During a press briefing on Monday, Gov. Josh Shapiro (D-PA) expressed concerns over Medicaid cuts in the Republican budget that narrowly passed the House in May and is now in the Senate.
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00:00Governor, how concerned are you about a broad economic downturn that would hurt the state's revenues for transit and everything else?
00:08I ask because the Revenue Department report, I think in April, showed some softness in corporate taxes.
00:15How much concern is there that you're going to see just kind of everything coming in under budget?
00:20Our revenues are fine, and we're going to be fine in this budget.
00:24I am, of course, worried about the broader national trends that we are seeing.
00:29A downturn in consumer confidence, a rise in prices, I think primarily due to these tariffs.
00:36The impact, I can't state enough, just how devastating the impacts will be on Pennsylvania if the bill that passed in the U.S. House becomes law.
00:48It will mean over 300,000, about 310,000 Pennsylvanians losing Medicaid, 140,000 Pennsylvanians losing SNAP, which is what they rely on to get their food.
01:02We've got 25 rural hospitals that right now are operating on a deficit who would likely have to shutter if these Medicaid cuts go into effect.
01:15It was unfortunate to me that your local representative here voted for it.
01:20I mean, I've never heard of a congressman voting to actually kick their constituents off of those life-saving services, be it health care or food stamps or food services.
01:31It is my hope that cooler heads will prevail in the Senate.
01:34I know Senator McCormick and I have talked about these issues.
01:37I know he's deeply concerned about the impacts to, you know, to Pennsylvanians and what these cuts will mean for them.
01:46And I'm hopeful that the Senate will understand that and work to pass a bill that ultimately protects Pennsylvania.
01:53That is my primary concern right now when I think about the broader economy,
01:59is the negative impact of these tariffs and these cuts to Medicaid and SNAP that I think are really going to have quite a harmful effect on Pennsylvania.