Wittman says ‘Big, Beautiful Bill’ will make no significant cuts to Medicaid and Medicare services in his district

U.S. Congressman Rob Wittman (R-VA-01) reiterated his support for the One Big Beautiful Bill Act at a press conference last week following a business roundtable in Mechanicsville, saying the bill will have many positive impacts for working class families in the district.

On July 10, Wittman, along with representatives from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, hosted a roundtable with local business leaders that focused on tax provisions in the “Big, Beautiful Bill,” which passed through the U.S. House of Representatives on July 3. Wittman voted in favor of the bill, along with all other House Republicans except for two members.

Following the vote, more than 100 people organized a protest in Henrico against Wittman’s support for the bill. The protest came after several other protests and town halls during which constituents criticized Wittman's support of Trump administration policies.

The “Big, Beautiful Bill” includes trillions of dollars in tax and spending cuts, expanding measures from the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. The legislation also includes cuts to Medicaid and other federal programs under the Affordable Care Act, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, which estimates that millions will be left without health insurance as a result.

However, Wittman emphasized that the “Big, Beautiful Bill” would only affect Medicaid services for individuals who are deemed able to work, who immigrated illegally to the country, or who are deceased.

“There are no cuts in Medicare and Medicaid, I want to emphasize that,” he said. “What we’re saying is, if you’re able to work, we want you to work in return for receiving Medicaid. So we’re not throwing people off the rolls. . . The population that Medicaid is intended for, those folks are going to continue to receive their benefits. But these are the people that are not eligible for Medicaid, period.”

New Medicaid work requirements would mandate that individuals ages 19 to 64 would need to work for 80 hours each month to continue receiving benefits, with some exemptions for adults with dependents or individuals with disabilities.

Virginia Democrats have said they believe that more than 322,000 Virginians could lose Medicaid coverage under the bill – a figure that Virginia Republicans dispute. Leaders from the Virginia Hospital and Healthcare Association have also voiced concerns about Medicaid cuts potentially causing hospital closures in the state.

Wittman, however, said that many leaders have overlooked the $50 billion in funding to boost rural hospital services included in the bill, which will be distributed during the next five years.

“Rural hospitals will get quite an influx of dollars,” he said. “To make sure that they can properly provide for patient care in areas where a lot of times, the patient mix there is a much larger percentage of Medicaid patients, in those rural areas.”

Wittman also said the bill includes many positive, pro-business tax provisions for local businesses, including small businesses, and individual families. For the 59,000 or so small businesses in the First District (which includes Henrico's West End), the bill will shield them from a large federal tax rate, Wittman said, and also will protect families from a tax increase.

“This does have a big impact for what you’d consider your everyday, run-of-the-mill working class family and small business in the commonwealth,” said Wittman. “I was just at a restaurant earlier, and I asked the waitresses, ‘Well, what did you learn about the reconciliation bill?’ And they all in unison said, ‘No tax on tips!’”

The “no tax on tips” provision in the “Big, Beautiful Bill” will eliminate the federal income tax on worker tips, but not state and local income taxes or payroll taxes.

Wittman also backed the Trump administration’s recent tariffs, saying that the “off-again, on-again” administering of the tariffs act as a negotiation tactic for the administration when working to establish international trade deals.

“It’s part of the negotiating back and forth,” he said. “I think there’s a push right now to try to get some of these trade deals done. And part of that push is to say, ‘Hey, we got to have an agreement. If not, the tariffs go back into place.’”

Wittman said that local business owners and families he has talked to have had a “very positive response” to the passage of the “Big, Beautiful Bill.” He said that he encourages residents who are apprehensive about the bill to reach out to him or go through the actual text of the bill itself.

“It’s a very complex bill. There are lots of different parts of it. As I said, legislating is the art of the possible. And I think overall, the bill is a very, very good bill,” Wittman said. “You’re going to hear a lot of supposition about what’s in the bill. But the easiest thing to do is to just go to the bill and read it.”

Liana Hardy is the Citizen’s government and education reporter. Support her work and articles like this one by making a contribution to the Citizen.