In 2025, Raffensperger supported the Republicans’ reconciliation bill that the Congressional Budget Office estimated would trigger $500 billion in cuts to Medicare.
September 2025: Raffensperger Said Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill” Was “Needed” To Extend Middle Class Tax Cuts, And Said The Bill Helped “Every Small Business Owner” And “Every Person That Had Personal Income Tax.” According to Raffensperger in an interview with Politically Georgia, “HOST: Where do you stand on the big, beautiful bill or whatever the president is calling it these days? Because we're already seeing Democrats running for governor, running for other higher offices campaigning against that, particularly the the Medicaid cuts that they fear are already compounding problems that rural hospitals and not just rural hospitals, just hospitals in general are already facing. RAFFENSPERGER: Well, I think we need to understand that the key part of that bill was extending middle class tax cuts, The middle-class tax cuts were going to expire. And so that needed to extend it out because otherwise it actually was a tax increase. They were rolled back in 2017. This was just a continuation of those tax cuts that I think helps every small business owner because they report their income on their personal taxes. And every person that had personal income tax, that was huge.” [Brad Raffensperger Interview – Politically Georgia, 9/29/25] (AUDIO)
- The “One Big Beautiful Bill” Sped Up The Timeline For When The Medicare Trust Fund Will Become Insolvent, And Without Additional Action, The Bill Would Trigger A $500 Billion Cut In Medicare Funding Between 2026 And 2034. According to Medicare Advocacy, “On July 4, 2025, President Trump signed into law H.R. 1 – the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBB). This sweeping legislation narrowly passed Congress through a special budget process (‘reconciliation’), which allowed it to pass the Senate with a simple majority vote rather than the usual 60 votes needed to overcome a filibuster. The law extends tax cuts that were first enacted in 2017 and funds other administration priorities. To help pay for these policies, it makes unprecedented cuts to critical safety-net programs that provide health care and other assistance. […] Even with these significant cuts, the Act is still projected to add at least $3.4 trillion to the national debt.[2] It also speeds up the timeline for when Medicare’s trust fund (which pays for hospital care) will become insolvent. If Congress takes no additional action, automatic spending cuts will be triggered, reducing Medicare funding by approximately $500 billion between 2026 and 2034.” [Medicare Advocacy, 7/24/25]
- HEADLINE: "Trump And GOP’s Tax Bill Would Force Cuts To Medicare, CBO Says" [Washington Post, 5/21/25]
- Congressional Budget Office Estimated That The House Republican Reconciliation Bill Would Trigger Nearly $500 Billion In Cuts To Medicare. According to a letter the Congressional Budget Office sent to Rep. Brendan Boyle, "Today the Congressional Budget Office transmitted an estimate of the budgetary effects of the 2025 reconciliation bill, as ordered reported by the House Committee on the Budget on May 18, 2025. 1 CBO has not yet completed estimates of the effects of interactions among the titles of the legislation. This letter responds to your questions concerning the sequestration (the cancellation of budgetary resources) in accordance with the Statutory Pay‑As‑You‑Go Act of 2010 (S-PAYGO) that would occur if an enacted bill raised deficits by $2.3 trillion over 10 years. Under S-PAYGO, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) is required to maintain 5- and 10-year scorecards that it updates with the estimated cumulative changes in revenues and outlays generated by newly enacted legislation. […] The 4 percent maximum reduction in Medicare spending would apply to sequestration orders for years after 2026. If OMB ordered a sequestration of $230 billion for each year through 2034, the ordered reductions in Medicare spending would increase to about $75 billion in 2034 and would total roughly $490 billion over the 2027–2034 period." [Letter to Rep. Brendan Boyle – Congressional Budget Office, 5/20/25]