House Democrat Throws Down on Fox News Over DOGE Looking for Cuts in Medicaid: ‘It Can’t Just Be Reckless!’
Rep. Tom Souzzi (D-NY) joined Fox News’s America’s Newsroom on Tuesday and promoted the need for bipartisanship in Washington, D.C. while hammering Elon Musk’s DOGE as “reckless.”
“So Politico says, centrist Democrats are having their moment. A string of special elections and some polling show the party might be getting pulled to the middle. Would you welcome that? And if that does happen, are centrist Democrats able to take advantage of a new media environment when you have stars like AOC, Jasmine Crockett, who get a lot of attention from the left?” asked anchor Dana Perino.
“You know, there’s a whole broad swath of people in the Democratic Party and people like myself. I’m chairman of the Problem Solvers Caucus. Fifty people, evenly divided between Democrats and Republicans saying, ‘Let’s work together. Let’s try to solve problems.’ And, instead of just saying what’s wrong with what we don’t like about President Trump, let’s figure out where we can find common ground to move our country forward to make it better for the people who live here in our country. It’s not about defending our party, it’s about our country,” Souzzi replied.
“Sorry for the interruption. You’ve made DOGE a main target, right? You’ve got that in the crosshairs. Medicaid is the next target on behalf of Democrats. There were 80 million Americans who received some measure of Medicaid reimbursement to a tune of $600 billion. Can you not admit that there’s got to be some waste, fraud, and abuse in that $600 billion?” pressed anchor Bill Hemmer.
“There’s waste, fraud, and abuse throughout government. There’s no question about that,” Souzzi replied, adding:
And we have to go after waste, fraud, and abuse. But let’s recognize that two-thirds of the people in nursing homes are paid for with Medicaid. One-tenth of the veterans in the United States of America are on Medicaid. There are 70 million Americans on Medicaid.
It’s not just low-income people who don’t have any other resources. It’s not just disabled people who really have no other opportunities. It’s not just people getting the Affordable Care Act’s help with health insurance, it’s veterans, it’s senior citizens, it’s children.
“But you concede there is room to trim in that area?” Hemmer pressed.
“Yeah, but what we’re seeing from DOGE, what we’ve been seeing so far, a lot of it’s just been reckless. Why do you want to eliminate people who work to oversee the nuclear stockpile? Why do you want to get rid of people who oversee the avian flu? Why do you want to get rid of people who oversee a measles outbreak in Texas and in New Mexico?” hit back Souzzi.
“But they brought them back. I mean, I see your point,” Perino replied.
“Okay, but there’s a lot of these instances, and I’ve been involved in government before where I’ve reduced the size of the workforce when I was Nassau County Executive by 15 to 20 percent. You have to have a plan. It can’t just be reckless and just cut, cut, cut without a plan as to how you’re going to still deliver the important services,” Souzzi added.
“So there’s agreement that something should be done, just a question on how to do it from your perspective. Chuck Schumer, public enemy number one this week, and it’s not ending. He had to cancel his book tour. It was supposed to start today. It’s about anti-Semitism. Politico again, ‘Schumer is doing damage control. It isn’t working. The Senate minority leader and his aides have been talking privately with liberal groups.’ Have you reached out to him, your fellow New York legislator?” Perino followed up.
“I’ve spoken to some of his staff. I haven’t spoken to him directly,” said Souzzi.
“Do you think he made the right decision?” Perino asked.
“You know, I voted that we should not support the CR only because I’m promoting bipartisanship. I want us to work together,” Souzzi replied, adding:
And the administration and the Republicans have not reached out to the Democrats whatsoever. It’s all been my way or the highway. And I think it’s sent a bad message to say, you don’t have to negotiate with us. Now, he was in between a rock and a hard place.
No matter what he did, whether we did the CR extension or we shut down the government, we’re going to continue to see a lot of these crazy cuts. We have to get the Republicans to negotiate with us to actually try to move our country forward together.
Watch the clip above via Fox News.
