Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union” that Democrats who opposed Medicaid work requirements in President Donald Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill” think “poor people are stupid.”
Host Dana Bash said, “I’m sure you’ve seen and heard a lot of the concern, including, and especially from Republicans who are the most vocal in Congress, about the fact that those work requirements are going to be very cumbersome to actually prove. And it will inevitably force the people who need that Medicaid coverage off the rolls.”
Bessent said, “Well, first of all, the Republicans are not the most vocal on this. It is a group of Democrats who, unfortunately, seem to think that poor people are stupid. I don’t think poor people are stupid. I think they have agency. And I think to have them register twice a year for these benefits, that is not a burden, but these people who want to infantilize the poor and those who need these Medicaid benefits are alarmists.”
He added, “We’ve wanted to put in work requirements, which somehow was very popular under Bill Clinton, was popular under President Obama, and this Democratic Party blew out the deficit in 2020. and they never want to bring it back.”
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