erratic tariff proposals and now a budget plan that would rip healthcare from millions of Americans, endanger Medicare, (and) put vital food assistance out of reach for those who need it the most."
In Albany, Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins joined a press conference with other legislative leaders, urging the U.S. Senate to leave Medicaid alone.
“The so called Big, Beautiful Bill they're pushing isn't just bad policy, it's a direct attack on middle class families," she said.
Republicans point to investments in border security, tax cuts and insist they are only culling from the Medicaid rolls those who shouldn’t have received benefits in the first place. North Country GOP Congresswoman Elise Stefanik, while blasting the New York state budget and Gov. Kathy Hochul, defended the federal spending bill. On Medicaid, specifically, she said it would go after waste, fraud and abuse.
“Which is rampant, over $20 billion in New York,” she said, a possible reference to a 2024 report by the Empire Center, finding the incomes of more than 3 million enrollees appear to exceed limits.
Stefanik also made misleading claims, stating "We are not taking away Medicaid benefits. We are getting rid of Medicaid benefits for illegals, specifically, to improve them for New Yorkers who qualify.” People who are in the country illegally are not eligible for federally-assisted Medicaid, however, with the exception of emergency services. There are state-funded health benefits for undocumented people, but the bill would cut federal Medicaid funding to those states, resulting in 1.4 million people losing coverage, according to the Congressional Budget Office.
New York defines Medicaid eligibility more broadly than most states, and enrollment here is second only to California. Medicaid covers at least 25% of residents in 36 counties, according to the state Comptroller’s Office – the 26.7% in Monroe County is the highest in the Finger Lakes region,
Trump’s signature spending and policy bill passed the House last month, and awaits Senate action with the president hoping to sign it into law by July 4. But Morelle said the proposals, combined with Trump's erratic tariffs and funding freezes in several areas are causing many people great worry and uncertainty.
"The American people deserve better than this chaos and confusion," Morelle said.
He focused most of his remarks Monday on the GOP proposal to strip $800 billion from Medicaid and remove subsidies that helped some people buy health insurance on an exchange. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office has reported that the cuts could increase the number of uninsured people by nearly 8 million.
The cuts could also exacerbate existing problems in the health care system, Morelle argued. He pointed specifically to emergency rooms, which already are struggling to meet demands and "are going to be further and further backed up because people won't be able to get into nursing homes, they won't be able to get into hospital beds, and the pain will be felt by everyone."
Morelle said he has co-sponsored legislation and supported litigation to push back against some of the GOP proposals he sees as harmful.
"I'll continue to use every tool at my disposal to defend our values and protect our community," Morelle said.
