Against an unrelenting chorus of heckling, jeering and chanting from protesters gathered at the state Capitol on Thursday, U.S. Reps. Gabe Evans and Lauren Boebert roundly praised President Donald Trump’s “big, beautiful” budget bill that both Republicans voted for in the U.S. House last week.
“There is a lot of good in this bill, and, unfortunately, that good is being lost because of a lot of the blatant fearmongering that is occurring around this bill,” said Evans, a freshman representing Colorado’s 8th Congressional District. “The truth is this one big, beautiful bill delivers the resources to protect our country, to protect our border, to get violent criminals out of our community.”
There was little sympathy for the congressman’s words among the 100 or so protesters who turned out for the news conference held at the bottom of the building’s west steps. Signs reading “Where is your compassion?” and “Save Medicaid” were held high in the air.
A steady drone of cat-calling and chanting from the crowd, which was kept at bay by several police officers standing in a line, kept up without pause throughout the hour-long event.
“I just think the whole premise of this is based on greed,” said Patty Gysin, a protester from Lakewood.
Lawmakers in the House narrowly passed the president’s wide-ranging budget blueprint, formally known as the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, in an early morning vote on May 22, pushing the bill forward on a 215-214 vote. It next goes to the Senate, with long negotiations ahead.
Central to the package is the GOP’s commitment to extending some $4.5 trillion in tax breaks they engineered during Trump’s first term in 2017, while temporarily adding new ones he campaigned on last year, including no taxes on tips, overtime pay, car loan interest and more.
To make up for some of the lost tax revenue, Republicans focused on changes to Medicaid and the food stamps program, largely by imposing work requirements on many of those receiving benefits. There’s also a massive rollback of green energy tax breaks from the Biden-era Inflation Reduction Act in the bill.
The package tacks on $350 billion in new spending, with about $150 billion going to the Pentagon and the rest for Trump’s mass deportation and border security agenda.
All told, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimates 8.6 million fewer people would have health care coverage and 3 million fewer people a month would have SNAP food-stamps benefits with the proposed changes. According to preliminary estimates from state agencies and nonprofit groups issued earlier this month, more than 100,000 Coloradans could lose their health insurance and the state would face a budget shortfall in the billions if cuts to Medicaid go forward.
In Evans’ own district, which sits mostly in portions of Adams and Weld counties, with a sliver in Larimer County, the Center for American Progress Action Fund projected that proposed cuts to Medicaid could knock 43,000 people out of the program — a nearly 25% reduction.
But Evans’ touted different numbers during Thursday’s press conference, saying the budget bill “protects Medicaid by getting 1.4 million illegal immigrants off of the Medicaid rolls, by getting 1.2 million people who are not eligible for Medicaid benefits off of the Medicaid rolls and preserving the program for the people who need it most.”
“We are putting guardrails around the program to make sure that it is there for the people who need it most,” he said. “And Medicaid spending will go up every single year under the Republican plan. Medicaid is not being cut.”
The Congressional Budget Office, however, says the bill will cut Medicaid by nearly $700 billion.
Protesters were on hand for U.S. Rep. Gabe Evans’ press conference addressing President Trump’s budget bill outside the Colorado Capitol in Denver on Thursday, May 29, 2025. (Photo by Andy Cross/The Denver Post)Boebert touted the fact that under Trump’s bill, “Medicaid will no longer fund transgender surgeries for children or adults.”
“This is a huge win for our children. There is no need for your tax dollars to go to transgender surgeries,” she said. “And let me be really clear that these tax dollars are so precious and they should be focused on helping Coloradans with real health care needs.”
As to the proposed Medicaid work requirements, Evans said, “We are asking able-bodied, working-aged adults with no dependents to work, to volunteer or to go to school 20 hours a week, part-time in order to get their taxpayer-funded health care.”
“We are rolling back the failed policies of the previous administration that allowed 1.2 million people who are not even eligible for this program to continue to get taxpayer dollars,” Evans said.
At a news conference following the one held by the two Republican lawmakers, local Democratic officials, plus three health care providers and a patient, all warned of the impact the Medicaid cuts would have.
Dr. Steven Federico, a pediatrician and Denver Health’s chief government and community affairs officer, cited an even higher number of Coloradans projected to lose health coverage — more than 180,000 — if the bill goes through.
“The net result is more uninsured, more uncompensated care, more patients foregoing care and waiting until something is an emergency, ultimately risking their lives and in the end, costing the system more money,” he said.
Rep. Shannon Bird, a Westminster Democrat who’s seeking to unseat Evans in the swing district north of Denver next year, warned that less insurance just means more uncompensated care, which is then shifted to the broader population in higher costs.
Veronica Montoya, a Medicaid patient who receives monthly IV infusions for an autoimmune disease, said her illness forced her to give up her career and seek coverage via Medicaid. She said she feared that the tax bill could cause her to lose access to treatment.
“I’m trying to be positive and be a good citizen, good human being,” she said. “But I will suffer if that medicine goes away, if I cannot continue to get the quality of care that I’ve been getting.”
While the bulk of the attention on Trump’s budget bill has revolved around impacts to Medicaid, Evans lauded the $46 billion that is being allocated to border security, and another $7 billion “to making sure that we are able to recruit and retain the brave men and women who put on a uniform and a badge every day and go out to keep our community safe.”
Evans also said the bill he supported gives tax cuts to the bottom 85% of wage earners in the state and shaves 3% off the tax rate small businesses pay. With an additional $4,000 deduction for seniors, he said the average American retiree will not pay taxes on their Social Security income.
“We’re putting an extra $500 into the child tax credit,” the congressman said of the bill. “Currently, the child tax credit is $2,000 — we’re increasing it to $2,500.”
U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert speaks during a press conference alongside U.S. Rep. Gabe Evans, left, to address President Trump’s budget bill outside the Colorado Capitol in Denver on Thursday, May 29, 2025. (Photo by Andy Cross/The Denver Post)Related Articles
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Evans faces what is considered one of the tightest congressional races in the country come next November. Already, three Democrats have thrown their hats into the ring to take him on, including Yadira Caraveo, who was the first person to represent the newly formed district in 2023 and barely lost her reelection bid to Evans in November.
Harlen Ainscough, a 77-year-old Vietnam veteran who lives in Thornton and held aloft various signs during the news conference Thursday, said Evans’ vote last week in favor of the president’s budget bill could well end up being his political undoing in a district so tightly drawn and with so many people reliant on Medicaid.
“His goose is cooked,” Ainscough said. “He’s a one-termer.”
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