Rep. Jason Smith, R-Mo., hit out at Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear in an interview with Newsmax on Tuesday after the Democrat governor criticized the GOP-led tax and spending cuts legislation over the changes it makes to Medicaid, which he said will harm rural Americans while helping urbanites.
During an interview with NBC's "Meet the Press" on Monday, Beshear hit out at the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, saying that an estimated 200,000 Kentucky residents will lose healthcare coverage, and 20,000 healthcare workers will lose their jobs due to the legislation.
"What that means? Is fewer people getting that tax break. Fewer people going to the local restaurant. Fewer people going to the local bank. This is going to hit rural America to give a tax break to people who, mainly, live in urban areas. It's going to hit all over the United States," Beshear said. "It is a betrayal of rural America."
Smith told "National Report," that Beshear "sounds like someone who's trying to become the Democrat nominee for president. I would consider that a lot of hogwash, hogwash and completely inaccurate."
He added, "Let me just tell you, this bill was made for rural America. This bill was made for working families, and that's what it delivers on. When he says it adds trillions of dollars to the deficit. Completely untrue."
Smith said that if the U.S. sees "a growth rate of 2.8% moving on after this — and if you look at the average growth rate over the last 50 years, it was 2.7% — [then] we will, in fact, in this bill, under these tax rates, will reduce the deficit by more than a half a trillion dollars, not add to the deficit, but reduce it."
Smith said Beshear "needs to start adding correctly. But apparently, a lot of Democrats don't know how to do math."
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Theodore Bunker ✉
Theodore Bunker, a Newsmax writer, has more than a decade covering news, media, and politics.
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