A new memo being sent to House Republicans on Monday is encouraging them to tout new work requirements for Medicaid and federal food benefits, as lawmakers return to their districts for Congress’ annual August recess period.
Democrats and Republicans are locked in a messaging war over President Donald Trump’s ‘big, beautiful bill,’ a fight that’s only expected to intensify as the 2026 midterm elections creep closer.
Advancing American Freedom (AAF), a group founded by former Vice President Mike Pence, is looking to provide backup to GOP lawmakers with new guidance on how to sell the bill to constituents.
The memo positions Democratic attacks as ‘Left Wing operatives…already working to distort and malign every part of the [one big, beautiful bill].’
Democrats have been accusing Republicans of ripping federal benefits like Medicaid away from millions of people in order to give tax breaks to the wealthy.
They’re hoping to gin up enough outrage against the bill to carry them to take back the House of Representatives next year.
But the memo’s first section encourages GOP lawmakers to point out that ‘every Democrat voted against’ the bill, followed by three of what the right sees as its strongest points.
The AAF memo urges Republicans to say, for example, that the bill’s extension of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) avoided a cumulative $4 trillion tax increase for Americans, including ‘working families.’
The bill also includes ‘$165 billion to secure the border, including 3,000 new border patrol agents, $10,000 bonuses for ICE and Border Patrol agents, and $46.5 billion for the wall,’ and ‘$150 billion to rebuild our military including shipbuilding, nuclear arsenal, and the Golden Dome,’ which Democrats opposed as well in their votes against the bill.
In addition to more talking points celebrating the bill’s tax cuts, energy provisions, and spending cut measures, AAF appears to be calling on Republicans to take on Democrats’ criticism of federal benefit reforms head-on.
The memo touts ‘commonsense Medicaid reforms’ like ‘a work requirement for able-bodied adults who are not caretakers or parents of children under 15 years old in the Medicaid and SNAP programs.’
It also encourages Republicans to point out the bill ‘reduces payments for Medicaid to states that provide coverage to illegal aliens by a commensurate amount’ and ‘requires regular reviews to ensure that dead or ineligible people are not enrolled.’
AAF also believes the conservative policy wins in the bill will also be a strong talking point, urging GOP lawmakers to point out that the legislation effectively defunds Planned Parenthood for a year, establishes a new tax credit for school choice, and ‘disincentivizes gambling by letting gamblers only write off 90% of their losses.’
House Republicans working to sell the bill will have their work cut out for them over the next four weeks, however.
A recent Fox News poll conducted in mid-July found that 58% of registered voters disapproved of the ‘big, beautiful bill,’ compared to just 39% who supported it.
The gap between Republicans and Democrats is significant – 73% of registered Republican voters approved of the bill, compared to just 10% of Democrats. Independents opposed the bill by a margin of 29% to 70%.
But Democrats aren’t in the clear, either. A new poll released Monday by the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research shows that a significant number of Democratic Party voters see their party as ‘weak’ and ‘ineffective.’