‘Swamp Accounting’: Chip Roy Nukes His Own Party’s Budget, Demands Medicaid Cuts
AP Photo/John Minchillo
Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX) joined CNBC on Thursday and made clear his opposition to the Trump-backed GOP budget, saying he can’t support the levels of Medicaid funding in the bill.
Host Joe Kernen began the interview by telling Roy he’s absolutely correct to want to claw back the expansion of Medicaid under President Joe Biden and hit the GOP for not doing “anything about that.”
“Yeah, well, the president of the United States, President Trump and his secretary of the treasury, Treasury Bessent, are doing a fantastic job and the secretary has laid out a objective of obviously getting our deficits down to 3% of GDP. Through strong economic growth, through the tax policy that we want to extend that the president put forward, I believe that’s one piece of the puzzle that we must go do,” Roy replied, adding:
But right now, we are not going to address the key drivers of spending that will make it impossible for the president and the secretary to achieve that objective. Bond markets are on a knife’s edge. You know that and I know that. And that is necessary for the free flow of capital to have that economic growth.
If we continue to allow Medicaid to consume our budget and allow us to continue to drive that budget up so deficits go up, then we’re not going to be able to achieve those objectives. Medicaid right now is now a trillion dollar higher baseline than when we came in under Biden.
Roy later shared part of the interview on X, adding, “Right now, the House proposal fails to meet the moment. It does not meaningfully change spending (Medicaid expansion to able bodied, IRA subsidies). “
“Plus many of the decent provisions and cuts, don’t begin until 2029 and beyond. That is swamp accounting to dodge real savings,” he fumed.
Roy made clear he wants to see more limits put on Medicaid, which he claims is now going to able-bodied Americans who don’t need it. “We should not be giving Medicaid to anyone who is ineligible, including those who are illegal, and we should kill all the scams the blue states are using to launder federal money to all of their ridiculous programs. Republicans should lead to support the president. They’re not right now. I can’t support the bill as it is,” he concluded.
Watch the clip above.
