“On Feb. 25, I voted sure on a funds decision that protects Social Safety, Medicare, and Medicaid whereas reducing some spending elsewhere.”
Rep. Nick LaLota (R-N.Y.), in a YouTube video posted March 4, 2025
On Feb. 25, Rep. Nick LaLota (R-N.Y.) voted in favor of a Home funds decision that requires sharp cuts in spending throughout an unlimited array of presidency areas. Medicaid is among the many applications that could possibly be in danger — catapulting it to the middle of the political debate.
President Donald Trump has insisted he gained’t hurt Medicaid, Medicare, and Social Safety advantages, saying his administration is trying to root out fraud. However Democrats have pushed again, saying the sheer measurement of the proposed cuts will lead to hurt to the Medicaid program, its enrollees, and medical suppliers.
A KFF monitoring ballot has discovered widespread public assist for Medicaid, which suggests efforts to chop this system may face political headwinds. KFF is a well being data nonprofit that features KFF Well being Information.
LaLota, who represents a part of Lengthy Island, posted a video for his constituents explaining his place: “I voted sure on a funds decision that protects Social Safety, Medicare, and Medicaid whereas reducing some spending elsewhere.” As a result of a lot of his video centered on Medicaid, we did too. We discovered that his assertion on this regard was layered with mischaracterizations and inaccuracies. But, in his video, LaLota advises his constituents to get their data straight from him, saying, “I’ll at all times be sincere with you.”
We requested LaLota’s workplace for the data he used to again up his assertion. The funds decision makes no cuts to these applications, he wrote in an announcement emailed by his communications aide Mary O’Hara. “Fairly, it opens the door to guard Medicaid with common sense options which guarantee its availability for these Individuals who qualify, together with the elimination of illegals from the rolls, work necessities for able-bodied adults, and the elimination of waste, fraud, and abuse.”
Let’s parse what the decision does say and do, and the modifications it may set off for Medicaid.
Explaining the Fundamentals
Finances resolutions usually are not legislation, however relatively blueprints that information lawmakers on budget-related laws. The Home-passed decision — accredited with 217 Republicans voting for it and 214 Democrats and one Republican towards — is only one a part of the funds course of. The Senate additionally has a say, so modifications are attainable.
As written, the decision seeks broad spending reductions throughout a spread of areas overseen by numerous committees. It particularly asks the Home Committee on Vitality and Commerce to submit proposals “to cut back the deficit by not lower than $880,000,000,000 [$880 billion] for the interval of fiscal years 2025 by 2034.”
It doesn’t say it will defend Medicaid. The phrase Medicaid is nowhere within the doc. It doesn’t prescribe any particular motion on this system, reminiscent of instituting work necessities for recipients. Lawmakers individually draft laws to make program changes to attain the spending lower targets.
Just a little background: Medicaid is a state-federal program that gives medical protection to lower-income residents, in addition to funds to nursing houses for caring for seniors and disabled residents. Medicaid and the intently associated Youngsters’s Well being Insurance coverage Program cowl greater than 79 million individuals.
Medicare is the federal program that gives medical health insurance for some disabled individuals and most of the people over age 65. Greater than 68 million individuals are enrolled.
The decision directs the committee to draft legislative language that may lower spending from areas underneath its jurisdiction, which embody Medicaid and about half of Medicare.
Social Safety is principally overseen within the Home by the Committee on Methods and Means. The panel additionally shares jurisdiction over Medicare with Vitality and Commerce.
Coverage consultants and the Congressional Finances Workplace have stated that, after eradicating Medicare from consideration, there’s not sufficient underneath the committee’s jurisdiction to chop $880 billion with out considerably decreasing Medicaid spending. (Medicare is usually thought of a 3rd rail as a result of its beneficiaries are a strong voting bloc.)
Certainly, of the $8.8 trillion in projected spending underneath the committee’s purview for the 10-year interval, Medicaid accounts for $8.2 trillion, or 93%.
“Even when the committee eradicated all of non-Medicare and non-Medicaid spending, they might nonetheless have to chop Medicaid by effectively over $700 billion,” stated Alice Burns, an affiliate director of KFF’s Program on Medicaid and the Uninsured.
Including work necessities — most Medicaid recipients have already got jobs — wouldn’t yield that stage of financial savings and may improve state prices. Different cuts steered by Republicans, together with capping federal spending per enrollee, decreasing federal matching {dollars}, and eliminating using supplier taxes, which states use to pay for his or her share of Medicaid spending, may pressure states to chop spending or discover new income sources.
“Cuts to Medicaid may imply eliminating protection for youngsters, dad and mom, working adults or those that would possibly want long run care; limiting advantages; or reducing cost charges for well being plans or suppliers. These selections may come at a time when state income development is slowing, and most states face necessities to move balanced budgets,” in response to an evaluation by Robin Rudowitz, vp of the KFF Program on Medicaid and the Uninsured.
The downstream results if the Home-passed funds decision have been enacted can be wide-ranging and considerably alter the protection internet program, stated Edwin Park, a analysis professor on the Heart for Youngsters and Households at Georgetown College.
He famous rising opposition to such large-scale Medicaid cuts from “beneficiaries and oldsters of youngsters with disabilities, households with dad and mom in nursing houses, and from well being care suppliers.”
“Medicaid cuts are extremely unpopular even amongst Trump voters,” he stated.
Opposition to Medicaid cuts helped kill the 2017 try and repeal the Inexpensive Care Act throughout the first Trump administration, famous Joseph Antos, a senior fellow emeritus on the American Enterprise Institute.
Antos thinks the present spending lower goal is unrealistic and can possible not survive the hassle to merge the Home funds blueprint with what the Senate needs to do.
“Finally, the issue is you possibly can’t take that a lot out of Medicaid,” Antos stated.
LaLota’s concentrate on immigrants missing authorized standing as a solution to scale back federal spending on Medicaid can also be deceptive.
Quite a lot of states, together with New York, provide protection to kids or adults no matter immigration standing, however they will use solely state cash to pay for such applications.
“States can not use federal funding to cowl undocumented immigrants,” Burns stated. So eradicating them “gained’t do something for the deficit discount targets.”
Our Ruling
LaLota stated, “On Feb. 25, I voted sure on a funds decision that protects Social Safety, Medicare, and Medicaid whereas reducing some spending elsewhere.”
His assertion is inaccurate and mischaracterizes legal guidelines and the language included within the funds decision, making a misunderstanding of what his vote supported.
The 32-word sentence that directs the Vitality and Commerce Committee to trim $880 billion over 10 years from applications it authorizes doesn’t embody any protections, guardrails, or particular instructions for the panel to observe.
We price this declare False.
Sources:
Rep. Nick LaLota, constituent video, March 4, 2025.
Clerk, United States Home of Representatives, “Roll Name 50 | Invoice Quantity H. Con. Res. 14,” Feb. 25, 2025.
Newsweek, “Donald Trump Points Social Safety, Medicaid Replace,” March 10, 2025.
Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, press launch, March 16, 2025.
KFF, February monitoring ballot, March 7, 2025.
Medicaid.gov, “October 2024 Medicaid & CHIP Enrollment Knowledge Highlights,” accessed March 17, 2025.
Congressional Finances Workplace, letter to Reps. Brendan Boyle and Frank Pallone, March 5, 2025.
KFF Fast Takes, “As Governors Meet in D.C., Attainable Federal Medicaid Cuts Loom as Large State Funding Situation,” Feb. 20, 2025.
KFF, “Key Info on Well being Protection of Immigrants, Jan. 15, 2025.
Phone interview with Joseph Antos, senior fellow emeritus, American Enterprise Institute, March 17, 2025.
Phone interview with Edwin Park, analysis professor on the Heart for Youngsters and Households, Georgetown College, March 17, 2025.
Phone interview with Alice Burns, affiliate director, Program on Medicaid and the Uninsured, KFF, March 17, 2025.
