In spite of the fact that the language of the bill specifically calls for an $800 billion cut in Medicaid spending, White House adviser Kellyanne Conway told several different media outlets this weekend that the bill certainly does not contain any cuts to Medicaid. Ring of Fire’s Farron Cousins discusses this.
Transcript of the above video:
Farron:
An interesting new Republican talking point emerged over this weekend with regards to the Senate version of the American Health Care Act and nobody articulated it better than Kellyanne Conway. Take a look.
Allison:
What about the President’s promise? What about that campaign promise about no cuts to Medicaid and Medicare? Now that’s changed.
Kellyanne Conway:
Only in Washington would something like this be called a cut, where overtime there are protections in place for the disabled, for the elderly, for the poor, for the nonworking poor-
Allison:
With less money.
Kellyanne Conway:
For children, for pregnant women and it’s going to allow states to decide what they need to help those in need-
Allison:
Sure, with less money.
Kellyanne Conway:
In their states.
Allison:
States will get less money.
Kellyanne Conway:
No, not necessarily. It depends. It really depends on the state. It depends on the situation.
Allison:
800 billion is being cut out of it.
Kellyanne Conway:
You keep on giving that one statistic without reading the entire bill. I’ve read the bill. I’m not Nancy Pelosi, I decided to read it ahead of time, before and I’m sure-
Allison:
800 billion is being put in somewhere else?
Kellyanne Conway:
No Allison, what’s going to happen is, there are many different funding mechanisms at play here. What governors will do is they will have an opportunity to either get block grants or stick with the current situation and as you remember in the House bill, late in the game, there was an additional many billions of dollars infusion of cash to guarantee that very narrow slice of the population who went with 63 days of noncontinuous coverage and also happen to reside in the state where that state will opt out of that type of Medicaid funding, so there are many different protections. Now, I just don’t want everybody scaring people to think that they’re going to lose their benefits and their coverage without giving a full accounting of everything that this includes.
Farron:
According to Kellyanne Conway, even though the bill specifically says, “We are cutting 800 billion dollars from Medicaid”, even though the House version says, “We’re cutting 800 billion dollars from Medicaid,” there’s no cuts to Medicaid, according to Kellyanne Conway. That CNN clip was just one of several that she did this past weekend where she said the exact same thing. She told George Stephanopoulos this bill absolutely does not include any cuts to Medicaid and that is a sentiment that was shared with several other members of the Trump administration who appeared in national media this past weekend. All of them said the same thing. There’s no cutes to Medicaid. What are you, crazy? I read the bill, unlike Nancy Pelosi, which is what Conway said to CNN, whatever that means, but there are cuts. There’s verifiable cuts. We can look at the bill and see that. We can look at what the CBO said, people who read the bill a hell of a lot more intensely than you, Kellyanne and we know that those cuts are there and you’re saying, “Well, the states can just take it up.” With what? With what, Kellyanne? There’s no money.
Medicaid money goes to the states, you idiot and you’re drying it up. You don’t understand the first thing about American political policy or how anything in the realm of politics actually works. I know you’re doing your best to lie to cover your boss’ ass because he told us 100%, no cuts to Medicaid proved to be a big fat liar on that issue, but you have to understand at this point, the American public, most of us, can read. We understand what 800 billion in Medicaid cuts actually means. It means, you’re cutting Medicaid by 800 billion dollars, but here you are going on every national media outlet you can lying about it, being called out by the hosts on your lies and you know what she responded with? Kellyanne Conway said, “Well, poor people can just get a job.” That’s what she said. Poor people can just go get a job.
First of all, as if it’s that easy to just get a job in this economy. Second of all, it’s that easy to get a job in this economy that also gives you healthcare benefits. Kellyanne Conway is so disconnected from reality right now that her rantings have gone from humorous and amusing, making fun of her, to down right dangerous because this woman is representing everything that the Republican Party and the Trump administration want to do. They’re trying to sell you this big lie that there are no cuts to Medicaid, the money’s going to come back around from some other place, but it won’t. Those cuts to Medicaid, do you know where they’re going? That money is going instead of to poor people to get health insurance, it’s going their wealthy donors. It’s going to the top 1%. It’s going back in Donald Trump’s pocket, but Kellyanne Conway obviously can’t say that, so she lies to us all and says, “Don’t worry, absolutely no cuts to Medicaid as long as you ignore that part of the legislation that says, we’re cutting Medicaid by 800 billion dollars.”
