*STATEMENT* Impact of House bill on MA

On Thursday, May 22, 2025, the U.S. House of Representatives approved an extensive budget bill that would cut aid to our most vulnerable in favor of further enriching the nation’s most wealthy. The bill would cause immense harm to low- and middle-income families across the country, including a substantial number of Massachusetts residents, as costs shift from the federal government to the states.

MassBudget President Viviana Abreu-Hernández, PhD, issued the following statement:

“This is not a ‘big, beautiful' bill. This is a ‘billionaire bailout bomb’ that punishes poor families, and strips healthcare and food from millions, in order to give the ultra-wealthy more tax breaks. It is both cruel and fiscally irresponsible, raising the national debt limit to $4 trillion. 

The House bill’s cuts to Medicaid and affordable marketplace coverage would result in 13.7 million people losing health insurance by 2034. Without intervention from the Massachusetts legislature, an estimated 200,000 people in the Commonwealth would lose coverage.

The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), which feeds low-income families, in particular kids, is also in danger. This bill abandons a 50-year promise that children in America won’t go hungry. By gutting the program by $230 billion, expanding punitive work requirements, and shifting costs to states, the bill would rip assistance from those just trying to put food on the table.

Many more families depend on Medicaid and SNAP than people realize. For instance, in 2023 an estimated 31% of small business owners and 27% of armed forces veterans in Massachusetts used one or both of these programs. They are among the 236,000 people across the state who are at risk of losing some or all of their SNAP benefits. 

It boils down to less food security for Massachusetts families, and less access to critical care for children, seniors, and community members with disabilities. These cuts will have human costs, and force Massachusetts lawmakers to make impossible decisions to balance the budget. 

The bill also includes a number of tax cut provisions, but it’s clear that the benefits of these primarily go to America’s richest. 

According to an analysis of the bill from the Institute of Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP), the richest 1 percent of Americans would receive a total of $121 billion in net tax cuts in 2026. Comparatively, the bottom 60 percent of Americans would receive a total of about $90 billion in net tax cuts in 2026.

The richest fifth of Americans would receive two-thirds (about 68 percent) of the tax cuts; meanwhile the poorest fifth of Americans would receive only 1 percent of the tax cuts. 

Make no mistake - this bill is not the result of misunderstanding how the cuts in SNAP and Medicaid programs will affect the most vulnerable people in the country. This bill intends and achieves a massive, trillion-dollar tax break for the wealthiest people in the country on the backs of hard-working Americans who are trying to make ends meet, put food on the table, send their kids to college, and have a roof over their heads.

MassBudget has long been an advocate for budgets that are rooted in economic and racial justice. It is more important than ever that the Commonwealth stays true to our shared values and uses our resources to uplift populations most impacted by the harmful policy decisions coming from Congress."