Majority Leader Schumer Floor Remarks On Medicaid Expansion In North Carolina And Calling on Speaker McCarthy To Release His Plan
Washington, D.C. – Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) today spoke on the expansion of Medicaid set to be signed into law in North Carolina later today and called on Speaker McCarthy to release his budget plan and stop threatening a Republican default crisis. Below are Senator Schumer’s remarks, which can also be viewed here:
Today, the Governor of North Carolina is signing legislation to expand Medicaid eligibility, following the passage of a bipartisan compromise through the North Carolina General Assembly last week. Once signed, as many as 600,000 North Carolinians will soon enjoy health care coverage previously denied to them.
House Republicans should follow the example of their state-level counterparts and work with Democrats to expand services like Medicaid, not cut them.
They should join Democrats to strengthen health care for all Americans, not threaten extreme cuts like the House GOP has been doing for months.
In the American Rescue Plan, Democrats passed a major new incentive to get hold-out states to expand Medicaid to cover its low-income citizens. We should build on this work.
Now, House Republicans have bent over backwards claiming Social Security and Medicare are off the table, but what are their plans for Medicaid? Republicans have been disturbingly evasive about whether or not they want to cut Medicaid, and so Americans unfortunately remain in the dark.
If a moderate state like North Carolina is expanding Medicaid with bipartisan support, what the heck are MAGA Republicans doing threatening to cut it? It shows how difficult it will be for House Republicans to put together a plan that gets 218 votes.
So we repeat: Speaker McCarthy, today is March 27th. It’s been nearly three months. Where is your plan?
Is Medicaid on the GOP chopping block?
Are the MAGA Republicans pulling the Republican party here in the House further to the right even as North Carolina, a moderate state in a bipartisan way, passes legislation to expand Medicaid?
Will tens of millions of Americans find out that their benefits will be curtailed or eliminated?
Let me say it again: instead of obsession about ideological spending cuts that harm millions of people, Republicans should work with Democrats to strengthen vital health care services.
And we should do that while also agreeing to lift the debt ceiling together, without brinkmanship or blackmail or hostage taking.
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