Republicans Hope No One Notices When They Cut Medicaid While Pretending The Cuts Aren’t Really Cuts

Even MAGAts May Notice Hundreds Of Billions Of Less Dollars Though

Republicans have a dilemma. In order to cut taxes for the very rich— the key item in Trump and Musk's pernicious agenda— they’ve agreed to two things: cutting $880 billion for healthcare to poor people while not calling the cuts “cuts.” Vern Buchanan (R-FL)— whose Manatee and eastern Hillsborough County district is filled with retirees— is working on pulling off that magic trick. Chair of the Ways and Means Health Subcommittee, he insists he opposes cutting Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security— insists, insists, insists— but that’s exactly what his little hat trick is all about.

Yesterday, Ben Leonard reported that Buchanan is seeing if he can get away with calling the cuts “inefficiencies” and “rooting out waste. “I’m not for cuts in Medicaid,” he said yesterday. “There are a lot of inefficiencies. We’ve got to find a way to be able to... do things better for less.”

Buchanan’s comments come as Republicans are trying to figure out how to pay for Trump’s plan to cut taxes, boost border security and expand energy exploration. House leaders want to find $880 billion in savings to pay for it. Democrats cite data from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office in arguing that would need to come from Medicaid, the state-federal health insurance program that more than 75 million low-income Americans rely on.

Whether that can be done without cutting benefits is a matter of debate and some Republicans have warned their leaders against going too far.

Buchanan said Republicans are open to reducing payment rates for states that have expanded Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act. Such a change could force states to reduce benefits or raise taxes to avoid doing so.

“It’s something they’re going to look at,” Buchanan said, adding he hopes to protect Medicaid for the most vulnerable. The federal share of payments is higher for certain beneficiaries in states that have used an Obamacare provision to extend benefits to more enrollees with higher incomes than traditional enrollees.

Buchanan said the ballooning federal debt necessitated a search for savings.

“Medicaid, Medicare, Social Security— I’m for all that,” Buchanan said. “Our interest on the debt is a trillion dollars a year... We’ve got to find a way to [be] more efficient.”

You probably recognize this same cynical shell game the GOP has played for decades: starving government programs that benefit working people, then pretending to be shocked— shocked!— when those programs can’t function properly. They never seem to apply this same ruthless scrutiny to bloated defense budgets, corporate subsidies or the obscene tax giveaways they shovel to their billionaire donors. No, the “efficiencies” and “waste” they’re so eager to root out always just happen to target the poor, the elderly and the most vulnerable.

So let’s be clear: this isn’t just budgetary sleight of hand; it’s class warfare dressed up in the language of “fiscal responsibility.” When Buchanan and his fellow Republicans talk about “reducing payment rates” to states, they know full well that this will force governors and legislatures to either slash benefits or raise taxes on working families to make up the difference. It’s a deliberate strategy— cut Medicaid at the federal level, then blame state officials, especially Democrats,  for the fallout. The Republicans aren’t just trying to balance the budget; they’re waging a relentless ideological war to punish anyone who isn’t rich.

And the justification for all this cruelty? The tired, dishonest claim that the “ballooning federal debt” leaves them no choice but to make “hard decisions.” But that’s pure fiction. The U.S. government, which issues its own currency, can never “run out” of money the way a household or business can. Buchanan’s concern about a trillion-dollar interest payment is nothing more than a scare tactic designed to justify cutting essential services. If Republicans were truly worried about inflation or economic stability, they wouldn’t be prioritizing tax cuts for the ultra-wealthy, which do nothing but concentrate wealth and fuel asset bubbles. The reality is, they know exactly what they’re doing— weaponizing deficit hysteria to dismantle the welfare state while leaving the corporate welfare system untouched