This morning. Protesters representing health care workers, people with disabilities [00:00:15] and Planned Parenthood stormed the Rayburn building during a congressional hearing on potential Medicaid cuts today. And as a result, Capitol Police are reporting that 26 people have been arrested for not taking part in the protests, but for disrupting [00:00:33] the House hearing on the budget bill. The big, beautiful budget bill that Donald Trump is urging Congress to pass, which, of course, will include nearly $5 trillion in tax cuts and to offset the cost of those tax cuts. [00:00:49] We've been hearing over and over again that Congress will be cutting wasteful spending. Well, where do you think they're looking? They're looking at Medicaid, of course. Now, Medicaid is basically a state run public health care program, but it is funded in large part by the federal government. [00:01:08] This was a huge part of the Affordable Care Act. It expanded Medicaid coverage in states by providing additional federal resources in order to do so. Now, of course, Medicaid appears to be on the chopping block to some extent [00:01:24] for House Republicans, but they're trying to do it in a very tricky way. Let me explain how what are the proposed cuts? Well, if you can recall, the House's budget blueprint had directed the House Energy and Commerce Committee to find $880 billion in cuts over the next decade. [00:01:43] Now, this also happens to be the committee that's in charge of the social programs like Medicaid. And so, as a result, House Republicans have released their plan to cut Medicaid spending. Well, technically cut Medicaid spending. And I'll give you the caveats in the details in just a moment. [00:02:01] But some fiscal hawks in the party are actually complaining that these proposed cuts don't go far enough. So what am I referring to? What do I mean when I say, technically they're cuts? Well, the dollar amount provided to states to expand their Medicaid or keep their [00:02:17] Medicaid programs will remain the same. That's what they're alleging. However, it will include work requirements. So if you are an individual who does not make enough money, does not have enough income in order to pay for your own private health insurance, [00:02:36] or if you don't have a job that provides health insurance, maybe because you're working part time. Well, in order to qualify for Medicaid, the federal government, Republicans in the federal government specifically want to ensure that able bodied individuals are working in order to qualify. [00:02:53] This will also include more frequent eligibility checks. In order to ensure that people receiving these benefits are eligible to do so. And I should note, it doesn't lower the minimum share the federal government contributes to Medicaid in each state or the cap [00:03:12] per person spending in the program. So this is the tricky way they are cutting Medicaid. What they're essentially doing is saying like, no, no, no, the dollar amount is going to be the same. It's just that we're going to make it harder for people to be eligible for Medicaid. [00:03:28] So people will be kicked off the rolls. And as a result of that, the federal government will be saving some resources. I just find it interesting that whenever it comes to cutting spending, the first thing on the chopping block tends to be programs that help the most [00:03:45] vulnerable people in this country, fellow Americans who desperately need health care coverage but don't have the means or the money to be able to afford it. So as far as the work requirements go, let's get granular. Let's let's see what they're proposing here. [00:04:01] The bill would require Medicaid recipients to work, volunteer or attend school for 80 hours per month. Okay. So the requirement would apply to most able bodied adults through age 64 without dependents, and includes exceptions for pregnant women, people [00:04:20] with substance use disorders, and others. Now, I need a little more clarity on this, because what happens if you are searching for work but are unable to find work? Something that might become more of a problem if Donald Trump does intend [00:04:35] to move forward with some of the more astronomical tariffs that he is implementing on our trade partners. Right. So if it's more costly to get the parts you need for your business, if it's more expensive to get the products you need to sell in your business, you're [00:04:51] likely going to shut your business down. It's going to file for bankruptcy, or you're going to lay off workers. So that's just something to keep in mind. You know, all of these different proposed policies. Don't just stand alone in a vacuum. You have to look at the bigger picture. The current economic conditions and what House Republicans are proposing here. [00:05:11] So when Arkansas, by the way, briefly implemented work requirements for Medicaid recipients, 1 in 4 participants in that state, which amounted to about 18,000 people, lost their health care coverage. And that was the point. Okay, that was the point. [00:05:27] So that is what the House Republicans are trying to do here, just make it more difficult for people to be eligible for Medicaid benefits. So there's this assumption that Americans who need help from the social safety net are just these lazy people [00:05:46] who are unwilling to earn an income and take care of themselves. But I actually want to go to this analysis that was done by the Kaiser Family Foundation. Now, KFF is not in any way associated with Kaiser. Meaning like the health care system, the hospital. [00:06:01] This is entirely separate. But they did an analysis to see, you know, what percentage of Americans are actually working while receiving these benefits. And by the way, they're eligible for the benefits, meaning they're working, but they're still not generating enough income to be able to afford [00:06:20] health insurance on their own, which is why they are eligible for Medicaid. Well, let's take a look at this breakdown, this fun pie chart. So if you look at this, it'll show you that 64% of Medicaid recipients are working. And by the way, this data is from 2023. [00:06:35] As you can see, work status and barriers to work among Medicaid adults 2023. So it focuses specifically on adults. So that's 26.1 million people and 64% of them are actually working. They are employed, 44% of them are working at least 35 hours a week, [00:06:56] which this analysis has considered full time work. 20% of the individuals are actually working part time. The rest are not working though, due to illness or disability, school attendance, or because they're a caregiver to a loved one. [00:07:14] Okay, I'm now learning firsthand just how labor intensive it is to take care of a loved one who has fallen ill. It's a difficult job to do. It's hard to balance a full time job while doing that simultaneously. So I would like to live in a country that actually supports our fellow Americans [00:07:34] as they are going through what could be the hardest period of their lives. Taking care of a loved one who has fallen ill or is trying to recover from a serious injury. So the data on whether this will save money, by the way, is mixed. [00:07:51] And I think it's really important to know that. So a 2023 analysis from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office found that imposing work rules on Medicaid recipients ages 19 to 55 who are not parents or caregivers would cut federal spending by an estimated [00:08:07] $109 billion over the next ten years. Wow, that sounds like a lot of money. Until you remember that the tax cuts that Trump implemented in 2017 cost our federal government a whopping $10 trillion, $10 trillion. That's insane. Okay. [00:08:22] And he wants to implement additional tax cuts, which will amount to close to $5 trillion. And so, you know, you look at this $109 billion over the next ten years that would be saved allegedly through Medicaid cuts. Drop in the bucket. [00:08:37] But that's the analysis that looks pretty good for the case that Republicans are making. But as I mentioned, the data is mixed. So also in 2018, the CBO estimated that states would incur $65 Million dollars [00:08:56] in administrative costs over ten years to implement and manage work requirements. Because remember, remember, if you're going to impose work requirements on Americans who want to qualify for Medicaid, well, you got [00:09:11] to you got to add to the bureaucracy, bro. Okay. Who's going to check to make sure these people are working? You're going to have to hire people. That onus, by the way, will be placed on the states. So the federal government is going to force the states to incur additional costs [00:09:28] in order to carry out this work requirement policy for Medicaid, which is just being used as a ridiculous facade in saving money to justify additional tax cuts. Okay. Got it. So here are the other ways the Republicans in the House plan to save money [00:09:45] by cutting eligibility to Medicaid. So the legislation seeks to ensure only those who are eligible remain on Medicaid rolls, Delaying Biden era rules on looser eligibility checks and blocking federal funds for Medicaid recipients whose citizenship [00:10:01] or immigration status is unverified. So the bill would also reduce federal Medicaid payments to states that provide health care coverage for immigrants in the country illegally. So, look, this is going to be a huge problem for states like California [00:10:18] and New York, which have proudly provided Medicaid coverage to individuals in the country illegally. And so I want to give you an example of California, because California actually is in a little bit of trouble financially as we speak. [00:10:35] We've lost a huge portion of our tax base, which has left the state to find more affordable places to live, obviously. At the same time, because of all these nonprofit groups that have popped up since 2020, you know, [00:10:51] we have lost tens of billions of dollars in funding that was allocated specifically to build housing and help the homeless. That money is still unaccounted for. It is unbelievable that there hasn't been any justice with that massive loss [00:11:06] of taxpayer resources. And so there have been budget shortfalls in recent years. La specifically is dealing with a massive $1 billion budget shortfall. And so there have been some proposed cuts to all sorts of services [00:11:21] in the state of California. At the same time, look, it is true, providing health care to all, including those who might not be, documented, is a is a costly endeavor. And so in 2023, California expanded Medi-Cal, which is the state's Medicaid [00:11:40] program, to include all undocumented immigrants, regardless of age. Now, the Newsom administration wrongly underestimated how much this would cost. He initially projected the cost would be $6.4 billion. [00:11:57] However, in March, he requested state lawmakers approve an additional $2.8 billion loan to help cover for the state's soaring Medicaid costs. So that's just a little bit of a tangent. Out of everything that's being proposed in regard to saving money [00:12:16] or doing cuts or making it more difficult to qualify for Medicaid, I would say this is the one area where Republicans have a little bit of a point. However, I also know that Republicans are very heavy handed in, wanting to make [00:12:32] it very difficult for people to qualify or be eligible for Medicaid. So I would rather them not touch Medicaid at all. But let me continue with the other things they want to do. So the proposal would also require some able bodied Medicaid recipients, [00:12:49] those making more than 100% of the federal poverty level, or wow. A whopping $15,650 for a single adult. I mean, living living the high life to pay for some of their coverage. Okay, this is ridiculous. [00:13:09] $15,600 is not enough money to live without having to worry about paying for part of your health care coverage. I mean, the people that are being singled out here are the very Americans we should want our resources to go to. [00:13:25] These are the Americans who are living in poverty. Poverty. These are the people we want to help. Like the audacity to specifically single out people making 15,600 bucks a year. Like, oh, you know, they can sacrifice a little money for their health care coverage. [00:13:41] Can they, can they? It's just so ridiculous. Let me give you the rest of that. So the contributions would be capped at $35 a service or 5% of an individual's Income and wouldn't be required for primary, prenatal, pediatric, or emergency care. [00:13:58] So with all of these, you know, granular details in mind, you can kind of understand why people are furious Americans who have been dealing with these horrible economic conditions, inflation, additional inflation as a result of this, you know, [00:14:14] impending trade war that Trump has sparked with all of our trade partners. All of these things have screwed up Americans economically, financially. And so to add this layer to it is going to infuriate a lot of people across the political aisle, because what the House Republicans are signaling [00:14:32] to the American people right now is, yeah, those insanely wealthy people in this country, those corporations that already have an effective tax rate that's so low that they get a tax refund [00:14:49] when they file for their taxes. Yeah. Those people we want to help them out more. But all those Americans who are earning $15,650 a year now, you know, we think they're lazy bums and they should pay more for their health insurance. [00:15:07] There will be political repercussions to this, and they deserve it if this actually comes to pass. So look, more than 70 million people in this country rely on Medicaid for health care. 70 million. [00:15:25] You want to mess with those people and you think you're going to get away with it? All right. Have at it. Midterms are coming. Midterms are coming. They're coming. It's coming faster than the White Walkers. Okay, midterms are coming. And if they want to mess with Americans who have been living [00:15:41] in these economic conditions and who need a little bit of help in order to get preventative health care, to see a doctor. Okay? Just don't cry when you see the consequences. So, look, the House Energy and Committee and Commerce Committee chair. [00:15:58] His name is Brett Guthrie. In an interview, cast the changes as slowing down runaway growth in Medicaid rather than cuts. He's saying they're not cuts, although the whole point is to drop people from Medicaid. He also admitted that while the more moderate members of the GOP [00:16:15] will probably favor this approach, the fiscal hawks in the Republican Party will not will not appreciate this. They want more cuts. And if you're wondering, has there been any analysis in regard to the impact this would have on Medicaid recipients? [00:16:31] Well, yes. In fact, Democrats requested that the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office do an analysis to see how many Americans could be pushed off Medicaid as a result, if this passes, by the way. And that analysis showed that the bill would lead to about 8.6 6 [00:16:50] million people losing insurance. And Guthrie says, I think the people who will have the most difficult time with it would be that it doesn't go far enough. So according to the fiscal hawks in the Republican Party, [00:17:07] 8.6 million Americans losing Medicaid coverage, doesn't go far enough. We should cut deeper. Bread and butter issues matter the most to Americans, regardless of where they fall [00:17:26] on the political spectrum. The reason why Donald Trump, throughout the years since 2016, has been able to increase his support among various demographics in the electorate, is because he pays lip service to those economic frustrations. [00:17:45] Now, these are the House Republicans. This is what they want to do. The question is what does Trump want to do? Because he has said repeatedly he doesn't want to cut these services because he understands how politically unpopular it would be to do so. [00:18:00] So I'm waiting on Trump. I'm waiting to hear what he has to say. Because if you think cutting Medicaid eligibility is the right way to go about another massive tax cut handout to your rich buddies, and there will be any consequences to it, you've got another thing coming. [00:18:18] There will be consequences. There will be blood. Just not in the form of a nurse drawing blood from a patient who needs to see if there's anything wrong with them, who might need preventative care because, you know, they might not be able to afford it, or pay the $35 a month to qualify for [00:18:37] Medicaid because they're living high on the hog with $15,600 in yearly earnings. This is pathetic. Every time you ring the bell below, an angel gets his wings. Totally not true, but it does keep you updated on our live shows.