Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) clarified that President Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” does not cut Medicaid, but rather it reduces its growth.
During a Sunday interview on ABC’s “This Week,” Graham was asked about Sen. Thom Tillis’s (N.C.) warning that significant changes to Medicaid would be”devastating to North Carolina.” Tillis voted against the bill.
Graham said that while he respects Tillis, he said that lawmakers instead “limited the growth of Medicaid.”
“I respect him a lot, but here’s what we’re doing when it comes to Medicaid: it’s grown 50 percent in five years. It’s about to take over Medicare,” he said. “What we’ve done is we limited the growth of Medicaid to 6 percent for two years. After that, 4 percent growth. We haven’t cut Medicaid. We’ve reduced the growth.”
When asked about Trump’s heavy criticism of Tillis, even threatening to back a primary challenger running against the North Carolina senator, Graham said Trump “runs hot” but that “he can forgive.”
“I’ve been on the receiving end of that,” he said. “He runs hot…and he can forgive.”
“We’re trying to do hard things that should be done and have to be done,” he added. “We’re $37 trillion in debt. Medicaid has grown 50 percent in five years. It’s about to take over Medicare. What we’ve done is limited the growth to 6 percent for two years, 4 percent after that. So, Medicaid is not cut.”
Graham’s comments follow Senate Republicans’ narrow vote to advance a sprawling 1,000-page bill on Saturday despite the opposition of two GOP lawmakers.
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