CBO contradicts Fox pundits, finding GOP budget requires slashing Medicaid to cover tax cuts for the rich

Fox figures assured viewers that Republicans wouldn’t touch Medicaid, but as one Democratic congressman said, “The math doesn’t work without devastating Medicaid cuts”

Written by John Knefel

Published

Fox News personalities responded to an austerity budget framework from congressional Republicans by assuring viewers that Medicaid could be spared from deep cuts, but a report released Wednesday by the Congressional Budget Office contradicts those claims.

The CBO, which offers nonpartisan analysis of federal spending, found that a Republican House budget resolution released on February 25 would require hundreds of billions of dollars in cuts to Medicaid, Medicare, or the Children’s Health Insurance Program to offset proposed tax cuts for the wealthy. Even prior to the CBO’s report, analysts were clear that the framework would require cuts to Medicaid and that there was nowhere near enough fraud or abuse in those systems to make up the difference. The budget framework itself doesn’t mention Medicaid and instead obfuscates by disguising the cuts as part of an unspecified $880 billion reduction.

Right-wing pundits have spent weeks laying the foundation for the looming Republican cuts to Medicaid, pushing to impose burdensome and unnecessary work requirements or to turn funding for the program into block grants issued to the states — a de facto cut of up to 25% over 10 years.  

The CBO’s findings undercut a common narrative on Fox News, which is that President Donald Trump and congressional Republicans aren’t going to touch Medicaid other than rooting out waste, fraud, and abuse. (Trump has made the same claim.) 

  • Fox News host Jesse Watters said, “Democrats are squealing Trump is going to cut Medicaid, but look what we found here,” before listing what he characterized as inappropriate examples of Medicaid spending. He added that the Trump administration is “saving us all money, and Democrats are fundraising to stop it.” [Fox News, Jesse Watters Primetime, 2/27/25]

  • Days later Watters agreed with guest and conservative writer Michael Shellenberger, who said, “I don’t think that they should be cutting Medicaid — I know there’s some talk about that in Congress.” Watters responded: “Absolutely, and we want to reform Medicaid. We want everybody to live a happy, healthy life.” [Fox News, Jesse Watters Primetime, 3/3/25]

  • Fox News host Greg Gutfeld said Republicans “are only going after Medicaid and Medicare for fraud — everybody knows that.” He continued: “That is true. Everybody knows that.” [Fox News, The Five, 2/27/25]

  • Fox News anchor Martha MacCallum said, “Once anyone discusses looking at Medicare and Medicaid for fraud, it immediately gets translated — most often by Democrats, I must say, but sometimes by some Republicans — as they want to cut Medicare and Medicaid.” She also cited unspecified Republicans who said the allegation that the bill would require cuts to social programs was a “talking point that’s not accurate.” [Fox News, The Story With Martha MacCallum, 2/26/25]

  • During his February 28 radio show, Fox’s Mark Levin helped congressional Republicans hide the ball on Medicaid cuts, claiming the budget framework “has nothing to do with Medicaid.” [Westwood One, The Mark Levin Show, 2/28/25]

  • Three days earlier, Levin claimed Democrats were falsely accusing Republicans of cutting Medicaid even as he acknowledged and celebrated implementing work requirements. Congressional Republicans want to “see if illegal aliens are receiving it, they want to see if people, including young men who are quite capable of working but won't work and don't want to work, are receiving it.” He added: “And they call that cutting Medicaid. Cutting Medicaid. And so they're going to accuse the Republicans” of cutting the program. [Westwood One, The Mark Levin Show, 2/25/25]

Rep. Frank Pallone (D-N.J.) responded to the CBO’s finding in a statement to NBC News, saying: “This letter from CBO confirms what we’ve been saying all along: the math doesn’t work without devastating Medicaid cuts.”

The report is just the latest piece of evidence that Republicans, with the help of their allies in right-wing media, are pushing for $4.5 trillion in tax cuts to benefit the wealthy and trying to impose new austerity measures on the working class.