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Our Opinion: Bresnahan’s budget vote breaks promises to avoid Medicaid cuts [1]
['Editorial Board']
Date: 2025-07-06
Rob Bresnahan made promises when it came to protecting public safety net programs.
He made them often on the campaign trail as he ran for Pennsylvania’s 8th District seat in the U.S. House of Representatives. He made them practically every month since he was sworn in with the Republican wave in January.
He made them willingly, without solicitation.
The message in those statements should be considered consistent, unambiguous. Weighing all of that, we find it fair and responsible to remind the people of the 8th District that Bresnahan voted in favor of the budget bill that passed Thursday, allowing President Donald Trump’s controversial agenda to become law.
Democrats railed against the legislation, as we’d expect they would. But it’s not just them: The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office projects that, in the name of paying for Trump’s promised sweeping tax cuts for the ultra-wealthy, Medicaid spending will be reduced in the neighborhood of $793 billion to more than $1 trillion over the next decade.
Bresnahan, R-8, Dallas Twp., celebrated with 217 other House Republicans who supported passage, insisting that the bill provides the “largest working-class tax cuts in American history,” provides copious funds for immigration reform and “eliminates taxes on tips and overtime.” But it’s his stance that drastic Medicaid funding cuts won’t lead to loss of health care, and that it fulfills repeated promises not to cut benefits, that will and should define his tenure in Washington.
Trump’s Big, Beautiful Bill protects and strengthens Medicaid by “cracking down on the fraud, waste and abuse that are driving the program toward collapse,” Bresnahan said in a July 3 statement. “This ensures that Medicaid is there for seniors, people with disabilities and vulnerable families, not for those who can work but refuse to do so.”
We find his arguments that the bill won’t negatively affect some — if not all — of the more than 200,000 8th District residents currently receiving Medicaid — a quarter of the district’s residents according to numbers provided by Bresnahan himself — defy common sense. While recognizing the reality that there is some fraud in the welfare system that needed to be cut out, it’s difficult to find any proof that it’s tantamount to $1 trillion of fraud over a decade.
That hardly matters in this debate, though. What does are Bresnahan’s repeated promises not to cut Medicaid benefits, and reconciling those promises with the fact that this bill cuts Medicaid benefits.
Directly from his campaign website: “I will always fight to protect Social Security & Medicare for future generations,” Bresnahan wrote. “It’s your money, you paid into the system, and the government needs to keep its promise to every American. I will not support raising the retirement age or any benefit cuts to these programs.”
In a statement on budget reconciliation talks released on Feb. 14: “If a bill is put in front of me that guts the benefits my neighbors rely on, I will not vote for it,” Bresnahan wrote. “Pennsylvania’s Eighth District chose me to advocate for them in Congress. These benefits are promises that were made to the people of NEPA and where I come from, people keep their word.”
Responding to a question posed during his telephone town hall in March by a military veteran from Hazleton, who asked him point blank if he planned to support the wishes of the Trump administration if it conflicted with the needs of the people in his district: “I want you to know, I will fight to protect working-class families in Northeastern Pennsylvania, and I also will stand with President Trump in opposing gutting Medicaid,” Bresnahan responded. “My position on this has not, and it will not, change.”
In an April statement to House Republican leadership: “We cannot and will not support a final reconciliation bill that includes any reduction in Medicaid coverage for vulnerable populations,” Bresnahan wrote. “As Members of Congress who helped to deliver a Republican Majority, many of us representing districts with high rates of constituents who depend on Medicaid, we would like to reiterate our strong support for this program that ensures our constituents have reliable healthcare. Balancing the federal budget must not come at the expense of those who depend on these benefits for their health and economic security.”
In a Facebook post on June 11: “From the start, I have said I would protect Medicaid benefits for my constituents who rely on them, and I am proud to fulfill that promise.”
Voters in the 8th District can do little now about Trump’s agenda, the impact of the Big, Beautiful Bill and the harsh realities that many expect will come from it. They could, however, do something at the ballot box about Rob Bresnahan, who could learn a harsh lesson about promises made if they aren’t deemed to be kept.
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[1] Url:
https://www.thetimes-tribune.com/2025/07/06/our-opinion-bresnahans-budget-vote-breaks-promises-to-avoid-medicaid-cuts/
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