Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) slammed Republicans for threats to Medicaid funding, arguing they’re “robbing people” to benefit “the rich.”
She’s been a vocal critic of proposed reductions for the program that provides access to healthcare for low-income families and individuals with disabilities.
“They’re robbing people in order to hand it over to the rich,” Ocasio-Cortez told Rolling Stone. “Medicaid is one of the largest insurers in the United States of America.”
GOP members have already slated reductions totaling over $800 billion through recommendations from the House’s Energy and Commerce Committee. Two controversial Medicaid funding cut proposals have already been nixed or reconsidered, however. Members of the committee will hold a markup for the budget reconciliation bill this week.
“They’re not just out here to cut health care for health care’s sake, they have an assignment. Their assignment is to cut the taxes of their donors, and to have giveaways to Big Oil, which financed their election, Big Tech, which financed their election, Elon [Musk], [Jeff] Bezos, etc.,” Ocasio-Cortez told Rolling Stone.
“In order to do that, you have to gut what is left of the health care and social safety net in the United States. They’re doing it because they have to hand over a bag,” she added.
A cap on Medicaid spending for beneficiaries in the expansion population would save $225 billion and result in 1.5 million additional people being uninsured by 2034, according to an analysis the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released Wednesday.
“They confirmed millions of Americans will be left out in the cold from their cuts on Medicaid,” the New York representative said in reference to cuts.
Republicans have yet to introduce a formal bill seeking to pass their budget reconciliation package but have heavily weighed ideas that would allow President Trump’s 2017 tax cuts to be expanded.
Other priorities include ramping up border security and boosting defense spending while planning to defund medical research.
Ocasio-Cortez and her Democratic colleagues remain outraged over the plans to carry out the Trump agenda through the “one big beautiful bill.”
Her colleague, Rep. Al Green (D-Texas), was censured and removed from the president’s first joint address to Congress for protesting cuts to Medicaid.
“This is about the people who are being punished by virtue of losing their health care,” Green told reporters after he was escorted out of the chamber. “This is the richest country in the world, and we have people who don’t have good health care. We’ve got to do better.”
Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) made the same plea during his record breaking speech on the floor.
