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Cake day: April 26th, 2024

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  • Cohn: Yes. They are desperate to … the last whole two months—this entire debate as it has unfolded so far—has been one attempt after another by the Republicans to present their Medicaid cuts as something other than Medicaid cuts. We’re making the program more efficient. We’re actually protecting, we’re fortifying it so it really serves the most needy people. And you saw—especially in the last two weeks as they were trying to get the language together to put into a bill—there was, every day, a new leak of a new way they were going to cast Medicaid cuts, a new form for the cuts. It was almost like you could just see them trying to throw things against the wall. What’s going to work? What’s going to work? What’s not going to sound like a cut? But the problem is they want to take this money out of it, and there is no way to do it without hurting working-class voters.

    Sargent: Well, the Republican Party really is devoted to screwing over Trump voters. That’s just the fact of the matter. The money is either going to go to the wealthy and corporations or to the working poor, and they can’t paper that over. That’s the fundamental math problem. So John, I hope Hawley is right that Trump won’t sign this bill. But I think one possibility is that Trump will just say that all the bill does is cut waste and fraud and abuse—and pretend it doesn’t cut Medicaid for the working poor. Then he’ll go and sign this bill or some version of these cuts anyway. What do you think?

    Cohn: I wish I knew the answer. I don’t know how it’s going to go. I could make a credible argument either way, I feel like. Clearly, there is pressure. There’s a sensitivity to the fact that their own voters are now depending on Medicaid. The party is different than it was years ago. That is why Josh Hawley is like this. That is why Trump is talking like he doesn’t want to cut Medicaid. So there is a real reluctance to go there. On the other hand, this is still the Republican Party.