SHOT/CHASER: Ciscomani Changes Tune on Medicaid Cuts In Less Than A Week

TUCSON — After days of pressure from his constituents, Congressman Juan Ciscomani last week sent a letter to Speaker Johnson urging against cutting Medicaid in the House Budget Resolution, set to be voted on as early as today.

Over 130,000 Arizonans living in the Sixth Congressional District rely on Medicaid to afford health care coverage.

SHOT: 

Last week’s Juan Ciscomani signed a letter pointing out that “House Budget Resolution proposed $880 billion in cuts to programs under the jurisdiction of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, with Medicaid expected to bear the brunt of these reductions.”

The House Energy and Commerce Committee oversees Medicaid, so he rightly understood that severe Medicaid cuts were guaranteed for the committee to find anywhere close to $800 billion to cut.

CHASER:

This week's Juan Ciscomani said that the word 'Medicaid' is not mentioned in the Republican bill, even though the $880 billion in cuts under the jurisdiction of the House Committee on Energy & Commerce are still there.

According to the Wall Street Journal:

“The word Medicaid is not in the bill and that’s a very clear point on it,” Ciscomani said. “This step is the step, basically, getting on the field to start the game, to actually go on and fight the four quarters of this.”

Sometime between last week and this week, Congressman Ciscomani forgot that $880 billion in Energy and Commerce cuts equals big Medicaid cuts. It’s time for Ciscomani to come back to reality and vote against slashing Arizona’s health care.

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