MSNBC host Joy Reid put a Republican congressman on the spot Saturday morning, challenging him to explain why he and his colleagues are using the replacement for Obamacare as a Trojan horse to give tax cuts to the rich.
Appearing on "AM Joy," Rep. Tom Reed (R-NY) was asked to defend a memo by Republican colleague Rep. John Faso (NY) touting the fact that the "GOP health care bill would bar New York from charging upstate counties for Medicaid meaning no money would come from upstate counties to go into the Medicaid program."
"He only talked about the taxes," Reid asked. "He tweeted this new ACHA bill, 'includes my provision to eliminate New York medicaid mandate and save New York 19 millions of dollars.' If this is reforming Medicaid, why is it you and your colleagues are talking tax cuts? You are praising tax cuts."
"I wholly support the amendment because our property taxpayers in western New York are leaving in droves because they can't pay their bills," Reed replied. "They can't pay their tax bill, they can't take care of their homes. we should put the burden back on the state capitol."
"The point you're making in the amendment that you supported is it essentially you are saying you don't believe that taxpayers should pay into that which is not going bankrupt," Reid stated. "Just empirically, there is no empirical evidence, right? It's not -- what you're saying is you want to take the money out of Medicaid. The plain fact here is that this is not about Medicaid reform. You, sir, believe that Medicaid should just receive less money and that it shouldn't be getting its money from taxpayers."
Reid later added, "So we understand what you guys want to do, you essentially want to give a very substantial tax-cut, in your case, you don't want the tax payers in your district to fund Medicaid. Rolling that back making it unlawful for your taxpayers in your district to fund Medicaid, cut overall the cost of Medicaid, it gets less money, and then give individual people tax credits -- that's the plan."
"That's the fundamental essence of what we are trying to do," Reed parried. "Empower people rather than expanding government to a point where it's not sustainable. American taxpayers can't foot this bill endlessly and without a limitation because they are tapped out."
Watch the video below via MSNBC:
