Durbin, Pritzker put pressure on Republicans to oppose cuts to key
programs
[March 22, 2025]
By Ben Szalinski
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.
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.”
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.
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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)
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.”
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.
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.
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