Cutting Ourselves Down: Why Real Conservatives Should Think Twice About Slashing Medicaid and SNAP for Americans in Need

By Michael Phillips

In the fight to shrink government and reduce spending, Republicans now risk shrinking something else: the dignity and survival of millions of struggling Americans. President Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill,” formally known as the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (H.R.1), may be framed as a conservative achievement—but in gutting Medicaid and SNAP access for U.S. citizens and legal immigrants, it crosses a moral and economic line that true conservatism ought to respect.

I say this not from a think tank podium, but from lived experience.

Like many Americans, I never planned on using SNAP or Medicaid. But life doesn’t always go according to plan. After false accusations, a years-long family court battle, and disability discrimination, I found myself in freefall. Complex PTSD doesn’t always show up in a cast or a wheelchair, but it disables all the same. The stigma is real—and the path to economic stability becomes steeper when trauma, legal injustice, and mental health combine to knock a person off their feet.

For many in our nation’s forgotten working class, Medicaid and SNAP are not a “handout”—they are life support. A lifeline back toward functionality, toward work, toward dignity.

The Cuts Are Real—and Dangerous

The “Big Beautiful Bill” proposes:

• Nearly $700 billion in Medicaid cuts over 10 years
• Over $260 billion in SNAP cuts
• Stricter work requirements, even for those with mental health diagnoses
• Asset and eligibility limits that penalize people trying to rebuild stability
• State cost-shifting that could gut rural healthcare systems and reduce benefits

These aren’t belt-tightening tweaks. They are bulldozers aimed at the safety nets millions rely on.

Invisible Disabilities, Real Consequences

It’s easy to label people “able-bodied” when their trauma isn’t visible. But PTSD, ADHD, long-term depression, and anxiety can crush motivation, memory, executive function, and basic daily living. These Americans—many of them veterans, abuse survivors, or disabled parents—are often excluded from disability benefits and are now being squeezed out of essential medical care and food support.

Conservatives claim these reforms will promote responsibility. But how can you expect someone to fulfill 80 hours of work or training a month when they’re navigating court trauma, untreated mental illness, and the logistical maze of proving compliance to overworked bureaucrats?

A Conservative Vision That Forgets the Family

In rhetoric, the Republican Party defends faith, family, and freedom. But in practice, these cuts undermine all three.

• Faith: Where is the Christian compassion for the poor, the hungry, and the broken?
• Family: How does removing healthcare and food access strengthen families trying to survive?
• Freedom: What freedom is there in losing your home because a diagnosis prevents full-time employment?

This isn’t about enabling laziness. This is about not kicking people when they’re already down.

A Smarter, Conservative Solution Exists

Here’s what a truly conservative, compassionate policy should look like:

1. Protect coverage for citizens and legal residents with PTSD and trauma
   Establish trauma-based exemptions to work requirements and recognize mental health as a legitimate barrier to employment.
2. Support transitions back to work without punishing recovery
   Let people stabilize before adding complex reporting requirements and harsh income cliffs.
3. Fix fraud without dismantling the structure
   Target fraud at the top—state mismanagement and corporate Medicaid contractors—not by punishing the vulnerable.
4. Invest in job access, not job policing
   Pair benefits with flexible, trauma-informed employment supports, not blanket work hour quotas.

The Real Cost of Cuts

We must ask: In what world is it conservative to let American citizens go without healthcare, while we give tax breaks to millionaires and fund endless foreign wars?

This bill risks leaving behind single mothers escaping abuse, fathers crushed by false accusations, disabled veterans navigating trauma, and low-income workers trying to stretch every penny. Is that who we’ve become?

Let’s not sell out our own people in the name of political symbolism.

True strength is not found in punishing the weak. It’s found in lifting them up—until they can walk again, work again, and rebuild.

I know. I’ve lived it.

And millions of others are living it right now.