U.S. Rep. Ashley Hinson joined House Republicans in voting for a budget framework that calls for steep spending cuts, but she said this week that “we want to protect the most vulnerable” as they look at programs like Medicaid.
“We don’t want to cut benefits. We want to protect the most vulnerable,” Hinson, who represents Iowa’s 2nd Congressional District, told reporters during a Feb. 27 press call. “There’s a lot of fear-mongering around these bills, and I want to make sure that programs like Medicaid can continue to serve our most vulnerable, and that they are not rife with waste, fraud and abuse.”
Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives voted this week for a budget proposal that would extend Republican President Donald Trump’s 2017 tax cuts and implement new ones at a cost of $4.5 trillion over the next decade.
The proposal calls for massive spending cuts to help offset those costs, including $880 billion in cuts by the Energy and Commerce Committee. Because Trump has ruled out cuts to Medicare and Social Security, budget experts say that may necessitate cuts to Medicaid, which is under the committee’s jurisdiction.
More: What is in the just-passed House Republican budget bill? What to know
Democrats and moderate Republicans have raised concerns that those types of cuts are not possible without affecting important services.
In Iowa, Democrats gathered outside U.S. Rep. Zach Nunn’s 3rd District office in Des Moines to urge him to vote against the measure.
State Rep. Austin Baeth speaks outside of U.S. Rep. Zach Nunn’s Des Moines office Tuesday as Democrats protested potential cuts to Medicaid.
All of Iowa’s representatives voted in favor of the proposal, but it’s just the start of a lengthy budget process.
The proposal outlines the goals of a spending policy. The Senate, which has put forward its own spending proposal, would need to agree to it. And then legislation can be drafted that achieves those broad policy goals.
Hinson said it’s important to root out waste from the federal budget.
“We’re not going to be cutting people’s benefits,” she said. “President Trump’s been pretty adamant about that. But we do have hundreds of billions of dollars in fraud in many of these programs. So I think we can all agree able bodied adults should be working if they’re receiving benefits. And again, the White House has made it clear we’re not going to be touching benefits, but we’re going to be addressing ways where we can protect the traditional Medicaid populations and make sure that these programs can continue to exist.”
USA TODAY contributed to this report.
Brianne Pfannenstiel is the chief politics reporter for the Des Moines Register. Reach her at [email protected] or 515-284-8244. Follow her on X at @brianneDMR.
This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Ashley Hinson: Republicans want to cut Medicaid fraud, not benefits
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