House Republican leaders on Tuesday downplayed the possibility of cutting Medicaid benefits as they seek a settlement bill with savings of up to $2 trillion.
Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA.) and majority leader Steve Scullies (R-LA.) said that discussion-based changes to Medicaid include reductions in labor requirements and fraud. He tried to reassure the public. Cuts such as lowering federal games in Medicaid expansion or establishing a per capita cap.
House Republicans are debating how deeply they need to cut and how much they can endure to pay for President Trump's tax cuts and extension of border enforcement funds.
One of the main goals is Medicaid, a federally and state-funded, jointly funded program that provides health insurance to more than 72 million low-income Americans. Republicans have long sought to curb its spending, deeming Medicaid a program full of fraud and abuse.
Attempts to cut Medicaid spending as part of the Obamacare abolition during Trump's first administration failed, and subsequent controversy contributed to the loss of a majority in the 2018 midterm elections.
But after gaining control of both the Congressional Room and the White House in November, Republicans are trying again.
“Look, Medicaid has never been on the chopping block,” Johnson said at a press conference. “If we eliminate Medicaid fraud, waste and abuse, we have a huge amount of money that can be spent on the real priorities of the country.”
Johnson also mentioned the work requirements for “competent” people.
“You know, work is good for you. You find dignity in your work, and those who haven't, we're going to try and get their attention,” Johnson said. .
The House Budget Committee will announce its budget resolution on Wednesday ahead of Thursday's hearing. The resolution includes a wide range of instructions for the committee to find savings.
House Republicans are putting pressure on moving budgetary resolutions to advance Trump's domestic policy priorities.
Congressional Republicans aim to use the budget adjustment process to pass items to his wish list. This aims to enable the party to avoid democratic opposition in the Senate if successful. The settlement bill only requires a majority vote to pass the Senate, but both rooms must pass the same budget blueprint.
Labor requirements can save around $100 billion over a decade. But tough conservatives are looking for bottom line figures of at least $1.5 trillion to $2 trillion.
House GOP estimates that the most controversial changes, such as lowering federal games for Medicaid's widening population and enacting caps per cap, could save $561 billion, and up to $900 billion over a decade.
Scalise on Tuesday did not rule out further Medicaid cuts, but he also suggested that the main focus was work requirements.
“The Medicaid work requirements are where you start,” Scalise said in an interview with CNBC. “When we're running the deficit, it doesn't make much sense to add a lot of people to our government programs and take them off private sector insurance.”
He later told reporters he wanted the jurisdiction committee to understand the details of the policy.
“There's a lot of waste in Medicaid that's identifying other reforms we're seeing,” Scullyse said. “We need to ensure that these committees work to further explain the details of what the committees can pass, and the coalitions we can start to build.”
However, the answer remains unknown as House GOP members struggle to combine their meetings with how far the White House is moving forward. There is only a small majority in the House of Representatives, and every vote will be required to pass budget resolutions on the floor.
“We've heard a lot of concerns about Medicaid from our members. The president says he doesn't want Medicaid cuts and that members are worried about voting for tough ones.
Another potential complex factor is Trump himself, including Medicaid on his list of programs he vowed not to touch.
“We're not going to do anything with it unless we find abuse or waste,” Trump said.
“People aren't affected. It's just more effective and better,” Trump said.
Energy and Commercial Committee Chairman Brett Guthrie (R-Ky.) said last week that he reached out to the White House for clarity, but by Tuesday he had not responded. .
“So obviously we have to do what we can get 218 votes. I think we need to modernize Medicaid and make it sustainable, but we'll see,” Guthrie said. I said that. “I don't know the answer to that yet.”
Mychael Schnell contributed to this report.
