League rails on passage of U.S. Senate budget bill that puts Michiganders’ lives on the line and gives handouts to the wealthy

For Immediate Release
July 1, 2025

Contact:
Laura Millard Ross
lauramr@mlpp.org
(517) 281-1084

League rails on passage of U.S. Senate budget bill that puts Michiganders’ lives on the line and gives handouts to the wealthy

Planned cuts to Medicaid and SNAP will strip health care and food away from hundreds of thousands of Michiganders

LANSING—The Michigan League for Public Policy issued the following statement today denouncing the U.S. Senate Republicans’ passage of a budget bill that would strip health care and food away from millions of Americans, including hundreds of thousands of Michiganders, in order to offset the cost of major tax giveaways for the wealthiest U.S. households and corporations. The statement can be attributed to League President and CEO Monique Stanton.

“The shock of this bill is hard to overstate. Republican leaders just voted to spend trillions of dollars to increase poverty and hunger, to strip away health coverage, and to create the biggest redistribution of wealth from poor to rich in U.S. history. Much of the bill — including billions of dollars to be spent on a ‘mass deportation plan’ that could upend our nation’s immigration system — lacks specificity and gives full discretion to the Trump administration, not Congress. And this shortsighted, harmful bill also adds $2.4 trillion to the nation’s deficit. It’s just staggering.

“We know that the majority of Americans oppose this plan, and it’s clear why. Most — 69% — of the tax cuts will go to the richest 20% of Americans. And those with the lowest earnings among us? They’ll see just 1% of those cuts. And that’s on top of the bill’s plan to slash Medicaid and food assistance, which will not only drive families deeper into poverty, but will have devastating impacts on our food and health care systems. And to be quite frank, it will lead to more widespread death, disease and disability. Millions of Americans are at risk, and every state and territory will face extreme cuts.

“For Michigan, that means the state will have to come up with $8.5 billion in Medicaid expansion costs and up to $304 million in SNAP costs that the bill strips away from our state budget. It means 123,000 Michiganders are at risk of losing food assistance, and over 700,000 are at risk of losing health care. These are our friends, our neighbors and our families. 

“The lawmakers who devised this scheme claim to be patriots, but we have a hard time understanding how. As we prepare to recognize 249 years of our nation’s independence, they have voted to approve a bill that tears the fabric of the United States, gutting support from working families, veterans, children, seniors and people with disabilities. It is shameful. There is time, though, for Republicans in Congress to consider the people they serve and change course as this big bill for billionaires is sent back to the House.”  

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The Michigan League for Public Policy, www.mlpp.org, is a nonprofit policy institute focused on opportunity for all. Its mission is to advance economic security, racial equity, health and well-being for all people in Michigan through policy change. It is the only state-level organization that addresses poverty in a comprehensive way.