Democrats warn of ‘largest Medicaid cut in American history’

House Democrats are ramping up their attacks on the GOP’s budget plan, warning that the massive spending blueprint would translate into the steepest Medicaid cut in the program’s history.

Behind House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.), the Democrats are vowing unanimous opposition to the budget resolution when GOP leaders bring it to the floor, which could happen as early as Tuesday evening.

Medicaid is not the only piece of the GOP budget inspiring the Democrats’ opposition. But as the resolution inches closer to the floor, it’s the issue they’re pointing to most frequently, warning that Republicans have designs to slash Medicaid to help offset the cost of extending tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans.

“The Republican budget represents the largest Medicaid cut in American history,” Jeffries said Tuesday from the steps of the Capitol. “Children will be devastated. Families will be devastated. People with disabilities will be devastated. Seniors will be devastated. Hospitals will be devastated. Nursing homes will be devastated."

“So let me be clear: House Democrats will not provide a single vote to this reckless Republican budget. Not one.”

Under the Republicans’ budget resolution, the Energy and Commerce Committee, which oversees Medicaid, has been tasked with identifying at least $880 billion in cuts to programs under its jurisdiction. The cuts are designed to win over conservative budget hawks, who want to rein in deficit spending — a task made tougher by the proposed extension of President Trump’s 2017 tax cuts, which would reduce federal revenues by trillions of dollars.

Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) has defended that provision, arguing that the savings will come largely from weeding out waste, fraud and abuse under Medicaid, while also expanding work requirements for some adults receiving benefits.

On Tuesday, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) offered another defense, noting that the text of the budget makes no mention of Medicaid at all.

“There is no Medicaid in this bill,” Scalise said, waving a copy of the resolution to reporters. “There are no Medicaid cuts in this bill.”

Democrats don’t buy that argument, saying the Energy and Commerce Committee cannot mathematically reach the $880 billion mark without substantial cuts to Medicaid.

Rep. Brendan Boyle (D-Pa.) characterized Scalise’s claim as “incredibly disingenuous.”

“If [the] Energy and Commerce Committee said, 'We don't want to cut Medicaid. Instead, we will cut literally everything else we possibly can — 100 percent’ — that only gets you about halfway to the $880 billion,” Boyle said.

“So by definition, they have to — as a minimum — cut hundreds of billions of dollars from Medicaid.”

In recent weeks, the Medicaid issue has been an enormous headache for Johnson and other GOP leaders, who have sought to assure wary moderate Republicans that the budget plan would not erode benefits for people in the program. Some of those moderates have huge Medicaid populations in their districts, and they’d threatened to vote against the budget without firm assurances that those constituents would not lose health coverage.

More recently, however, those moderates appear to be ready to support the budget plan, if only to give GOP leaders the space to fill out the party’s spending plan with specifics, which would be voted on at a later date.

The barrier now is a handful of conservatives, who are vowing to oppose the measure over deficit spending concerns.

That 11th-hour development has thrown the timing of the vote on the budget bill into question. While GOP leaders had scheduled to put the bill on the floor Tuesday evening, Johnson told reporters in the morning that the vote might be delayed while Republican leaders seek to win over the holdouts.

“There may be a vote tonight, may not be,” he told reporters in the Capitol. “Stay tuned.”

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