Sounding the Huge, Scary Alarm on Medicaid, Medicare, and SNAP
- GPNYC Board
- May 24
- 2 min read
One of the biggest current debates over the alleged “Big, Beautiful Bill” is with aiding those in need financially. Exhibit A: the fact that a package of spending cuts that would harm Medicaid, Medicare, and SNAP passed the House of Representatives.[1] As such, we at Gray Panthers are sounding a huge, scary alarm.
The cuts already proposed are harsh and heartless. The Congressional Budget Office estimated that a previous version of the so-called “Big, Beautiful Bill” would result in over 10 million Americans losing health care coverage.[2] And millions of Americans would also lose access to SNAP benefits.[3] And somehow, for some members of Congress, that is not big enough, not steep enough, not harsh enough.
Let’s be clear: between proposed Medicaid cuts, proposed Medicare cuts, proposed cuts to SNAP, and proposed tax cuts to the wealthy (to name a few, and we’re barely touching the surface), it is abundantly clear that the priority among some in Congress is the wealthiest Americans, at the expense of the most vulnerable Americans.[4]
And this is even though the wealthiest Americans don’t need further help, for they are already wealthy. And even though the most vulnerable Americans do need help, for without that help, they could be without food, without health care, without other necessities needed to survive—let alone thrive.
Such efforts to undermine vulnerable Americans should be called out for what it is: heartless, cruel, and a violation of the core principles of this country’s founders.
Our founders believed in three unalienable rights: life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. How can someone live without health care or food? How can someone have liberty when they are economically restricted due to the lack of access to necessities? And how can someone pursue happiness when they are not even able to afford to pursue what they want for dinner at the grocery store, due to the food being unaffordable?
Some of the same politicians who say they admire our founders are also ironically the ones straying from said founders’ principles the most. Perhaps our politicians should get back to some of these principles. And a start would be preserving, rather than cutting, SNAP, Medicare, and Medicaid.
Until then, however, we’re sounding the huge, scary alarm over the “Big, Beautiful Bill.”
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[1] https://www.cnbc.com/2025/05/23/what-medicaid-snap-cuts-in-house-republican-bill-mean-for-benefits.html
[2] https://www.medicarerights.org/medicare-watch/2025/05/15/house-republicans-move-forward-with-plans-to-terminate-insurance-coverage-food-assistance-for-millions