This week, House Republicans are laboring to pass proposals to reform Medicaid, the fast-growing system of federal funding for states to deliver health care to low-income Americans, as part of President Trump’s “big beautiful” budget bill.

Their proposal creates the appearance of generating substantial savings by nudging states to restrict enrollment — notably by mandating an 80-hour-per-month work requirement for able-bodied adults to receive the benefit.

Liberals responded to the House’s modest proposals with predictable outrage.

Matthew Yglesias called it a “war on the poor,” arguing that the bill’s cuts “will cause 8.6 million people to lose their health insurance.”

Massachusetts Rep. Lori Trahan deemed it “federal overreach, plain and simple, with devastating consequences for the people we represent.”

Critics’ outrage is surely overblown: From 2003 to 2023, Medicaid’s annual cost to federal taxpayers surged from $161 billion to $616 billion.

The Republicans’ proposals would merely slow the program’s further spending growth over the coming decade, from 4.6% per year to 3.7% — and even that reduction in growth........

© New York Post