How We Can Stop the GOP's Medicaid-Slashing, Billionaire-Enriching Megabill

This fight isn’t over, and this bill can still be stopped

House Republicans just passed their Medicaid-slashing, billionaire-enriching megabill (aka “The Republican Tax Scam”) in a 215-214 vote. The bill got even worse overnight, and at the end of this post we’ll detail some of its most harmful provisions—but the most important thing to know right now is this:

This fight isn’t over, and this bill can still be stopped! Even now, as Speaker Johnson and his pals prematurely pop their champagne, we have two clear paths to killing this bill:

1. We can defeat the bill outright in the Senate by pressuring four Senate Republicans into abstaining or voting against it.

2. If the Senate changes even one word of the bill—and GOP Senators are already pledging major rewrites their House counterparts won’t like—it’ll go back to the House for another vote, giving us a second chance to block it there.

Let’s break that all down a bit more.

To start, it’s important to remember that Republicans are using what used to be a fairly unusual legislative maneuver—reconciliation—to skirt the Senate’s 60-vote filibuster. To do that, the House and Senate must agree to pass the exact same bill, down to the letter, in both chambers.

But Senate Republicans simply aren’t going to pass the House’s bill without major changes. Vulnerable senators are concerned about some of the draconian cuts to Medicaid and SNAP. Others think the cuts should be even more ruthless, or are annoyed at some of the deficit-ballooning deals Johnson had to make to get this thing through the House.

There are no easy fixes for Republican leadership here. The divides are so deep, and the cuts so politically toxic, that we have a real shot at flipping four votes to stop reconciliation in the Senate outright, like we did in 2017.

Even if a bill does squeak through the Senate, it’ll be significantly different from what the House just voted on. That means another tough round of deal-making, infighting, and politically risky votes for House Republicans—with no guarantee of success.

MAGA Republicans will be furious that some of their cuckoo, extremist ideas got stripped out.

Swing-seat Republicans will be furious they need to vote twice to cut Medicaid and SNAP—especially if the Senate strips out special concessions Johnson promised to secure their yes votes in the first place.

And Trump will be furious he’s not simply getting his way, instantly and unquestioningly.

If that happens—and if we keep relentless pressure on vulnerable Republicans—the bill may never pass the House a second time. Getting it across the finish line in one chamber took a herculean effort. Passing it again, with two chambers involved and weeks of additional pressure, will be even harder.

Whether we stop the reconciliation bill in the Senate or in the House, there’s no doubt we can still win this fight! But we’ll need to ratchet up pressure on Republicans in both chambers right now.

>> If you have a Republican senator, call theme NOW to demand they vote NO on this bill and keep their hands off Medicaid and SNAP.

>> If you have a Republican representative who voted for this bill*, email them now to show them there’s a political price to siding with billionaires over working people.

Indivisible, and our partners at MoveOn and Working Families Power, will continue rolling out additional volunteer opportunities and pressure tactics to prevent:

• 14 million people getting kicked off their healthcare due to major cuts and restrictions on Medicaid and other healthcare programs, like the Affordable Care Act

• Empty stomachs for millions of kids and seniors thanks to the largest cuts to food assistance (e.g. SNAP) in US history

• Higher home utility bills thanks to cuts to clean energy investments that drive most new electricity sources

• Runaway college costs and bigger student loans caused by billions of dollars being cut from loan, loan forgiveness, and Pell Grant programs

• More challenges to holding Trump accountable after Republicans slipped in a one-sentence provision that would make it extremely difficult for courts to hold Trump administration officials in contempt for violating court orders

• 10,000 new ICE agents at a time the agency is arresting political opponents, defying court orders, and deporting US citizens

• New attacks on the trans community as Republicans inserted a last-minute change banning Medicaid from covering gender-affirming care

• Tax breaks for people buying gun silencers (“Who asked for this? The assassin lobby?” asked one Democratic lawmaker)

• Millions of patients denied cancer screenings and reproductive care due to the defunding of Planned Parenthood and banning of abortion coverage under ACA insurance plans

• Hospital layoffs, service cuts, and closures thanks to historic cuts to vital healthcare funding

• Risks to Medicare as the CBO estimates the bill’s impact on the deficit will trigger automatic cuts

Thanks for fighting alongside us as we work to sink this tax scam and stop the cuts.

- Indivisible

* You can find the final vote tally here.