Jeffries warns about Republican cuts to Medicaid, slams Elon Musk for making $8 million per day
House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries said Republicans are "lying" about not cutting Medicaid and took aim at Trump's billionaire advisor.
House Democratic leader, Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., railed against Republicans after their party passed a budget bill that would extend President Donald Trump‘s 2017 tax cuts law and enact new tax cuts totaling more than $4 trillion. In an effort to pay for such massive tax cuts, the Republican budget calls for huge spending cuts. On Thursday, during his weekly press conference, Jeffries warned that Medicaid will be on the chopping block as a result.
“Every single member of the House Democratic Caucus stood on the side of the American people in opposing the reckless Republican budget scheme,” said Jeffries. “The Republican budget will set in motion the largest cut to Medicaid in American history.” The House minority leader further explained, “Children will be hurt. Families will be hurt. Seniors will be hurt. Everyday Americans with disabilities will be hurt. Hospitals will be hurt and nursing homes will be hurt all across America.”
House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., has maintained that Republicans will preserve Medicaid, and Republican majority leader Steve Scalise, R-La., pointed out there are no Medicaid cuts outlined in the budget bill, as The Hill reports. However, Leader Jeffries adamantly declared that “Republicans are lying to the American people about Medicaid.”
“The Republican budget authorizes up to $880 billion in cuts to Medicaid by directing the Energy and Commerce Committee to find those spending cuts,” the New York congressman explained. “Everybody knows, who has had any connection to the Congressional budget, that if you are directing the Energy and Commerce Committee to find up to $880 billion if not more in spending cuts, that means Medicaid.”
Jeffries said rather than taking aim at cuts to critical programs like Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program (SNAP) that millions of Americans rely on, Republicans should instead look at the billions in government contracts obtained by Elon Musk, President Trump’s top advisor and head of the Department of Government Efficiency, also known as DOGE, which has been leading the White House’s efforts to dramatically scale back the federal workforce and cut so-called waste and fraud in federal spending.
“Elon Musk has about $8 million in federal contracts per day,” said Jeffries, repeating for effect, “Per day.” He continued, “The average Social Security recipient in this country receives $65 per day.”
The Democratic leader said that if Musk, who is worth more than $300 billion, and Republicans are really “interested” in identifying waste, fraud, and abuse as a “serious effort,” they should “start with [Musk’s] contracts.”
“Elon and the Musketeers are demonstrating in real time what it means to widen the gap between the haves and have-nots,” Democratic strategist Antjuan Seawright told theGrio. Seawright advises Democrats like Leader Jeffries, Democratic assistant leader Joe Neguse, D-Colo., and Rep. Jim Clyburn, D-S.C.
For weeks, Democrats have targeted Elon Musk and DOGE, which have gained access to sensitive and personal data of American taxpayers and frozen funding that has already been authorized by Congress — actions that are now being litigated in court. Seawright said that “at some point, the political consequences will catch up to Donald Trump and the Republican Party for allowing this extreme government overreach, in many cases, illegal overreach.”
Seawright also warned Republican cuts to Medicaid won’t just disproportionately harm Black communities but also rural communities in red states that elected Trump and Republicans to office. He explained, “If you look at the aging population in nursing homes and so forth, that’s going to be impacted by those services … the beneficiaries of Medicaid don’t look like the constituents [Republicans] think that they are screwing, if you will.”
Seawright added, “Medicaid cuts will impact the overall economic bill of health for this country.” But beyond Medicaid, the Democrat said other “basic services” that Republicans are “willing to put on the chopping block” are going to “impact the nerve center of America.”
Musk and DOGE have taken aim at nearly every federal agency for spending and employee reduction. Seawright warned that whether it is the Federal Aviation Administration or the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), which is critical to preparing for natural disasters like hurricanes, the Trump administration and Republican Party are “cutting into the bone of America.”
He added, “I think now Americans are starting to feel and see the bleeding from the bone that America is experiencing as a direct result of Elon and the Musketeers.”
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