082625...R JOYCE PRESS 3...Lordstown...08-26-25...U.S. Representative Dave Joyce (R-OH14), right, holds a quick press conference with Rodney Davis, Head of Government Affairs, U.S Chamber of Commerce, after a roundtable discussion at Anderson-DuBose Company...by R. Michael Semple

LORDSTOWN — U.S. Rep. Dave Joyce, a Republican whose district includes Trumbull County, says anyone who loses Medicaid coverage or SNAP food benefits under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act “shouldn’t be on those programs to begin with.”

Joyce, R-Bainbridge, spoke Tuesday to the press after a closed-door roundtable discussion with local business officials at Anderson-DuBose Co. in Lordstown. The event was sponsored by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the Youngstown / Warren Regional Chamber to tout the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, signed into law by President Donald Trump on July 4 after being approved by the Republican-controlled Congress.

Expanding on his comments about the cuts to Medicaid and SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program), Joyce said, “What you’re going to do is make sure that the people who are on programs deserve to be on those programs and those that aren’t are going to be scaled off, and that’s an important part of this.”

The bill expands work requirements to receive SNAP benefits and cuts Medicaid spending 12%.

With the national debt exceeding $37 trillion, Joyce said, “We have to start making these cuts somewhere. We can’t continue on the road we’re on, but you also have to invest to grow.”

Over the next 10 years, the bill will increase the national deficit by $3.4 trillion, according to analysis by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.

But Joyce and Rodney Davis, the U.S. Chamber’s head of government affairs and a former Illinois congressman attending the roundtable, dispute the CBO’s analysis, saying the bill permanently extends tax rates Trump signed into law in 2017.

Davis said: “Only in Washington, D.C., can extending current tax policy somehow be a $3.4 trillion increase in the national debt. We can debate the issue of the current policy baseline. What Congressman Joyce and his colleagues did is they extended current tax policy so what the Congressional Budget Office is trying to tell the American people is that extending the current tax policy stopped you from paying the most historic tax increase in American history and therefore because you are not now going to pay that, somehow that’s contributing to the debt. It’s just not true. It’s not good math, and really it’s not good politics.”

Davis added: “They’re miscounting. What they’re using is unfortunately the threat of a tax increase to say that’s going to increase the national debt. I don’t think any American is going to say, ‘If I pay the current taxes that they’re somehow contributing to the degradation of our society.'”

Joyce referred to the $3.4 trillion deficit and that an estimated 490,000 Ohioans would lose health care through cuts to Medicaid as “false facts.”

Joyce said the bill “takes the taxes that are presently in effect and keeps them going so it’s not increasing it for anyone, but it’s not decreasing it for anyone. It’s maintaining the status quo as far as the tax forms go.”

Joyce said if there is a $3.4 trillion deficit over the next decade from this bill, that amount is going to “be made up on a combination of more people who are working, more taxes being paid in the tariff system that the president has in effect.”

The Beautiful Bill Act includes new tax deductions for some overtime and tips and an increase in the child tax credit.

Joyce said the bill “will have wide-spanning, positive impacts across multiple fields,” and the “tax policies will positively impact individuals and businesses alike in the Mahoning Valley by permanently extending the 2017” tax cuts that were going to expire at the end of this year if nothing was done.

If the tax breaks expired, Joyce said, “Thousands of small businesses in Ohio 14 (his congressional district) would have been hit with significant tax hikes. When individuals have more cash in their pocket and businesses have increased access to capital, economic growth follows.”

The One Big Beautiful Bill Act “was a major step towards economic growth in the region,” Joyce said, but “there’s still more work to be done.”

Davis said making the tax cuts permanent will allow businesses to “hire more people, invest in facilities and invest in equipment.”

If the cuts were allowed to expire, Davis said, “You would have seen every single American experience the largest tax increase in American history. You would have seen every single small business operating up and down every Main Street in this Valley experience the largest tax increase in American history.”