Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-N.Y.) tore into CNN pundit Scott Jennings on Wednesday for defending the One Large Lovely Invoice Act’s work necessities for Medicaid recipients — and for arguing that fellow Republicans merely “wish to encourage folks” to search out employment.
The GOP tax and spending invoice signed into regulation final week by President Donald Trump was estimated to slash federal Medicaid spending by $1 trillion, threatening rural hospitals that serve low-income sufferers enrolled within the authorities program.
Republicans have claimed that the Medicaid provisions will solely goal waste, fraud and abuse inside the program. The invoice creates a $50 billion fund referred to as the Rural Well being Transformation Program, nonetheless, which Torres famous throughout an appearance on “NewsNight” Wednesday.
“If the invoice surgically targets fraud, waste and abuse, then why would it not be essential to arrange a $50 billion fund for rural hospitals?” Torres requested on air. “One thing doesn’t add up right here.”
The invoice additionally accommodates a provision requiring sure Medicaid enrollees who don’t have younger kids and are thought of able-bodied to show they’re employed, at school, in job coaching or volunteering greater than 80 hours per thirty days with a purpose to obtain their advantages. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimates this requirement would strip 4.8 million folks of their medical insurance by 2034.
Jennings appeared to quote the evaluation on Wednesday, however claimed these folks “select to not work” and urged they should lose their advantages.
“That’s false,” Torres interrupted. “That’s, like, a figment of your creativeness.”
Jennings then held up his telephone to say the proof is “actually proper right here,” just for Torres to answer that the pro-Trump pundit is “misrepresenting the character of that inhabitants.” Many individuals within the “nonworking inhabitants” aren’t receiving a paycheck as a result of they’re caregivers, Torres identified.
“Republicans wish to encourage folks to work,” Jennings replied. “You wish to encourage folks to be government-dependent.”
“The caregivers are working a lot more durable than you might be,” Torres fired again at Jennings.
Greater than 4 million family caregivers are Medicaid recipients, in accordance with the American Affiliation of Retired Individuals. Justice in Growing older, a company devoted to combating poverty amongst senior residents, said on its website that “requiring caregivers to work in paid employment or doc their caregiving to keep up protection would put many prone to shedding Medicaid.”
Watch the change beneath.
