CNN’s polling expert Harry Enten has explained why the GOP’s plans to slash Medicaid would face opposition from across the political spectrum.
Enten cited polling from KFF Health News showing that a majority of Americans oppose gutting Medicaid, which provides healthcare to the poorest and which was significantly expanded by Obamacare.
He highlighted how a study in April found that 76 percent of U.S. adults would oppose major cuts to the program. When broken down further, the results reveal 95 percent of Democrats, 79 percent of independents, and 55 percent of Republicans said they’d be against such a move. Medicaid, he said, had roughly the same favorability as George Washington—far above that of any living politician.
“When you get a majority of Republicans, majority of independents, a majority of Democrats, to agree on anything you know, that is where the American public stands,” Enten said. “And they stand strongly on this particular issue, they stand very strongly opposing major spending cuts to Medicaid. The politics of this, simply put, are atrocious.”
Enten’s comments came after House Republicans proposed an overhaul of Medicaid to achieve at least $880 billion in savings to help pay for trillions in tax breaks laid out in President Donald Trump’s spending bill.
Republicans said the plan—which includes work requirements for able-bodied adults—is part of an effort to reduce “waste,” in line with Trump’s mandate. Democrats warn the cuts could leave millions of Americans uninsured.
The wider proposed Republican package, which includes changes to Medicare, would mean as many as eight million Americans losing their insurance.
In Medicaid, Republicans are trying to introduce cuts including work requirements for able-bodied adults without dependents, which they pushed in an op-ed in The New York Times Wednesday headlined “If You Want Welfare and Can Work, You Must.”
But Enten highlighted just how toxic the idea of cutting Medicaid is across party lines.
“The politics of this are so bad, it literally blows my mind,” Enten said.“ This, simply put, is not popular on any part of the aisle, from the left all the way to the right. The opposition is in the majority,” he added.
The polling guru also offered an explanation for why support for Medicaid crosses ideological lines.
A survey in February by KFF found that 62 percent of both Democrats and Republicans are either currently on Medicaid, have been in the past, or have a close friend or family member covered by it.
“Medicaid is something that touches people from across the political spectrum, from the left to the right. They’re equally felt,” Enten said.
“This drives it all home why cuts to Medicaid are so unpopular. It is because it touches everybody. And when all of a sudden you take the health insurance away, potentially from somebody you know, you’re going to be opposed to it and that is why 76 percent of Americans are opposed to major cuts to Medicaid.”
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