27 Mar 2025 2:07 pm
congress is paying attention especially if they want to win elections.DeezerShoove » 27 Mar 2025, 1:22 pm » wrote: ↑ Rallies and protests don't do a thing for me. Ever.
Boring and impotent. Staged energy and fake empathy... yuk...
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https://www.politico.com/news/2025/02/2 ... s-00205542
House Republicans who represent large numbers of Medicaid recipients are pushing back on their leaders’ plans to slash billions in funding for the insurance program for low-income people.That dissension could grow considering that President Donald Trump has made the GOP more appealing to the working class. Republicans rely on low-income voters more than they have in decades, with Trump the first Republican presidential candidate to win the poorest third of the electorate since the 1960s.A POLITICO review of enrollment in Medicaid by congressional district found that 11 Republicans in competitive seats represent larger-than-average Medicaid populations — collectively nearly 2.7 million recipients. A vote to cut the program presents a politically sensitive decision that may come back to haunt them in 2026.With a 218-215 House split — the tightest in modern history — Republicans will be fighting for every seat during the midterms to keep control of the chamber. And they can only lose one vote in the House and still pass their budget bill.House Republican leaders plan to use Medicaid cuts to pay for tax relief, border security and energy production in the coming weeks.“The bulk of these cuts would have to be in Medicaid, and that’s why they’re not going to get the requisite votes they need to get it passed with the margins that they have right now,” said Bill Hoagland, senior vice president at the Bipartisan Policy Center and a former GOP Senate Budget Committee staffer. “Leaders are going to have a lot of difficulty getting the votes to pass this resolution.” ******It may be having an effect.Valadao’s central California district is perennially in play — Valadao is in his sixth term but lost one in the middle — and more than 3 in 5 of his constituents, more than 470,000 people, rely on Medicaid, according to NYU Langone Health’s estimate.He was among six Republican representatives and two territorial delegates who recently signed a letter to Speaker Mike Johnson warning that “slashing Medicaid would have serious consequences, particularly in rural and predominantly Hispanic communities.”Also among the signers were Bresnahan and Juan Ciscomani, a second-term Republican from Arizona who represents Tucson suburbs and rural areas to the east. He won reelection by less than 3 percentage points. Nearly a quarter of his constituents rely on Medicaid.Bresnahan, who represents a mix of suburban and rural communities in northeastern Pennsylvania, said in a statement earlier this month he would not