Ben Ray Luján Calls Out ‘Audacity’ Of GOP To Deny Medicaid Cuts In The One Big Beautiful Bill

Forbes Breaking News

During a town hall on Tuesday, Sen. Ben Ray Luján (D-NM) spoke about looming Medicaid cuts.

Transcript

00:00It's rare. Generally, you recover a bit and then the rest is the rest of your life.

00:09But I only survived that because my sister was at my mom's house the morning that it hit me.

00:15She was able to get me, not to the hospital, but to us.

00:19Those of you that you're not in the area, once you leave not in bed, you're into Milwaukee, it's like three or four miles away.

00:26An EMT, a paramedic, happened to be cleaning vehicles at 6 in the morning.

00:31My sister pulled in and they didn't even wait for her to explain what was going on.

00:35I mean, they grabbed me and they put me in an ambulance and they started to treat me.

00:38That split decision, it gave me that ambulance, it started treating me, contributed to saving my life.

00:43And then when I.

01:13We had some symptoms for a stroke instead of getting to a fire department or to a facility within minutes.

01:23Now it's out. Time is not on your side.

01:28The devastation to New Mexicans with Medicaid being eliminated. I can't even think what that would become.

01:35And then to boot right Melanie.

01:39The resolution that house Republicans just passed.

01:42If it wasn't enough to go after $700 billion in Medicaid.

01:46They said, well, let's go after Medicare.

01:50To the tune of over $500 billion over 10 years.

01:54And then my colleagues have the audacity to say that they're not cutting Medicaid or Medicare.

01:59They're just leading it up to the states.

02:02So take that out.

02:04Leave it up to the states.

02:05The states have to now come up budgetarily at the local level.

02:08Ignoring the states and have triggers to see if they don't get the money.

02:11Then they go after Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.

02:17Meals on wheels.

02:18Think about folks that are homebound.

02:22Seniors.

02:23That the only conversation that they have is to deliver that mail.

02:26That goes away.

02:28All the school free lunch programs for kids go away.

02:33Those food banks.

02:36What happens to them?

02:38Church pantries.

02:39What happens to them?

02:40And by the way, you know who came to senior reselling grocery stores?

02:45So why are they here?

02:47Grocery stores are concerned across America because of the selling of food.

02:54Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.

02:56Think about rural grocery stores now closing.

02:59More food deserts across the country.

03:00So states are going to have to come up with nutrition dollars.

03:03They're going to come up with Medicaid dollars.

03:05And they're cutting everything else.

03:06And you all know why.

03:08To bring back that failed tax policy from 2017.

03:13When I was doing town halls during that moment.

03:17My constituents are the ones that told me that sure feels like a scam.

03:20Because I'm not making 2 million bucks a year.

03:22I'm not going to get the benefit of that.

03:24Why do they keep saying that working families are going to get the brunt of this tax cut when it's going to the most wealthy in the country?

03:31Great.

03:36If you were on the top 3 million bucks a week or only.

03:39Fine.

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