President Trump vowed “no cuts” to Medicaid during his campaign — but the bill he backs bleeds it by $880 billion over the next decade.
In light of House GOP leaders on Thursday narrowly passing the American Health Care Act — now facing an imminent Senate fight — let’s take a look at some of the times Trump opposed making cuts to Medicaid.
1. “I was the first & only potential GOP candidate to state there will be no cuts to Social Security, Medicare & Medicaid. Huckabee copied me.” (Twitter, May 7, 2015)
2. “Huckabee is a nice guy but will never be able to bring in the funds so as not to cut Social Security, Medicare & Medicaid. I will.” (Twitter, May 7, 2015)
3. “Save Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security without cuts. Have to do it. Get rid of the fraud. Get rid of the waste and abuse, but save it.” (presidential announcement speech, June 16, 2015)
4. “The Republicans who want to cut SS & Medicaid are wrong. A robust economy will Make America Great Again!” (Twitter, July 11, 2015)
A woman holds a sign during a protest on March 21.
(JUSTIN LANE/EPA)
5. “I am going to save Medicare and Medicaid, Carson wants to abolish, and failing candidate Gov. John Kasich doesn’t have a clue – weak!” (Twitter, Oct. 31, 2015)
6. “We’re gonna take care of Social Security, we’re gonna take care of Medicaid and Medicare, we’re gonna take care of all of the things that frankly, right now, we can’t do. OK?” (campaign speech in Boca Raton, Fla., March 13, 2016)
7. “We want to save our Social Security and our Medicare and our Medicaid. We want to save our wealth.” (campaign speech in Ambridge, Pa., Oct. 10)
8. “(Hillary Clinton) wants to knock the hell out of your Social Security, she wants to knock the hell out of your Medicare/Medicaid. And I’m going to save them, OK? This is a little reversal for the Democrat/Republican, but I’m going to save them because we’re going to — we’re going to make our country rich again.” (campaign speech in Ambridge, Pa., Oct. 10)