Melanie Zanona, Sahil Kapur and Ben Kamisar at NBC:
The House’s sweeping budget plan to advance President Donald Trump’s agenda could result in steep cuts to Medicaid and food stamps, putting a key group of Republicans in a politically difficult position ahead of a potential vote next week in the narrowly divided chamber.
There are a handful of House Republicans who represent parts of the country where sizable shares of the populations receive government assistance from Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, according to an NBC News analysis of the most recently available Census Bureau data.
The lawmakers from the 10 GOP-held districts with the highest percentages of Medicaid or SNAP beneficiaries span the ideological and geographical spectrum. They include members from deep-red districts, such as Speaker Mike Johnson of Louisiana and veteran Rep. Hal Rogers of Kentucky, as well as those in competitive battlegrounds, such as Reps. David Valadao of California, Rob Bresnahan of Pennsylvania and Monica De La Cruz of Texas.
While Democrats represent more districts with the largest portions of adults receiving federal assistance, the prevalence of constituents who are dependent on anti-poverty programs in GOP-held seats could test Republicans who are on the hunt for steep spending cuts and under pressure to implement Trump’s agenda. And it underscores why the issue has become such a sticking point in the budget talks.
As Elon Musk brandished a chainsaw onstage at CPAC yesterday, it wasn’t just those with front row seats running for cover. A number of Congressional Republicans are starting to flee the blowback of his Department of Government Efficiency’s slash-and-burn approach to federal budget cuts, driven by growing evidence of a groundswell of concern among groups of ordinary voters. And if you think this is only a dynamic in moderate swing seats, consider this morning’s newsletter a wake-up call.
In an R+18 district: Speaking at a business luncheon yesterday in Westerville, Ohio, GOP Rep. Troy Balderson “described President Donald Trump’s flurry of executive orders as ‘getting out of control’ …. [and] expressed some pushback to the idea of sole decision-making power lying with Trump and billionaire advisor Elon Musk,” the Columbus Dispatch’s Samantha Hendrickson reports. “‘Congress has to decide whether or not the Department of Education goes away,’ Balderson asserted. ‘Not the president, not Elon Musk.’”
In deep-red Georgia: Last night in Roswell, Georgia, an overflow crowd packed into a town hall forum for GOP Rep. Rich McCormick, barraging him with pointed questions and accusatory comments about DOGE’s cuts. His staff “seemed caught off guard by the massive crowd of hundreds that gathered,” reports the Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s Greg Bluestein. (This is a district Trump carried by 22 points just three months ago.)
How it went: “Attendees set the tone early, with one accusing McCormick of ‘doing us a disservice’ for supporting the budget-slashing initiatives by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency that have torn through all corners of federal government,” Bluestein reports. “‘You don’t think I’m going to stand up for you?’ asked McCormick, as the crowd responded with loud boos.” Video from the scene
Beware the town hall: As Playbook’s resident geriatric millennial, your author’s mind immediately flashed back to the raucous town hall forums that preceded the 2010 midterm wave election, when an angry and energized electorate propelled Republicans to victory and smashed through Democratic control of Congress — only this time, the parties would be reversed. (It is, of course, way too soon to be making any serious predictions about what might happen in 2026.)
But consider the broader context: The scene comes as a growing number of congressional Republicans desperately try to back-channel with White House officials about DOGE’s cuts, POLITICO’s Meredith Lee Hill reported in a must-read story last night.
