By David Wright, Tami Luhby, CNN
(CNN) — President Donald Trump marked the 250th anniversary of the nation’s founding on July Fourth with a speech touting a roaring stock market, urging election reforms, and hailing military interventions in Venezuela and Iran.
But another anniversary went conspicuously unmarked: the passage of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, signed into law by Trump exactly one year earlier.
At its ceremonious signing, the act seemed poised to be a defining legislative achievement for Republicans to run on in November.
But 12 months later, the law’s cutbacks to key safety-net programs such as Medicaid and food stamps have fueled a chorus of criticism, challenging the effort to promote its populist and business-friendly tax cuts.
While the president and his party have sought to play up the law’s most popular provisions, even attempting to recast it as a “Working Families Tax Cut Bill,” Democrats have seized on negative polling and the Republican rebrand as evidence of its failures.
Today, it looks increasingly uncertain which party will benefit from the law’s passage, as the landmark policy package has become a major factor in competitive battleground races that could decide control of the House of Representatives.
“We know that it’s going to be a robust campaign,” said Rep. Tom Barrett, a Republican seeking reelection in Michigan’s 7th District. “I represent one of the top targeted districts in the entire country, and it’s on me to go out and sell the merits of this.”
Healthcare fallout
Historic reductions to federal Medicaid spending and changes to eligibility requirements quickly emerged as the most politically fraught component of the legislation.
The law, known as OBBBA, is projected to slash roughly $1.2 trillion from the key public health insurance program for lower-income Americans through 2035, leaving 7.5 million more people without coverage by 2034, according to the Congressional Budget Office. The most notable provision adds a federal work requirement to Medicaid, a longtime GOP goal.
Democrats across the country have ripped into the GOP over the sweeping changes.
In California’s battleground 22nd District, for example, Democrat Randy Villegas has made fallout from the Medicaid cuts a centerpiece of his campaign against incumbent GOP Rep. David Valadao.
“We’re the most impacted in the entire country, where two out of every three of our constituents rely on Medicaid,” Villegas told CNN.
“Almost 70,000 people stand to lose healthcare in our district,” he said, adding that local clinics he’s spoken to are “worried about the possibility of shutting down and not being able to provide services to our community.”
Valadao has said that OBBBA will preserve Medicaid long term.
“One of my goals representing the Central Valley is to protect Medicaid for those who truly need it the most: seniors, vulnerable children, and disabled Americans,” he said in a statement to CNN last month.
In Iowa’s competitive US Senate race, Democrat Josh Turek has hammered Republican Rep. Ashley Hinson over her vote for the legislation and its reforms, which have stressed healthcare providers. Turek — who uses a wheelchair because of his spina bifida, attributed to his father’s exposure to Agent Orange during the Vietnam War — references his own experience navigating the healthcare system to underscore his opposition to the changes.
“I certainly know firsthand the importance of access to quality healthcare,” he has Read more