GOP Tax Cut Plans Could Depend on Savings From Medicaid

(Photo by Ariel Skelley/Getty Photos via the North Dakota Monitor)

(By: Jennifer Shutt. Via the North Dakota Monitor) – Republicans in Congress have gotten a crash course in Medicaid during the last few weeks, as they eye the health care program for lower-income Americans as a source for hundreds of billions of dollars in savings to pay for tax cuts.

The 72 million Americans who rely on Medicaid, especially those represented by GOP lawmakers, as well as state leaders nervous about the effect on their budgets, are closely watching what Congress does.

Democrats already have seized on potential cuts in the state-federal program to portray Republicans as trying to harm poor and vulnerable Americans to preserve tax cuts for the wealthy.

Some GOP lawmakers have begun signaling to leadership they won’t vote for anything that reduces benefits to Medicaid recipients, a position that once would have left that handful of centrists out of negotiations.

But the extremely narrow majority in the House means that Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., will have to keep pretty much everyone on the same page as the package takes shape in the weeks ahead.