Rep. Nicole Malliotakis (R-NY) blew up during an exchange over GOP Medicaid cuts on CNN, barking: “If you don’t want to hear the answer, then don’t have me on the show!”
Things got heated after host Boris Sanchez brought up Republicans’ sweeping bill, which includes proposed health care spending cuts that would leave 8.6 million people uninsured, mostly from cuts to Medicaid, according to an estimate by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.
Forty percent of residents in Malliotakis’ congressional district—which encompasses parts of southern Brooklyn and Staten Island—rely on Medicaid, according to CNN.
“Do you have an estimate [of] how many of them would lose eligibility under this plan?” Sanchez asked the congresswoman.
Malliotakis dodged the question, pivoting to Medicaid fraud. She said the cuts would mainly affect “people in the country illegally” and “people who refuse to adhere to [Medicaid working requirements].”
But Sanchez kept pressing: “Do you have a precise number for your district?”
A long pause ensued before Malliotakis responded by claiming that “nationally” 1.5 million ineligible people are receiving Medicaid. “If you’re not eligible, you should not be receiving benefits. It’s as simple as that,” Malliotakis said. “That makes you a fraudster.”
When Sanchez continued by questioning how stricter eligibility rules would impact groups like institutionalized people, Malliotakis bristled.
“It seems to me that you guys just want to try to act like Republicans are trying to kick off people who are eligible for the program. That is not the case,” she said.
Sanchez pushed back, saying, “I wasn’t trying to make it seem like you’re trying to do anything, I was asking for a ballpark number for your district.”
Malliotakis, an ally of President Donald Trump, replied with exasperation, “Well you don’t let me explain.”
The congresswoman is, in fact, one of a dozen House Republicans who have sought to limit even steeper cuts to Medicaid that some of their colleagues have pushed for in order to offset the costs of Trump’s agenda.
While advocating for smaller scale “reforms” to root out alleged fraud in the system, she signed a letter to House leadership in early May vowing not to back “any reduction in Medicaid coverage for vulnerable populations.”
The intra-party feud over Medicaid, food assistance, and tax provisions resulted in hardliners on the GOP-led House Budget Committee blocking the package from advancing Friday.
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