There’s was only one Republican who had the courage to vote against a budget that by nearly all honest accounts will punish poor and working class families. That Republican was not Congressman Brian Fitzpatrick.
The GOP-controlled House, with Fitzpatrick’s critical support, voted 217 to 215 Tuesday night to approve a budget resolution that provides a roadmap for President Donald Trump’s legislative agenda by instructing key congressional committees to cut spending – over $2 trillion – in order to subsidize $4.5 trillion in tax breaks that Democrats point out will disproportionately benefit the wealthiest Americans. Kentucky Congressman Thomas Massie was the lone Republican to vote with every single Democrat to reject the “reverse Robin Hood resolution.” It now needs to pass the Republican-controlled Senate, which passed its own budget resolution with less potential cuts to Medicaid.
“Brian Fitzpatrick may pretend to be a moderate, but time after time he has thrown his support behind MAGA legislation,” said Indivisible Bucks County member Kierstyn Zolfo. “This budget is going to shred our social safety net, and will gut Medicaid and food stamp programs. People will go hungry and sick as a direct result of this vote, and Fitzpatrick and his fellow Republicans own those harms to our community.”
It’s not just shredding it, this budget puts these life-saving programs “into the wood chipper.”
The House budget Fitzpatrick supports calls for a $880 billion reduction in health care spending over the decade, which could include programs like Medicaid, Medicare (would they dare?), and the Affordable Care Act. According to the Center for American Progress, estimates in spending reductions for Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) would amount to $1.31 billion in funding loss for Fitzpatrick’s First Congressional District over 9 years and result in 25,000 of his constituents being dropped from the rolls in these two programs.
That’s 25,000 local families impacted by these Fitzpatrick-backed proposed cuts.
The heartless budget also instructs the agriculture committee, which funds Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), sometimes referred to as food stamps, to cut $230 billion in spending. About 40 million people, including 1 in 5 children, rely on SNAP food assistance each month across the county, while there are 43,372 SNAP recipients in Bucks County and almost 2 million across the Pennsylvania (as of 2023).
Connor O’Hanlon, chair of Doylestown Democrats, says this vote debunks Fitzpatrick’s tired claims of being an “independent,” or a “moderate” vote in Congress.
“Brian Fitzpatrick once again shows his true loyalties are to Donald Trump, Elon Musk, and the uber wealthy by voting for a budget that strips away health care and food security from millions of the most vulnerable Americans,” said O’Hanlon. “The radical agenda to slash these benefits shows a blatant disregard for seniors who may rely on Medicaid for long term health care … Similarly, by cutting SNAP, Fitzpatrick and the Republicans choose the oligarchs over the single mother trying to provide for her children.”
Now Republicans, in a desperate attempt to spin pissed off voters, might point to Trump’s recent interview with Fox News’ Sean Hannity when he said “Medicare, Medicaid, none of that stuff is going to be touched.” Here’s the thing — even if Trump was telling the truth (not likely) — math tells a different story. The New York Times points out that these are “cuts that are probably mathematically necessary to make the budget work.”
And Sharon Parrott, president of the nonpartisan Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, agrees.
“The quick math on the House budget shows a stark equation: the cost of extending tax cuts for households with incomes in the top 1 percent — $1.1 trillion through 2034 — equals roughly the same amount as the proposed potential cuts for health coverage under Medicaid and food assistance under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP),” she said in a statement.
Parrott added, “The House Republican budget’s path of higher costs for families, more people without health coverage, increased poverty and hardship, and higher debt — all in service to tax cuts for the wealthy and profitable business interests — is the wrong direction for our nation.”
This is what Congressman Fitzpatrick voted for. And this is what Congressman Fitzpatrick supports, no matter what he might tweet or post on Facebook. Voters should let him know how they feel.
