SHOT/CHASER: After Promising New Yorkers He Wouldn’t Cut Their Medicaid on National TV, Mike Lawler Did The Exact Opposite in Washington

SHOT:

Wood Jr: Which is it? Is Medicaid safe, or is Medicaid going down?

Lawler: There are many of us, myself included, who will not cut Medicaid benefits to our constituents, period.

Black: So when that bill comes to the floor and there’s even a dollar in Medicaid cuts, you vote…

Lawler: Well, we’re not cutting Medicaid.

CHASER:

Last week, Mike Lawler cast the deciding vote to enact the largest cut to Medicaid in American history – putting over 30,000 NY-17 residents at risk of losing their health care, all to fund massive tax breaks for billionaires and big corporations:

We’ll let the headlines speak for themselves…

• Republicans who pledged not to cut Medicaid, such as Rep. Mike Lawler (R-N.Y.), happily explained it away by redefining the word “cut.” In an interview, Lawler claimed the bill will actually “protect critical services like Medicaid.”
• Other so-called moderates drew red lines around Medicaid early on, only to later erase those lines once it became clear that their colleagues were racing to cross them with axes in hand.
• [These Republicans’ defense of the bill is] a wildly inaccurate portrayal of what these reforms will actually do. The impact could be profound.

• Almost 1.5 million New Yorkers could lose their health insurance under the huge package of spending and tax cuts House Republicans approved Thursday, May 22, according to state estimates.
• State officials project more than 1.2 million of the 6.9 million New Yorkers now enrolled in Medicaid would become disqualified as a result of the GOP plan.
• An estimated $13.5 billion a year for New York…That’s the full toll officials project for the state and its hospitals, based on federal funding cuts and new costs they must shoulder.

• The Republican tax and spending bill that passed the U.S. House of Representatives Thursday […] could force more than 1 million New Yorkers off Medicaid statewide.
• The biggest impact by far comes from attempts to sharply reduce spending on the Medicaid program.
• Changes to Medicaid could cost the state $13.5 billion, the Hochul administration estimated earlier this week.
• Currently, about 7 million people statewide are in the Medicaid program, which covers 60% of New York City residents.
• The Medicaid cuts could reduce health care jobs in the state by 78,000, the progressive Fiscal Policy Institute estimated this week, about 4% of the total in that sector.

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