President Trump’s tax and spending invoice simply handed within the Home of Representatives and is now on its approach to his desk to develop into legislation. In accordance with the Congressional Price range Workplace, the laws (aka the One Huge Stunning Invoice Act) will trigger 11.8 million People to lose their medical health insurance by 2034, due to $1.1 trillion in cuts to Medicaid, Medicare, and Obamacare.
Which People will lose entry to those entitlement applications? In relation to Medicaid a minimum of, a number of GOP politicians have supplied a suspiciously related reply: It will likely be adults between the ages of 29 and 35 who select to dwell of their mom’s basement to keep away from working.
Hinson on Medicaid advantages: "They shouldn't be going to a 29-year-old man who's residing in his mother's basement selecting to not work." pic.twitter.com/Sj0LvuICTI
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) July 3, 2025
My message to Illinois Democrats crying about @realDonaldTrump kicking ready bodied males and Illegals off Medicaid:
Younger males, GET A JOB. Get out of Mommy’s basement.
We are able to’t Make America Nice when we’ve ready bodied People utterly out of the workforce and on the… pic.twitter.com/h1gdhIkD6b
— Blaine Wilhour (@BlaineWilhour) Could 30, 2025
As Trump’s said July 4 weekend deadline approached, Republican senators and representatives have talked in interviews and on the Home ground about why proposed Medicaid cuts are supposed to goal this extraordinarily particular subset.
The concept of creating cuts to Medicaid has traditionally been unpopular, with a current ballot discovering that even 54% of Trump voters are against it. This unpopularity is why Trump has falsely claimed, repeatedly, that his tax invoice wouldn’t contact Medicaid.
So as to make these cuts palatable, the politicians in favor of them wanted a bogeyman. They wanted the modern-day equal of the Nineteen Eighties mythic creature “The Welfare Queen”—who, pundits on the time contended, strategically gave delivery to extra kids in an effort to take pleasure in free handouts from the federal government.
Now we’ve a brand new model of the previous stereotype: the 29- to 35-year-old loser who lives in his mother’s basement—typically whereas taking part in video video games.
Rep. Steve Scalise says of proposed Medicaid cuts: "35-year-olds sitting at residence taking part in video video games, they're gonna now should go get a job."
"And by the best way, that's a superb factor for them — their mother doesn't need them sitting within the basement taking part in video video games anyway." pic.twitter.com/xrUegCsdeN
— Ken Klippenstein (@kenklippenstein) July 3, 2025
Ogles: "The folks which can be getting off Medicaid are those that shouldn't be on Medicaid to start with … it's the loser in his mama's basement taking part in video video games as an alternative of going out and getting a job." pic.twitter.com/hr2Ltfhfwl
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) July 3, 2025
The extra GOP politicians have gone on about this supposed drain on society (Home Majority Chief Steve Scalise alone has talked about it a minimum of 3 times previously six weeks), the extra rank-and-file social media customers have appeared to soak up it.
Kicking thousands and thousands of basement dwellers off of welfare, meals stamps and Medicaid just isn’t merciless or unsuitable. It’s referred to as a life lesson. Get off your lazy ass and get a job!!!!!
— John Gilbertson (@TJandCasper) April 30, 2025
A stereotype that doesn’t go the scent check
However what number of such basement dwellers might really be on the market, having fun with the taxpayers’ largesse with out contributing something to society?
In accordance with the Individuals’s Coverage Venture, in December 2022, solely 4 million able- bodied adults with out dependents (ABAWD) have been persistently enrolled in Medicaid and dealing fewer than 80 hours a month.
Of these 4 million, it’s anybody’s guess what number of have been merely selecting to play video video games all day, as Scalise and his cohort recommend, fairly than struggling to seek out work in a harsh job local weather; discovering it, however not having the ability to work the complete 80 hours a month; coping with psychological well being issues that also depart them technically able-bodied; caring for different members of the family; or matriculating at a college.
A beneficiant estimate is likely to be that one in 4 inside the ABAWD cohort match the stereotype, which might imply that roughly 1 million of the greater than 70 million folks presently on Medicaid fall throughout the slender parameters of fraud, waste, and abuse that these politicians declare to be focusing on completely.
Contemplating that over 11 million persons are set to lose their medical health insurance now that this invoice has handed, it appears extraordinarily unlikely that Medicaid cuts will solely have an effect on basement dwellers. Sarcastically, although, they could really trigger lots of people to maneuver into their mother’s basement.
