New York Democratic leaders issued dire warnings over dramatic cuts to social safety net programs included in Congressional Republicans’ massive spending plan — which sponsors have dubbed the “Big Beautiful Bill” to honor President Trump — that passed the House of Representatives early on Thursday morning.
The multi-trillion-dollar budget bill, which passed the House by just one vote, is intended to enact vast swaths of Trump’s agenda. It includes a roughly $3.8 trillion tax cut, mostly extending a previous one pushed by Trump in 2017, and boosts spending on beefing up border security.
The bill also contains billions of dollars in trims to areas including Medicaid, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), and clean energy tax credits approved under former President Biden. It still must pass the US Senate, where the Republican majority has vowed to change it, before heading to Trump’s desk for his signature.
However, Mayor Eric Adams was not among the officials who raised alarm bells about the GOP bill on May 22. Adams has refrained from criticizing President Trump, the driving force behind the spending package, for months and has stayed silent on many of the president’s most controversial moves even after the Justice Department dropped his federal indictment last month.
‘Donald Trump’s One Big Ugly Bill’
House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-Brooklyn), in a statement, said House Republicans are slashing vital programs that millions of low-income Americans rely on to fund tax cuts for the wealthy. All House Democrats voted against the bill, joined by two Republicans.
“Donald Trump’s One Big Ugly Bill will mean millions of families will pay higher premiums, copays and deductibles,” Jeffries said. “Hospitals will close, nursing homes will shut down and communities will suffer. It will take food out of the mouths of children, seniors and veterans at a time when too many families are already struggling to live paycheck to paycheck.”
Gov. Kathy Hochul similarly accused Republicans of catering to the ultra-wealthy at the expense of working people, laying the blame squarely on the representatives who voted for the legislation.
“New Yorkers deserve representatives who are fighting to bring down the cost of their families’ medical and grocery bills, not line the pockets of the ultra-wealthy,” Hochul said in a Thursday statement. “In Albany, I’m working around the clock in service of everyday New Yorkers — our state desperately needs its leaders in Washington to do the same.”
Hochul and state legislative leaders have acknowledged they need to call lawmakers back to Albany to reshape the $254 billion-plus budget they approved earlier this month, depending on the version of the federal bill that Trump ultimately signs into law. The state spending plan includes over $90 billion in expected federal funding, which could be significantly reduced by the GOP
Loss of Medicaid coverage
At the city level, Comptroller and mayoral candidate Brad Lander warned that Trump’s so-called “big, beautiful budget” would make working-class New Yorkers sicker, hungrier, and more vulnerable.”
According to Lander’s office, under the current federal bill, the state could lose over $3 billion in Medicaid funding. That would force 224,000 people to lose their Essential Plan coverage, 500,000 others onto state coverage, and 1.5 million New Yorkers to become uninsured statewide. In the city, 800,000 people could lose their insurance.
The comptroller said the state will also lose $1.8 billion in SNAP funding if the legislation is enacted.
Lander also once again urged Mayor Adams to add $2 billion to the city’s general reserve to plug any holes blown through the city’s budget by Trump’s cuts.
“New York City must prepare for these cuts’ real and dangerous impact on millions of New Yorkers,” Lander said. “We must do everything we can now to safeguard our City’s fiscal health and stand up for our communities targeted by the Trump Administration’s callous and constant attacks.”
Adams did not add any new funds to the city’s $8.5 billion general reserve—money it sets aside and can tap during an economic crisis—in its budget plan for the coming fiscal year, which was released earlier this month. At the time, Adams’ First Deputy Mayor Randy Mastro said the current level of reserves is more than enough to offset funding reductions from Washington.
“Some people, the pessimists, political opportunists, they see the glass as half-empty, they’re predicting the worst for New York City,” Mastro said at the time. “We see the glass as half-full, coming off of a record revenue year where hundreds of millions were able to be rolled over into this year.”
