WASHINGTON, D.C. – In Tuesday night’s address to Congress, President Trump’s message was loud and clear: he wants Congress to trim as much spending as possible. The House recently passed their budget resolution which calls for trillions in tax cuts and about a two-trillion-dollar reduction in federal spending over the next ten years. Some Republicans are looking to slash spending for healthcare programs like Medicaid to meet that spending goal.
“So what happens here in Congress is the Budget Committee sets the markers for how much each authorizing committee can either increase spend or decrease, cut from their budgets,” said Del. Stacey Plaskett (D- Virgin Islands), who is on the Budget Committee. She said the House budget resolution bill calls for the Energy and Commerce Committee to cut 880-billion dollars.
“And the only program that has money large enough that has Energy and Commerce oversight to exact such a cut would be Medicaid,” said Del. Plaskett. “And there’s some of the other programs whether that’s Medicare or healthcare programs.”
The legislation doesn’t specify which programs are on the chopping block but some Republicans are looking at trimming Medicaid and food aid programs for low-income Americans.
“This should be troubling for the people on the Virgin Islands, our legislature, our governor because we know that over 20,000 people in the Virgin Islands rely on Medicaid,” said Del. Plaskett. “You and I might not be on Medicaid but it will have an impact on us because individuals who do not have Medicaid go to the hospitals when they have emergencies. They go to the hospital when they need to see a doctor and that’s uncompensated care the hospital is going to receive, which means they then will have a deficit in their spending. And then they can’t pay nurses, they can’t pay their WAPA bill, they can’t do things in deferred maintenance that needs to be done.”
“One of the things President Trump campaigned on was securing the border, peace through strength in terms of our military, opening up energy, there was a number of things and reducing our budget, getting our government under control and reigning in bureaucracy,” said Sen. Dave McCormick (R- PA). “That’s what this is all about. That’s what President Trump’s early days have been about.”
In Pennsylvania alone, about 2.8 million people are enrolled in Medicaid.
“I think there’s a complete agreement between the House and the Senate on the need to implement the President’s agenda,” said Sen. Dave McCormick (R- PA). “What came out of the House was a version of extending the 2017 tax cuts. Not necessarily making them permanent, so that will be an area we spend time talking about and they lay out the possibility of cuts in Medicaid which is one of many areas that will be considered, particularly in the area and everything should be focused on: waste, fraud and abuse. That’s what DOGE is uncovering, and we do have waste in our government and bureaucracy has gotten out of control.”
Plaskett said cuts to Medicaid will impact everyone, even those who are not enrolled in it. Online sources said cuts to the program could hurt keeping hospitals and clinicals afloat and it could impact states’ budgets and local communities.
