REMINDER: Republicans’ Tax Scam Relies on Dramatic Medicaid Cuts

WASHINGTON, DC – Congressional Republicans have openly floated $880 billion in cuts to Medicaid to pay for their tax cuts for billionaires and corporations, cuts that would immediately cause 3 million Americans to lose their coverage – with more to come. 

While President Trump, time and time again, insists that there’ll be no cuts to Medicaid, the facts belie him. Republicans themselves and the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office agree: drastic cuts are inevitable and necessary to pay for Trump’s tax cuts for the rich. 

Here’s what they’re saying: 

• The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) reported that congressional Republicans must make cuts to Medicare or Medicaid—federal healthcare programs that in total hundreds of millions of Americans rely upon—in order to pay for their budget bill that cuts taxes for the ultra-rich and corporations. As the Post reported, “The nonpartisan bookkeeper said there’s no other way to cut $1.5 trillion from the budget over the next decade.”
• Last week, Freedom Caucus Chair Andy Harris and members Chip Roy and Eric Burlison openly called on their fellow Republicans to support broad cuts to Medicaid—making it clear Republican lawmakers are no longer pretending to protect the program. 
• Rep. Don Bacon said he asked “House leadership to prove to us that $880 billion in cuts to E&C won’t overly cut Medicaid.”

Now, while some Members have openly admitted these cuts concern them and would hurt their constituents... 

Republican Members: “Slashing Medicaid would have serious consequences, particularly in rural and predominantly Hispanic communities where hospitals and nursing homes are already struggling to keep their doors open.”

TIME reported Rep. Jeff Van Drew was prepared to vote against the House budget resolution due to its $880 billion in potential Medicaid cuts, stating “Working class people receive Medicaid as they are working […] This is not just lazy people who are sitting around not doing their job.”

In a February statement to Politico, Rep. Ken Calvert said House Republicans “will not touch Social Security and Medicare benefits” as they are “not interested in cutting the social and health care safety net for children, disabled, and low-income Americans.”

The only way Congressional Republicans can be true to their word is to vote against cuts to Medicaid.