Representative Jeff Van Drew, a republican who resisted his party’s efforts to cut Medicaid to pay President Trump’s national program, says he has a powerful ally: Trump himself.
“He does not want to hurt Medicaid,” said Van Drew, a member of the New Jersey Congress. “He didn’t say it, twice, three times – it’s about half a dozen times. And I had these conversations with him one against one.”
Trump has traditionally acted as the most effective whisk of the House Republicans when they face difficult votes, based on retained in person and on social networks and threatening to lead an adversary against them if they do not correspond to the party. But when it comes to unifying the GOP legislators around the most political part of their budgetary plan – reducing Medicaid to pay the tax reductions they wish to implement – the President clearly indicated that he will not be torsion of arms.
“We do not cut Medicaid, we do not delete medication and we do not reduce social security,” said Trump in an interview with NBC last weekend. He said he would oppose his veto to the megabill carrying his program by the “if they cut” Congress “Medicaid. “But they don’t cut it,” he added. “They look at fraud, waste and abuse. And no one disturbs them. “
His unequivocal position on the question – he said that he in no way wanted to “touch” Medicaid – is one of the reasons why the Republicans have so far failed to merge a cost reduction plan for the program. This, in turn, left them producing to produce key details of the “big, beautiful bill” that they are trying to pass through the congress on the solid opposition of the Democrats.
