Republican strategist Karl Rove said Thursday the Congress-approved spending package will heavily influence the midterm election cycle next year.
“I think it’ll have a huge impact on 2026, because, remember, as these changes, particularly the Medicaid changes come into effect, they’re going to have — people are going to be losing their coverage,” Rove said during an appearance on Fox News’s “America’s Newsroom.”
Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) decided to forgo a reelection bid after voting against his party while urging lawmakers to strike the language regarding Medicaid provisions from the big, beautiful bill, marking a first major impact on the midterms.
Rove lauded the Republican-backed “big, beautiful bill,” however, cheering its new 80-hour-per-month work requirements for certain Medicaid recipients.
“The able-bodied — think about it, there was an interesting study done of able-bodied people on Medicaid, and … you know what their No. 1 activity was if they weren’t working? It was watching television. And No. 2 was playing online games,” Rove told Fox News.
The legislation is set to push millions off of Medicaid coverage and require twice-yearly eligibility check-ins instead of the previous annual evaluation.
Rove encouraged GOP members to continue to lobby in favor of the bill as citizens prepare for sweeping cuts to take effect.
“Medicaid was meant for poor seniors, for children in poor families, and for the disabled, and we should not be paying for health care for people who are able-bodied, and can work, and are refusing to work. This is why they got to go on the offense. But yeah, it’s going to be a big impact,” the Republican pundit said.
“And the work is just beginning. There’s going to be always a tendency to say, ‘We got the bill passed, oh, let’s all take the time off.’ And, ‘Good, we got it done.’ Uh-uh, that’s the requirement that you then go to work,” he added.
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