TAYLORVILLE — Voters must put pressure on congressional Republicans to oppose any budget bill that makes major cuts to services, according to U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill.
Lawmakers are set to return to Washington, D.C., this coming week, where they will begin a reconciliation process on a budget plan that Democrats worry will contain major cuts to Medicaid, Social Security and other federal programs.
But if just a handful of Republicans in either chamber oppose President Donald Trump’s preferred budget plan, Congress can likely block cuts to these programs, Durbin said at a news conference Thursday at a Taylorville hospital southeast of Springfield. He put pressure specifically on Illinois’ three Republican members of the House of Representatives.
“I hope they’ll come home as I have during this break and visit rural hospitals and hear first-hand from administrators and the people who work there what cutbacks in the Medicaid program mean for their communities,” Durbin said.
Democrats fear Republicans will lean on cuts to social safety net programs such as Medicaid to pass a budget plan that would extend more than $4 billion worth of tax cuts and help pay for Trump initiatives such as mass deportations.
Illinois covers about half of Medicaid costs for about 3.4 million people, or 1 in 4 residents, under the traditional program. Medicaid eligibility was expanded in 2010 by the Affordable Care Act to include more adults at higher income levels. Approximately 770,000 people in Illinois are covered under the expansion and the federal government pays 90% of the cost for that group.
Read more: State lawmakers brace for possible federal cuts to Medicaid
If Congress severely reduced that program, the state wouldn’t be able to make up the billions of dollars the federal government sends Illinois each year to cover the program, Gov. JB Pritzker said at a news conference Friday in Peoria.
“I believe that blood will be on their hands,” Pritzker said of Trump and Republicans. “People will lose their lives as a result of what they’re trying to do right now.”
Gov. JB Pritzker, a vocal critic of Donald Trump, speaks at a Rockford stop on his “Standing Up for Illinois” tour on March 21. Pritzker set up the multi-day tour to voice opposition to President Donald Trump and other federal Republicans. (Capitol News Illinois photo by Andrew Adams)
Pritzker said the size of the tax cuts Republicans are seeking is so large they will be forced to dip into Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security to cover the cost. For Illinois, that could mean $8 billion worth of health insurance coverage could be at risk, the governor said.
“Donald Trump and Elon Musk and congressional Republicans, in their crusade to give an enormous, massive tax cut to the wealthiest people in the country, have put working Illinoisans and health care on the chopping block,” Pritzker said.
Durbin said the cuts could upend the Illinois health care industry as well.
“If we do substantial cuts on Medicaid, it could have an impact on individuals first and foremost, but certainly on the survival of clinics and hospitals around the nation, and in particular, in downstate Illinois,” Durbin said.
Cuts could limit services at health care facilities and could force some hospitals or medical centers to close as they lose Medicaid funding.
“The point is this: When you decide priorities for your future, and we’re making those decisions every single day in Washington, I think health care should be the highest priority,” Durbin said.
Democrats on tour
Both Pritzker and Durbin, the state’s top elected Democrats, spent the week touring Illinois, highlighting impacts the state could feel from action at the federal level alongside other Democratic members of Congress from Illinois. Durbin focused on Medicaid on stops at hospitals in Chicago and Taylorville while Pritzker discussed agriculture, Social Security, infrastructure and Medicaid at events in Urbana, Romeoville, Rockford and Peoria.
“If people stay home and don’t speak up about this, we will see people die as a result of the devastation that this will cause,” Pritzker said Thursday in Romeoville.
Both Democrats’ hopscotching around Illinois came days after Pritzker and Durbin found themselves on opposite sides of a spending bill in Congress.
Last week, Durbin voted for a spending plan to keep the government open through September, which angered many Democrats including Pritzker, who thought Senate Democrats should force a government shutdown as a roadblock to Trump’s agenda.
“It was a huge mistake,” Pritzker said Wednesday in Urbana. “I’ve made it very clear, lots of people made it very clear, that the people who voted for the (continuing resolution) in the Senate were wrong. Dead wrong.”
Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., speaks to Chicago residents at Roseland Community Hospital on March 18. (Capitol News Illinois photo by Andrew Adams)
But shutting down the government would have been worse and enabled Trump and Elon Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency to continue dismantling parts of the federal government, Durbin said.
“I have never voted for a shut down and I didn’t last week,” Durbin said. “Do I think it’s right that we have an appropriations process that is not bipartisan? No, I don’t. And now we’re going into another one and I’ll just tell you this: I want to hold both Democrats and Republicans responsible to come up with a bipartisan approach to spending that makes sense.”
The public disagreement between the two Democrats comes as Durbin contemplates running for reelection in 2026. A litany of Illinois Democrats is rumored to be waiting in the wings, including Pritzker’s running mate, Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton.
Durbin would only say that he will decide “soon.” The 80-year-old senator, who resides in Springfield, said “whether I’m still physically able, mentally able to deal with the issues,” are the top factors guiding his decision.
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Capitol News Illinois is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news service that distributes state government coverage to hundreds of news outlets statewide. It is funded primarily by the Illinois Press Foundation and the Robert R. McCormick Foundation. This article first appeared on Capitol News Illinois and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.