House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) held a press briefing on Thursday, where he was asked about potential cuts to Medicaid.
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00:00Are there any reforms to Medicaid that you would support to make it more solvent?
00:06We are always open to having a bipartisan conversation to see how we can make the federal government
00:11and important programs relied upon by the American people as efficient and effective as possible.
00:21The House Republicans have not produced any evidence of meaningful waste, fraud, and abuse.
00:28That's an excuse to try to find cuts to enable their massive tax breaks for their billionaire donors like Elon Musk.
00:40From the very beginning of this process, Republicans have made clear they don't want to enter into any bipartisan conversation
00:48about making life better for the American people,
00:50which is why they've chosen to produce this one big, ugly bill through reconciliation
00:58so they can avoid Democrats being part of the legislative process.
01:05To the extent this thing falls apart in some way, shape, or form,
01:11then as Democrats, like we've made clear from the very beginning of this Congress,
01:15we'll work with anyone in good faith who's actually committed to improving the quality of life of the American people
01:23and building an affordable economy.
01:26Republicans clearly are not in that space.
01:28But what about strengthening work requirements and those kinds of things?
01:33The Republicans have spent years complaining about unfunded mandates,
01:38and now we have this one big, ugly bill filled with unfunded mandates.
01:43These aren't serious people right now.
01:46And this is not just Democrats expressing concern about the assault on Medicaid
01:52and the health care of the American people.
01:53This whole notion that Democrats are somehow making this up is belied by the fact that conservative Republicans
02:19have made the same observation, including people who are close to the Trump administration
02:26who have warned this Republican Congress that if they proceed with these Medicaid cuts,
02:33they are hurting their own people.
02:36Rural hospitals will close and health care is going to be snatched away from working class Americans
02:43in blue states, purple states, and red states.