house lawmakers are continuing a marathon meeting debating pieces of President Trump's sweeping tax and spending cuts bill package with the expectation that committees will move the bill closer to a full floor vote in the chamber the proposal calls for trillions in tax cuts major cuts to Medicaid and require states to pick up more of the tab on food assistance programs known as SNAP for low-income residents reforms Democrats here in New Jersey and across the country say would devastate communities and the people who live in them senior correspondent Joanna Gagas reports it's been called the one big beautiful bill by Republicans extreme and toxic by Democrats and in a marathon hearing of the House of Representatives that started yesterday at 2 PM and continued through the night into today lawmakers debated and marked up portions of a bill that would make significant changes to Medicaid we are prepared to stop the billions of dollars of waste fraud and abuse in the Medicaid program by beginning to reign in the loopholes by ensuring states have the flexibility to remove ineligible recipients from their roles and removing beneficiaries who are enrolled in multiple states today my Republican colleagues are trying to ram through a bill that will slash hundreds of billions of dollars from Medicaid let's be honest about what's happening no matter what Republicans say there's no if about it benefits will be cut and make no mistake the policies in this big ugly bill do the exact opposite if this bill became law it would devastate the health care infrastructure my and all of your constituents rely on it would strip health care coverage from millions of our most vulnerable citizens 71 million Americans depend on Medicaid for their health insurance these are low to moderate income people who can't afford private insurance in some cases because of illness or disability that's forced them out of work lawmakers took turns sharing individual cases of people on Medicaid whose lives would be compromised even lost without it one example was Sasha from Congressional District 7 in New Jersey she was born with cable pausy and the right side of her body doesn't function due to a stroke she had in her mother's womb since she was 7 years old Sasha has suffered from seizures her her mother Lana who is also here quit her job to care for Sasha without Medicaid Sasha would not have the resources to access treatment medications or doctor visits in an unusual twist Sasha's story was told by a California representative rather than her own who here is standing up for Sasha and millions of people like her democrats stand with you Sasha in opposing any Medicaid cuts we need just four Republicans to join us i hope we can find them and I hope one is your Congress member her Congress member is Tom Kaine Jr who was noticeably silent throughout the more than 24-hour hearing even after promising his district he wouldn't cut Medicaid but for months now President Trump and congressional Republicans promised the American people they would not cut Medicaid benefits or strip away people's healthcare in February President Trump said and I'm quoting Medicare Medicaid none of that stuff is going to be touched so you can call it a trim you can call it a cut call it whatever you want the bottom line is these people are going to lose their Medicaid democrats say up to 13.7 million people will lose it if Republicans changes go into effect changes like adding work requirements to maintain eligibility i see 7.6 million different waste fraud and abuse cases 1.4 million illegals that are currently on the rolls 1.2 million individuals who are ineligible and let us not forget the 4.8 8 million able-bodied adults healthy adults that choose not to work republicans also imposed an up to $35 co-pay for individuals who make 138% of the federal poverty level which is about $15,000 earned a year and they've cut incentives for states to adopt Medicaid expansion for those who earn that amount democrats like New Jersey Congressman Rob Mendez accused them of stealing from the poor to give to the rich this would all be a different conversation if this wasn't part of a budget resolution that calls for the extension of the original tax Trump the Trump tax cuts so we know that that those cuts have to be paired with spending cuts which is what this conversation is about the $880 billion that we have to cut and that's why it makes listening to our friends across the aisle so difficult because you're tying yourself into knots to talk about improving Medicaid but you're not doing that elsewhere in the budget bill you're giving people who make $5 million a year a $500,000 tax cut democrats proposed several amendments to the bill that were all voted down even by Tom Kaine Jr so far those four votes from Republicans are nowhere to be found for NJ Spotlight News I'm Joanna Gagas