Joe Scarborough lashed out at GOP Rep. Mike Lawler in a heated exchange during Friday’s Morning Joe over President Trump’s Medicaid cuts.
During a discussion about the impact of Trump’s spending cuts on his New York district, which hospital trusts have claimed will eliminate staff, care, and services, Lawler cut Scarborough off and accused him of “parroting is the same talking points being put out by the state and by the hospital association.”
“So you’re saying you know their business better than they do?” Scarborough hit back, interrupting Lawler. “Congressman, you can keep talking if you want to, but are you saying that you know their business, you know doctors’ business, you know hospital administrators’ business better than they know their own business? Is that what you’re telling us here?”
“No, Joe,” Lawler responded. “If you’d stop putting words in my mouth and let me answer the question, number one—“
But Scarborough interrupted the congressman again. “You said they were parroting. You said that actually they were having the words put into their mouth. You said they were parroting other people’s words!”
Earlier this year Congress approved the largest ever cuts to Medicaid in the program’s history after Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill,” pledged to tax and spend nearly $3 trillion, which will be partially funded by cutting $1 trillion from Medicaid. Around 12 million low-income Americans are expected to lose access to health insurance over the next 10 years as a result of the cuts.
Hospital associations such as Westchester Medical Center, Montefiore Nyack, both located within Lawler’s district, have sounded alarm about the impact of the cuts, but when pressed on their warnings all the congressman could say is that they were all saying “the same” thing.
“What I’m saying, Joe, is they’re all parroting the same line from the state of New York and Greater New York Hospital Association, but when you actually drill down on the specifics, many of the challenges that our hospital systems in New York have faced actually stem from the decisions made by New York State over the past few years,” Lawler claimed.
“New York has the most expensive Medicaid program in the country,” he added. “There is going to be continued growth within the system. New York needs to do a better job of actually managing its Medicaid dollars.”
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