‘won’t Have Anywhere To Hide’: Democrats Are Eager To Pick Apart The Gop Megabill

Republicans are gearing up to put pen to paper on President Donald Trump’s big domestic policy bill. It could give Democrats a big, beautiful target for their midterm messaging.

Next week, GOP lawmakers will start rolling out portions of the planned megabill, with House committees slated to hold a series of meetings advancing individual portions. Speaker Mike Johnson has set an aggressive Memorial Day deadline to get a final product through the chamber.

Democrats, meanwhile, are mapping out a committee-by-committee fight over the drafting of the megabill. They’re planning to force a plethora of votes, aiming to put vulnerable House Republicans on the record regarding some of the most controversial pieces of the GOP agenda. They’re eyeing likely changes to Medicaid in the Energy and Commerce Committee and food assistance in the Agriculture Committee as particularly ripe avenues for attack, not to mention tax provisions in Ways and Means.

The hope is that the emergence of concrete proposals will finally give the Democratic attacks on the GOP agenda some bite. Already party campaign committees and allied groups have sought to soften the ground by accusing Republicans of targeting Medicaid, but the GOP has parried by insisting no such cuts have been offered. The NRCC succeeded in getting some billboards on that topic taken down last month.

“They won't have anywhere to hide” once legislation emerges, said Anne Shoup, a senior adviser to Protect Our Care, one of the best-funded groups engaged in the fight against the GOP bill. “We know how important the next couple weeks are in this fight, and we're so we're going to be ramping up and really taking it to the Republicans.”

“They’re writing the playbook for Democrats to take back the House in 2026,” added House Majority PAC spokesperson Katarina Flicker.

Party officials are essentially planning to re-run the playbook that gave Democrats control of the House following the 2018 midterms — after they hammered Republicans for months over votes they took to repeal the Affordable Care Act and to enact the tax cuts for wealthy Americans that Hill Republicans are now looking to extend.

The two-week congressional recess now coming to a close gave a preview of that familiar messaging after Democrats took part in a coordinated campaign around Medicaid and Social Security and held town halls, some of them in GOP districts, where leaders talked up economic issues.

Republicans can pass the megabill on their own if they can manage to stick together — they’re planning to use special procedures to bypass a Senate filibuster and thus won’t require Democratic votes. But Democrats are intent on making the GOP pay a price for it.

“If House Republicans push ahead with their plan to gut Medicaid and rip health care away from millions of Americans just to fund another tax cut for their billionaire donors like Elon Musk, Democrats will fight them every step of the way — and we’ll make it as painful as possible,” said Rep. Lori Trahan (D-Mass.), an Energy and Commerce member.

Democrats are eyeing ways to put purple-district members serving on specific committees on the spot. Those include Reps. Tom Kean (R-N.J.), Mariannette Miller-Meeks (R-Iowa) and Gabe Evans (R-Colo.), who serve on Energy and Commerce and could have to vote on changes to Medicaid state reimbursement rates that GOP leaders have floated. On the Agriculture Committee, swing-district Reps. Don Bacon (R-Neb.), Derek Van Orden (Wis.) and Zach Nunn (R-Iowa) could find themselves targeted over cuts to SNAP, the food aid program.

Republicans are expected to vote together to defeat Democratic amendments in committee. Some panels, such as Energy and Commerce, have enough of a GOP advantage on their rosters that Republicans could afford a defection or two. But party leaders will still face plenty of hurdles in getting the legislation to the House floor, with various factions of the conference vying to include provisions to expand the state and local tax deduction while others push to avoid cuts to SNAP or Medicaid.

Those factions could band together and threaten to vote against the legislation if it doesn’t reflect their priorities.

Some purple-district Republicans have vowed not to cut social spending programs as part of the megabill, but most experts believe the House GOP needs to find cuts to pay for the package — putting some Medicaid spending at risk. Republicans are also betting a permanent extension of the 2017 tax cuts will become popular with Americans, not to mention other Trump priorities including exempting tips from income tax.

And while Democrats have talked about threats to Social Security as part of their messaging around the domestic policy package, seizing on agency cuts made by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency initiative, the legislation isn’t touching that program or Medicare.

“All national Democrats have are pathetic lies and fear-mongering tactics to distract from their failures,” said NRCC spokesperson Mike Marinella. “They were already forced to take down their dishonest Medicaid ads across the country because Americans know they’re full of crap.”

Still, Democrats see the potential changes to Medicaid as one of their most potent issues to highlight against Republicans, especially after its expansion under the Affordable Care Act put many more Americans on its rolls.

“The [Energy and Commerce] markup is put-up-or-shut-up time for Republicans who say they won’t cut Medicaid. Trump has said he doesn’t want this to be a health care bill, but when you gut Medicaid, you make it a health care bill,” said Rep. Scott Peters (D-Calif.), who serves on the panel. “Even Donald Trump knows that’s not a fight worth picking.”