PHILADELPHIA — Lashing out at Republicans for proposing to “rip away” Medicaid and SNAP benefits from Pennsylvanians, Gov. Josh Shapiro said Friday that the commonwealth would be unable to replace lost funding for those programs should President Donald Trump‘s so-called big, beautiful bill become law.

“The impact of what they’re doing in Washington will have a lasting and negative impact on Pennsylvania,“ he said. People will be ”losing health care, food benefits, and access to hospitals."

The legislation, which will use the reductions to these programs to help pay for tax cuts, passed the U.S. House Thursday by one vote. It now heads to the U.S. Senate, where Shapiro said he hoped that “calmer, rational heads will prevail.”

During a visit to A. Philip Randolph Career and Technical High School in East Falls, the Democratic governor spoke bluntly about the losses Pennsylvania would absorb.

“I really need you to hear me on this,” Shapiro told an audience of faculty, as well as state and local education officials. “We will not backfill the cuts that come from the federal government. We don’t have the ability to make up the dollars that they’re taking away from Pennsylvania.”

Shapiro said 310,000 of the 3 million Pennsylvanians who receive Medicaid would lose the benefit should the cuts proceed.

He added that of the 2 million state residents currently receiving benefits from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, 140,000 would be kicked off the rolls.

Shapiro also said that the loss of Medicaid dollars would severely hamper already strapped hospitals, many of which are in rural Pennsylvania, where 25% of facilities are already operating on a deficit, he said.

Saying he didn’t “want to be partisan,” the governor nevertheless pointed out, “It’s important to note that every single Republican in the Pennsylvania delegation voted to (take) away health care and food from their constituents, creating an environment that’s really devastating.”

Shapiro is widely seen as a potential contender for the presidency in 2028 when Democrats will attempt to retake the White House. He has been careful in choosing his battles against Trump, but he’s repeatedly hammered the president’s policies that would reduce federal aid to the state.

For their part, Republicans have said the bill has benefits, chiefly that it would preclude a tax hike on most Americans. Moreover, it would eliminate taxes and tips on overtime, and boost border security investments.

“The current language of this legislation will prevent the largest middle-class tax increase in American history,” U.S. Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, a Republican, said in a statement this week.

Fitzpatrick said he would work with senators to “make constructive changes to this bill ... so we can strengthen SNAP and Medicaid solvency for the long-term and ensure access for the most vulnerable that truly need assistance.”

Early estimates from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office have ranged from 7.6 to 8.6 million people nationally that would lose health coverage under the bill. And 3.2 million fewer people would receive food assistance in an average, according to the CBO.

Together, the cuts to the two safety net programs could cost almost $ 1 trillion, according to CNN.

Why is this happening? Shapiro asked his audience.

“Well,” he answered himself, “they did this because they want to give a tax cut to those who are at the highest level of income. That’s why.”

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