\n Speaker Mike Johnson described the bill as the \u201cmost comprehensive, complicated piece of legislation\u201d in recent memory, and \u201carguably in the top two or three in the history of the Congress.\u201d Trump praised the legislation at an event in Iowa on Thursday and suggested using Democrats\u2019 opposition to it on the campaign trail.\n <\/p>\n
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\n New York Republican Rep. Nicole Malliotakis offered an emphatic defense of the legislation while calling Democratic critics \u201cliars\u201d and accusing them of \u201cfearmongering.\u201d And she argued for the new Medicaid work requirements by saying, \u201cNobody loses benefits if they choose.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
\n But Democrats insist they have a far more potent message.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cWe will look back on election night last November, on what just happened this week, culminating with this vote today, as the beginning of the House majority for Democrats,\u201d Rep. Brendan Boyle of Pennsylvania told CNN.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cThere\u2019s nothing more effective than a member of Congress saying things in their own words about how bad this bill is,\u201d added California Rep. Ami Bera, who is heavily involved in the Democrats\u2019 campaign operation.\n <\/p>\n
\n He pointed to Republicans like Rep. David Valadao, whose rural California district is heavily reliant on state and government aid. Roughly two-thirds of people in his district get their health insurance from Medicaid. \u201cThis is really a bad vote for David,\u201d Bera said.\n <\/p>\n
\n The bill cuts nearly $1 trillion over a decade from Medicaid, which has seen its costs balloon since an Obama-era expansion of that program across 40 states. Roughly 12 million people could lose health insurance by 2034 because of the changes to Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act under the bill, according to the Congressional Budget Office. Some of the starkest impacts won\u2019t be felt for years, and the bill\u2019s work requirements won\u2019t take effect until the end of 2026.\n <\/p>\n
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\n Ahead of its final passage, the \u201cbig, beautiful bill\u201d was already the subject of an intense<\/a> lobbying campaign, with more than $35 million spent on advertisements in June in an attempt to sway members and their constituents.\n <\/p>\n \n Those ad wars are continuing, as outside groups and dark money networks on both sides prepare large advertising campaigns for the coming weeks and months in a race to define the sprawling legislation.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cAfter this vote, every time you wait longer at a doctor\u2019s office or get a higher utility bill in the mail, it\u2019s gonna have a \u2018brought to you by MAGA\u2019 disclaimer to go along with it,\u201d said Jesse Ferguson, a Democratic strategist who has worked on House races.\n <\/p>\n \n A collection of Democratic outside groups \u2013 including Save My Care, Protect Our Jobs, Unrig Our Economy and others \u2013 are set to spend<\/a> several million dollars<\/a> between the beginning of July and the end of the year, according to data from the ad tracking firm AdImpact, targeting about a dozen key seats. Many were on the air throughout June and have continued launching new attack spots amid the legislative wrangling this week.\n <\/p>\n \n Demonstrating the reactive posture, Unrig Our Economy launched a new spot following Thursday\u2019s vote, targeting GOP Rep. Juan Ciscomani, from Arizona\u2019s competitive 6th Congressional District, linking criticism of his vote to the July 4 holiday deadline.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cWhile Americans are celebrating our country with family, friends, and fireworks, Republicans in Congress just passed the largest cut to Medicaid in history,\u201d the ad says<\/a>, singling out Ciscomani.\n <\/p>\n \n House Majority Forward, a nonprofit affiliated with House Democratic leadership, is creating ads to hit multiple vulnerable Republicans later this month, including Reps. Scott Perry in central Pennsylvania, Tom Barrett in southern Michigan and Derrick Van Orden in western Wisconsin, according to a person familiar with the plans.\n <\/p>\n \n A spokesperson for the organization, CJ Warnke, said in a statement that Democrats \u201cwill use their own words against them in our ads next year, and we will take back the House in 2026.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n Van Orden, for his part, shrugged off any analysis predicting that millions of people would lose coverage because he doesn\u2019t trust the Congressional Budget Office.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cThe state of Wisconsin is going to get an additional billion dollars a year for our healthcare system. That\u2019s why I\u2019m not worried about any of the junk you\u2019re talking about with reelection,\u201d Van Orden said, adding that he\u2019s also getting $500 million for rural healthcare infrastructure.\n <\/p>\n \n Democrats still have work to do to win the messaging battle against Trump\u2019s legislative agenda. Polling conducted on behalf of House Democrats last month showed that few battleground voters knew much about the GOP\u2019s massive tax and spending cuts package, which initially passed the House in May, according to PowerPoint slides of the data presented to members, obtained by CNN.\n <\/p>\n \n In a private meeting to discuss the 2026 midterms, House Democrats brought in an outside pollster who presented internal Democratic polling that showed few voters said they had heard \u201ca lot\u201d about the bill, while larger shares said they had heard \u201ca little\u201d or \u201cnot at all.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n Some Democrats saw the data as a warning sign that their party is struggling to land political hits against the bill.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cDon\u2019t allow Republicans to define this bill,\u201d said one slide in the presentation, which was obtained by CNN.\n <\/p>\n \n Key Democratic outside groups are already at work fine-tuning the messaging with off-year races in Virginia and New Jersey and the 2026 midterms in mind, aiming to raise voter awareness of the cuts to safety net programs.\n <\/p>\n \n A research report commissioned by one of those groups, Protect Our Care, and obtained by CNN, showed survey results for ads across 11 battleground districts, aiming for movement among 2024 Trump voters and swing voters and developing content \u201ceffective at lowering the job approval of Republican incumbents.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cPairing the Republican effort to cut Medicaid with the simultaneous reduction in taxes on the rich and corporations is an effective way to reduce Republican job approval,\u201d the report said.\n <\/p>\n \n Republicans are readying their own attacks on Democrats for voting against the more popular provisions in Trump\u2019s first big legislative priority, emphasizing tax cuts and border security.\n <\/p>\n \n In a political memo obtained by CNN the day of the House vote, the National Republican Congressional Committee previewed the case it will make, saying that \u201cHouse Republicans will be relentless in making this vote the defining issue of 2026.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cEvery Democrat voted to hurt working families and to protect the status quo. This vote is now their political identity, and the NRCC will work every day from now until next November to brand House Democrats with it,\u201d the memo says. And Republicans argue that Americans generally support the idea of work requirements for federal safety net programs like Medicaid and SNAP.\n <\/p>\n \n GOP Rep. Tim Burchett, who represents the Knoxville-area in Tennessee, insisted that the bill would not complicate reelection chances for his colleagues in swing districts.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cAmerica understands that things like, if you\u2019re able to work, you ought to work. We need to clear up some of the fraudulent behavior so that it provides for those single moms with two kids that are maybe just getting by and it doesn\u2019t collapse the system,\u201d Burchett said.\n <\/p>\n \n But North Carolina Rep. Chuck Edwards, a Republican who had raised concerns about the bill and the potential impact of Medicaid cuts, expressed some lingering reservations about the legislation.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cNo bill is perfect,\u201d Edwards said. \u201cI wish I had more time to digest the Senate\u2019s version and have one-on-one dialogues back at home, but I believe that we\u2019ve made some steps in the right direction.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n Asked about his message to constituents who could lose access to Medicaid under the new policies, Edwards said, \u201cI don\u2019t see a situation at this time where anyone that is entitled to Medicaid would be losing it, but I\u2019d be open to hear folks\u2019 thoughts and ideas as they might see differently.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n Meanwhile, Securing American Greatness \u2013 a group aligned with Trump\u2019s political network and its mountain of funds \u2013 and several other Republican outside groups have been on the air amid the legislating, providing support to members in battleground districts.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cCongressman Ryan Mackenzie just voted for working family tax cuts that mean higher wages and lower taxes for working families,\u201d says one of the group\u2019s ads<\/a>, running in support of the freshman representative from a swing district in Pennsylvania.\n <\/p>\n![\"House](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/gettyimages-2223439164.jpg\")
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