Published May 27, 2025
Centrist Republicans are said to be worried that the reconciliation bill’s proposed cuts to Medicaid spending will leave them vulnerable to Democratic attacks. They are right to be concerned, but they can rest more easily if only they realize that they, not the Democrats, hold the moral high ground on this issue.
That conclusion might strike some readers as strange. It’s well established that swing voters do not like to see people lose their health insurance, even if doing so would save taxpayers money.
This basic moral fact is at the heart of traditionally successful Democratic messaging on Republican healthcare policy.
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Henry Olsen, a senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, studies and provides commentary on American politics. His work focuses on how America’s political order is being upended by populist challenges, from the left and the right. He also studies populism’s impact in other democracies in the developed world.
