Hakeem Jeffries Cites Josh Hawley's Remarks To Trash House GOP's Proposed Cuts To Medicaid

House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) held a press briefing on Thursday, where he was asked about potential cuts to Medicaid.

Transcript

00:00Are there any reforms to Medicaid that you would support to make it more solvent?

00:06We are always open to having a bipartisan conversation to see how we can make the federal government

00:11and important programs relied upon by the American people as efficient and effective as possible.

00:21The House Republicans have not produced any evidence of meaningful waste, fraud, and abuse.

00:28That's an excuse to try to find cuts to enable their massive tax breaks for their billionaire donors like Elon Musk.

00:40From the very beginning of this process, Republicans have made clear they don't want to enter into any bipartisan conversation

00:48about making life better for the American people,

00:50which is why they've chosen to produce this one big, ugly bill through reconciliation

00:58so they can avoid Democrats being part of the legislative process.

01:05To the extent this thing falls apart in some way, shape, or form,

01:11then as Democrats, like we've made clear from the very beginning of this Congress,

01:15we'll work with anyone in good faith who's actually committed to improving the quality of life of the American people

01:23and building an affordable economy.

01:26Republicans clearly are not in that space.

01:28But what about strengthening work requirements and those kinds of things?

01:33The Republicans have spent years complaining about unfunded mandates,

01:38and now we have this one big, ugly bill filled with unfunded mandates.

01:43These aren't serious people right now.

01:46And this is not just Democrats expressing concern about the assault on Medicaid

01:52and the health care of the American people.

01:53This whole notion that Democrats are somehow making this up is belied by the fact that conservative Republicans

02:19have made the same observation, including people who are close to the Trump administration

02:26who have warned this Republican Congress that if they proceed with these Medicaid cuts,

02:33they are hurting their own people.

02:36Rural hospitals will close and health care is going to be snatched away from working class Americans

02:43in blue states, purple states, and red states.