When House Republicans advanced their far-right budget plan, congressional Democrats raised all kinds of concerns about the GOP’s misguided blueprint, but much of the focus was on one specific program: Medicaid. Republican leaders pushed back in a deeply misleading way.
“It doesn’t even mention Medicaid in the bill,” House Speaker Mike Johnson said of his party’s budget. “The word ‘Medicaid’ is not even in this bill,” House Majority Leader Steve Scalise added. “This bill doesn’t even mention the word ‘Medicaid’ a single time.”
The truth wasn’t nearly that simple. While the literal text of the bill didn’t reference specific Medicaid cuts, the GOP plan directed the congressional committee that oversees Medicaid to find $880 billion in cuts that can only be found in Medicaid.
A week later, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office confirmed that Democratic criticisms were true. NBC News reported:
House Republicans can’t meet their own budget target that is necessary to pass President Donald Trump’s legislative agenda without making significant cuts to Medicare or Medicaid, the official budget scorekeeper confirmed Wednesday.
Rep. Brendan Boyle, the ranking member on the House Budget Committee, wasted little time in seizing on the budget office’s findings.
“This analysis from the nonpartisan CBO confirms what we’ve been saying all along: Republicans are lying about their budget,” the Pennsylvania Democrat said. “Their plan would force the largest Medicaid cuts in American history — all to pay for more tax giveaways to billionaires. This is a complete betrayal of the middle class, and Democrats will keep fighting to stop them. The American people deserve to know just how much pain Republicans are willing to inflict on their own constituents to reward their billionaire donors.”
NBC News’ report added that the data also leaves Republicans in a deep predicament: “The budget resolution, adopted by the slimmest of margins in the narrowly divided House, was the delicate product of negotiations among conservative hard-liners who demand steep spending cuts and swing-district GOP lawmakers who say they don’t want to slash funding for the health programs their constituents rely on.” And the Congressional Budget Office just confirmed that the House Republicans’ budget would, in fact, slash funding for the health programs their constituents rely on. It also complicates matters for the White House: Donald Trump has said, publicly and without equivocation, that Medicaid would go untouched during his presidency. He’s also endorsed the House GOP blueprint, which would lead to dramatic cuts to Medicaid. As for the House speaker and his leadership team, who’ve invested too much time in a shell game, pretending their budget wouldn’t lead to Medicaid cuts, it’s time for a new set of talking points.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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