Low-income Americans would lose health coverage and government food assistance on an unprecedented scale under the giant Republican policy bill, according to outside analysts.
But to hear President Trump and Republican lawmakers describe the bill as it nears a vote in the Senate, it cuts no benefits at all.
鈥淲e鈥檙e cutting $1.7 trillion in this bill, and you鈥檙e not going to feel any of it,鈥 Mr. Trump said Thursday at the White House.
That claim rests on a maneuver embedded throughout the sprawling legislation: Instead of explicitly reducing benefits, Republicans would make them harder to get and to keep. The effect, analysts say, is the same, with millions fewer Americans receiving assistance. By including dozens of changes to dates, deadlines, document requirements and rules, Republicans have turned paperwork into one of the bill鈥檚 crucial policy-making tools, yielding hundreds of billions of dollars in savings to help offset their signature tax cuts.