Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway tried to tell a giant lie when she claimed that people aren’t going to be tossed off of Medicaid under Trumpcare, but ABC’s George Stephanopoulos corrected the record and called her out for making false statements.
Video:
.@KellyannePolls: Obamacare opened up Medicaid to "many able-bodied Americans who should at least see if there are others options for them." pic.twitter.com/fzqvuwXrXB
— ABC News Politics (@ABCPolitics) June 25, 2017
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Kellyanne Conway tried to tell a huge lie about the Medicaid cuts in Trumpcare on ABC’s This Week.
She said, “If you are currently in Medicaid if you became a recipient through the Obamacare expansion, you are grandfathered in. We’re talking about in the future. You know, Obamacare took Medicaid which was designed to help the poor, the needy, the elderly, the sick, the disabled, also children and pregnant women, it took it and it went way above the poverty line, opened it up to many able bodied Americans who should probably find other, who should at least see if there are other options for them. If they’re able-bodied, and they want to work, then they’ll have employer-sponsored benefits like you, and I do.”
George Stephanopoulos pounced. “Kellyanne, hold on a second. There’s no way you can say that a 15-year-old on Medicaid today is not going to be affected by the Medicaid cuts in the future.”
Conway interrupted, “I didn’t say that.”
Stephanopoulos continued, “Well, you said everybody who is on Medicaid now is grandfathered in and is not going to face any cuts, and that simply is not factual if you have more than $830 billion in cuts.”
Conway then spun off into delusion, “You keep calling them cuts, but we don’t see them as cuts. It’s slowing the rate of growth in the future and getting Medicaid back to where it was.”
The White House may not see them as cuts, but that is exactly what they are because it is impossible to slow growth in any program without cutting it. People are not “grandfathered in” to Medicaid. The House and Senate health care bills propose such steep cuts in the program that states will be forced to throw people off of Medicaid.
Conway was lying through a word game. Trump, Ryan, and McConnell won’t be throwing people off of Medicaid. They are just passing a bill that will require the states to throw people off of Medicaid.
Kellyanne Conway tried to tell an impossible lie that doesn’t square with reality or basic math, and George Stephanopoulos called her out on it. Television networks should stop helping Trump misinform the public by hosting Kellyanne Conway. Her pathological lying and self-humiliation in order to please Trump are harming the country.
Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
