President Donald Trump said public entitlements, such as Social Security and Medicaid, will not be touched in the GOP’s contentious new budget bill currently working its way through Congress, during a town hall Tuesday night hosted by NewsNation.
Earlier this month, the Republican-led House of Representatives approved $2 trillion in spending cuts. Those cuts did not include any slashes to Social Security, but it did pave the way for cuts to Medicaid.
However, in the Senate, Republicans have proposed implementing just $4 billion in cuts, a fraction of what House Republicans have called for. Meanwhile, a number of GOP senators have also expressed hesitancy over making cuts to Medicaid, setting up a potential intra-party battle over the matter.
‘We’re not doing anything with entitlements,’ Trump told NewsNation’s Chris Cuomo, who was moderating the event alongside Bill O’Reilly and sports commentator Stephen A. Smith.
‘If you look at Social Security – and by the way – I think I’m better to say this than anybody, because I did nothing with entitlements that would hurt people for four years. I could have done that. If I was going to do that, I would have done it, five years ago, six years ago or seven years ago. I’m not doing anything.’
However, Trump did say that he is undeterred from reforming public entitlements, like Medicaid, to ensure they are free of waste, fraud and abuse.
‘There are a lot of illegal aliens that are getting Medicaid that shouldn’t be getting it. And nobody objects to taking people off Medicaid that aren’t allowed to be there,’ Trump added. ‘But we are doing absolutely nothing to hurt Medicare, Medicaid or Social Security. Nothing at all.’
Republicans, who are using a process known as reconciliation to bypass a senate filibuster, are hoping to finalize their plans for a new budget by Memorial Day, according to media reports. However, the GOP must come to a deal on where to cut funding to pay for many of the tax cuts they want to provide.
‘Guess what, boys? It’s game time. We’re here, and you’ve got mandatory spending sitting in front of you, and it’s Medicaid,’ Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, told NBC News this week. ‘If they’re not going to vote for Medicaid reform, which is very much possible, and frankly, it’s our duty, then I want them to explain to me why they are for allowing the tax cuts to snap back in place. Because it’s the only math that will actually work. So anyone who is against Medicaid reform is for a tax increase.’
Meanwhile, centrist Republicans like Reps. Jeff Van Drew, R-N.J., and Don Bacon, R-Neb., have indicated to Speaker Mike Johnson that they will not vote for any GOP budget bill that proposes deep cuts to Medicaid.