Republican gets cornered on CNN after insisting budget doesn't include Medicaid cuts

Rep. Ryan Zinke (R-Mont.) dodged questions on CNN Wednesday about possible cuts to Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security that are part of a budget blueprint House Republicans passed Tuesday, claiming that these cuts do not exist. The tax cut legislation does not explicitly mention these programs, but it includes cuts to mandatory federal spending, which includes funding for them.

More than 100 protesters visited Zinke’s offices in Missoula and Boseman, Mont., recently, saying he prioritizes President Donald Trump and Elon Musk over his constituents.

“I enjoy the shake up. The first thing is to expose fraud abuse. I think [Musk has] done that. The second thing is, confirm it,” Zinke told CNN’s John Berman.

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“You were part of the group that passed the Republican budget blueprint last night, barely. How much would you like to see cut from Medicaid?” Berman asked.

“Well, there is zero mention of cutting Medicaid. There is no mention of cutting Social Security, because you can't,” Zinke said.

“But of course,” Berman said, “you know that this blueprint did call on the Energy Committee, which oversees Medicare and Medicaid, that they have to cut at least $880 billion, and plenty of people look at that and say, you can't get there without cutting Medicaid. So again, my direct question, which you didn't really address is, how much would you be willing to cut from Medicaid?”

“It's a balance… it's a ledger sheet,” Zinke said,

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“So some?” Berman asked. “You’d be willing to cut some?”

“You have to make sure it's balanced,” Zinke said. “What we're going to do is not going debt. Now, $850 billion is a goal over a ten-year cycle. Do you think there's fraud in there at that scale? Likely there's pretty close. But there's also things we can do, like work requirements, like efficiency. Government is the last resort. It's not the first. So when you look at Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, Social Security is off because of reconciliation, but it doesn't mean you can't make improvements on it.”

“All I’m asking is if you’re going to tell your constituents — again, waste, fraud… so you’re willing to… look for some cuts in Medicaid, yes?”

“I will look at getting rid of the waste, fraud in abuse and again, Elon Musk has said there is going to be a trillion dollars, with a “T,” a trillion dollars in waste, fraud and abuse. But again, that's what he says. We have to confirm, that's what it is. And if it is confirmed, then you can have the savings of it. So we're not going to cut benefits. What we're going to do is make it more efficiently. And if there's fraud, waste and abuse, I think America, I know America doesn't want fraud, waste and abuse. We see the abuse in USAID. We see it in programs. We see it in the spending Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security. It's no different. If there's fraud, waste and abuse, we have an obligation to go after it,” Zinke said.

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