Pallone Opening Remarks at Hearing on Republican Budget Cuts

Energy and Commerce Committee Ranking Member Frank Pallone, Jr. (D-NJ) delivered the following opening remarks today at a Democratic Steering & Policy Committee hearing on the devastating impact of Republican budget cuts to Medicaid:

House Republicans’ plans to cut around a trillion dollars or more from Medicaid would be the largest health care cuts in history. All so they can give giant tax breaks to billionaires and big corporations.  

Republicans understand that cuts of this magnitude are not popular with the American people. That’s why they’re twisting themselves in knots – repeatedly lying about the size of the cuts and their impacts. They claim these massive cuts can somehow happen without anyone getting hurt. As the Ranking Member of the Energy and Commerce Committee, the Committee with jurisdiction over Medicaid, let me set the record straight. 

First, the Committee is being directed to find at least $880 billion in cuts. The only place the Committee can find that kind of money is Americans’ health care. 

Second, there is simply no way to cut hundreds of billions of dollars in federal Medicaid funds without taking health care away from millions of Americans. And if you doubt me, myself and Congressman Boyle, the Ranking Member of the Budget Committee, received a response letter from the CBO yesterday, and in that letter they make clear that almost all of this $880+ billion of this money would have to come from Medicaid. There’s no way around. Yet, Republicans falsely claim that they are just targeting so-called waste, fraud, and abuse. The truth is, Republicans will call anything “waste, fraud, and abuse” to justify taking away people’s health care. 

The reality is that states cannot absorb hundreds of billions of dollars in Medicaid cuts—in whatever form they take. At the end of the day, states will be left with three options to address the holes in their budgets: cut people off of Medicaid, cut people’s benefits, or cut payment rates to providers, knowing it will close hospitals, nursing homes, and Community Health Centers.

The House Republicans’ Medicaid cuts are life or death for so many Americans—in every one of our congressional districts. For Tuesday night’s Joint Session, I invited Lauren Zalepka from my district to join me. Lauren’s daughter, Dani, has intellectual and developmental disabilities and relies on Medicaid for the care she needs. That’s care that no other payer covers—not Medicare, not private insurance.  

Lauren has dedicated her life to fighting for people with disabilities—as a community leader, and as a mother who knows exactly how devastating these cuts would be. Lauren says that cuts to Medicaid would, “take away my daughter’s life. Dani doesn’t deserve that.” As a long-time disability advocate, Lauren also knows that her daughter’s circumstances are not unique. Again, quoting Lauren, “Without programs like Medicaid that help them get out of bed in the morning, they will literally be stuck or worse, out in the community, unsafe and victimized.”

We cannot let these devastating cuts to Medicaid ever become a reality. Lauren and her daughter Dani’s story is powerful and there are millions of other stories like theirs from all over the nation. After all, Medicaid is a lifeline for these Americans.  

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