WASHINGTON — Republicans are feeling the sting of voter anger at recent town hall meetings where lawmakers’ constituents complained about Elon Musk slashing the government and the House GOP’s plan to cut Medicaid.
At their first press conference back in the Capitol after a weeklong recess, House Republican leaders dubiously insisted that their budget resolution won’t touch Medicaid and that the town hall attendees lacked a legitimate grievance.
“Videos of protesters yelling at members of Congress went viral, right? But the content focused on the confrontation, not the why. Some of the people that hijacked those town halls are happy with the bloated status quo,” said Rep. Lisa McClain (R-Mich.).
McClain added that the town hall anger might have been “orchestrated” by Democrats. Either way, she said it’s less important than the fact that Donald Trump won the presidential election in November.
“President Trump and the White House and the White House Republicans have started the conversation on wasteful government spending, and 77 million voices outweigh those voices at the town halls,” McClain said.
McClain’s unusual voter rebuke served as Republicans’ opening act on what House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) billed as a momentous day. Johnson scheduled a vote on a sweeping budget plan that would finance $4.5 trillion worth of tax cuts in part through $1.5 trillion in spending cuts.
Several Republicans have said they don’t like the budget, including moderate members who have warned against cutting social programs such as Medicaid and food assistance, and far-right lawmakers who complain the resolution wouldn’t cut deep enough. Johnson can lose only one Republican and still win a vote without Democratic support; he said it’s possible Tuesday’s vote will be delayed.
To sway the moderates, Johnson and his lieutenants in the House GOP have fashioned a new talking point that insists the budget would not actually cut Medicaid because the word “Medicaid” isn’t in the resolution.
“It doesn’t even mention Medicaid in the bill,” Johnson said.
Johnson is relying on a quirk of the budget process to obscure the intent of the budget. It’s true the document doesn’t mention Medicaid; instead, it directs the House Energy and Commerce Committee to come up with $880 billion worth of cuts over a decade to the programs under its jurisdiction, the largest of which happens to be… Medicaid.
The committee would then write legislation enacting the savings that the House and Senate would send to the president’s desk.
Medicaid covers health care costs for more than 70 million Americans. Johnson suggested Republicans would only cut parts of Medicaid that nobody would miss, such as coverage for “illegal aliens,” who are already ineligible.
“Medicaid is hugely problematic because it has a lot of fraud, waste and abuse,” Johnson said. “We can eliminate all these fraudulent payments and achieve a lot of savings. What you’re doing with that is you’re shoring up the program and you’re making sure that the people who rely upon that have it and that it’s a better program. That’s what we’re talking about.”
House Budget Committee Chair Jodey Arrington (R-Texas) explained some of the changes he has in mind, including new “work requirements” and more frequent eligibility reviews for Medicaid recipients, most of whom have their coverage renewed once a year.
“If you just review the eligibility for Medicaid twice a year instead of once a year, which was the protocol in the [first] Trump administration that was reversed by the Biden administration, then you actually prevent people from defrauding Medicaid and taxpayers, and you save $160 billion,” Arrington told HuffPost.
The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a liberal think tank, has said more frequent reviews are tantamount to cuts: “Adding more paperwork and administrative steps would jeopardize coverage among eligible people, so any savings would come largely from keeping eligible people out of the program.”
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The House budget also tells the House Agriculture Committee to come up with $230 billion in savings, with the largest program under its jurisdiction being the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, which helps more than 20 million households buy food. Committee chair Glenn Thompson (R-Pa.) said some states “abuse” their leeway in administering the program and suggested legislation could tighten standards and limit eligibility.
“If I had to sum it up in two words: program integrity. So make sure we’re delivering to whom, in the manner, in the amount, you know, that people living in poverty need to have, so we’re not looking to cut any benefits,” Thompson said.
In a letter to Johnson last week, a small group of moderate House Republicans warned against cutting Medicaid, SNAP or Pell Grants, saying they didn’t want to “slash programs that support American communities across our nation.”