‘Those Who Need Medicaid And SNAP The Most’: Beware Republican Talking Points
Lawmakers using compassionate-sounding language as they slash programs
As they advance legislation that would slash healthcare, food assistance and other crucial programs for low-income and working-class Americans, Republicans are trying to deploy language that tries to sound compassionate and that claims to limit the impact of their cuts.
But that language obscures hard truths and outright falsehoods.
After a vote that temporarily stalled their so-called “Big, Beautiful Bill,” the House Budget Committee narrowly approved the proposal which advances it towards final passage on the House floor.
The Republican legislation is a massive package that would make bone-deep cuts to government programs like Medicaid and SNAP, which provides healthcare and food assistance respectively to tens of millions of Americans in order to fund a new round of tax cuts tilted mostly towards the wealthiest Americans and large corporations.
House Republicans are trying to cover the political unpopularity of their actions with language that sounds sensible and compassionate but, in reality, is anything but, according to advocates and others.
One common refrain is that Republicans are protecting those who need these services “the most.”
It was a point repeated by Rep Don Bacon (R-Neb) during a recent appearance on MSNBC, when he said, “We worked hard in these committees — all these committees — to find the savings. And we did it in a way to protect those who needed SNAP and Medicaid the most.”
What Bacon and others who use this language don’t say is that other Americans who depend on these services — tens of millions of them — won’t be protected under this bill.
Families of four making as little as $35,365 would see new costs for going to the doctor, some unemployed people would become ineligible for Medicaid, some seniors would lose access to long-term care coverage, and states would lose a portion of federal dollars that help them cover those just above the poverty line, according to recent reporting by USA Today.
Another common Republican talking point is that they’re merely trying to eliminate “waste, fraud and abuse” in the system.
And that’s just disingenuous at best, and outright false at worst, according to experts and advocates for these critical programs.
“This premise is false, and the thinking is dangerously wrong,” according to an analysis published by the Georgetown University Center for Children and Families (CCF), a nonpartisan policy and research center.
There already are checks on waste and abuse at both the state and federal level, the CCF analysis said.
“The cuts in federal Medicaid spending under discussion among House Republicans dwarf the amounts of fraud, waste, and abuse in Medicaid,” it said.
Lastly, Republicans talk about the new work requirements for these programs as sensible proposals.
They are not, advocates say.
Such requirements already exist and current Republican proposals would make them “broader and more punitive,” according to a recent analysis from the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP), a Washington think tank.
And most Medicaid recipients already are working, said the Medicare Rights Center, a national, nonprofit consumer organization that works to ensure access to affordable health care for older adults and people with disabilities.
“Yet, Medicaid access for qualified or exempted individuals could still be at risk if they struggle to leap the administrative hurdles associated with reporting their working or exempt status,” it said in a published report. “We saw this under the first Trump administration when, for the first time in the history of the Medicaid program, [the federal government] allowed states to impose work and reporting requirements as a condition of eligibility.
“Arkansas’s policy went even further and mandated consequences for noncompliance, creating unnecessary red tape and causing over 18,000 people to lose coverage, many of whom were indeed Medicaid eligible,” the report said.
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