Experts Share the Disastrous Consequences of the Tax Law on Working Families in PA

July 10, 2025

PENNSYLVANIA - Last week, Reps. Ryan Mackenzie (PA-07), Rob Bresnahan (PA-08), and Scott Perry (PA-10) voted to pass the Republican Tax Law that constitutes the largest transfer of wealth from the poor to the rich in U.S. history and threatens the basic needs of millions of Pennsylvanians. Now, experts across the Commonwealth are sounding the alarm over the harmful impacts of the Republican Tax Law on Pennsylvanians.

York Dispatch: What impact will Trump's tax and spending law have on York County?

• One in five York County residents are on Medicaid. Thirteen percent, meanwhile, rely on SNAP food assistance.

• Under the legislation, the wealthiest households in America are expected to see a $12,000 income increase from the legislation, and the bill would cost the poorest people $1,600 a year, mainly due to reductions in Medicaid and food aid, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office analysis of the House’s version.

• Funding cuts to food and health programs for disenfranchised people, paired with big boosts to military and immigration enforcement, negated much of the bill’s savings.

• Republican Congressmen Scott Perry and Lloyd Smucker, each representing portions of York County, voted for the bill in the House. It passed by a 218-214 vote.

• The legislation has been described by some as a historic transfer of money from poor people to rich ones that will worsen the country’s already staggering income inequality.

Pennsylvania Capital-Star: Gov. Shapiro says Pennsylvania “got screwed” in the reconciliation bill signed into law.

• Speaking in York Monday, Shapiro said the consequences of the vote, “to give a tax cut to those at the highest income brackets and pay for it by slashing Medicaid and SNAP and harming rural hospitals,” hang on the commonwealth’s nine House members and GOP U.S. Senator Dave McCormick for their action.

• “They knew what they were voting for. They voted for it,” he said. “Pennsylvania can’t backfill this. We don’t have the money to do it. I warned these members of Congress that we couldn’t do it, and so the cuts that are about to come are coming as a direct result of how your federal representatives voted here.”

• The governor warned the commonwealth’s rural hospitals could be at risk, since the measure cuts more than $1 trillion from Medicaid. According to an analysis by the nonprofit health policy group KFF, payments to hospitals or nursing facilities would probably decrease in at least 29 states.

• The state Department of Human Services says cuts could result in more than 310,000 Pennsylvanians losing Medicaid coverage. Some 270,000 could lose access to marketplace plans or face steep premium increases.

Penn Live: More than 310K Pa. residents could lose Medicaid benefits under GOP tax bill

• More than 300,000 Pennsylvania residents could lose Medicaid coverage if the GOP reconciliation bill gets final approval in Congress and is signed into law by President Trump. Another 144,000 could lose food assistance.

• More than 18,000 residents of Rep. Scott Perry’s 10th Congressional District, which covers Dauphin County and parts of York and Cumberland counties, for example, could lose Medicaid coverage, according to the new calculations from the Shapiro administration.

• Another 6,029 would lose Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits. SNAP is the public food assistance program.

• The bill would also impact residents who purchase health insurance through Pennie, the state’s health insurance marketplace. The legislation does not extend enhanced premium tax credits available to Pennsylvanians who purchase health insurance through Pennie. The Shapiro administration calculates that an additional 270,000 Pennsylvanians could lose coverage.

• The GOP bill is expected to increase Pennsylvania’s uninsured population by about 400,000 people, according to estimates from the Kaiser Family Foundation and Pennsylvania Health Access Network. The legislation could leave healthcare providers facing an increase in unpaid services, with estimates as high as 750 million dollars.

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