The Republican chair of a key House subcommittee said he's not for "cuts" in healthcare entitlements while seeking savings.
Rep. Vern Buchanan, R-Fla., chair of the Ways and Means Health Subcommittee, said GOP lawmakers will certainly try to erase fraudulent spending in Medicare, Social Security and Medicaid.
"I'm for all of that because what we're doing now isn't working," Buchanan said of finding entitlement savings during an interview at Politico's Health Care Summit on Wednesday.
"Our interest on the debt's a trillion dollars a year, so you got to take the first trillion of taxpayer money and pay the interest on the debt. It's gotta change, but we've got to find a way to do that where we're more efficient on delivering these systems."
Buchanan added that there's "always been a feeling" among Republicans and Democrats that there's been roughly 10% fraud or mismanagement in Medicare.
"Those types of things have got to get addressed," he said.
President Donald Trump, Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency have focused on streamlining government and cutting wasteful spending and fraud.
Democrats, though, claim DOGE is trying to eliminate services that Americans receive. They cite Medicaid as being targeted in the GOP's reconciliation legislation currently being discussed.
"I'm not for cuts in Medicaid. It's people at most risk: children, families, and single moms and stuff like that," Buchanan said at the summit. "I'm going to do everything to make sure it doesn't go down that road."
"There's a lot of inefficiencies. We've got to find a way to be able to trim a lot of the cost down and do things better for less, and a lot of it … we have to get the diet right with a lot of these, especially under Medicaid, with especially kids, as I mentioned, 20% obesity."
"There's a lot of work to be done, and I think the president's made it pretty clear, in terms of Medicare and Medicaid that does impact my district … I have the fifth oldest district in the county … but it impacts a lot of districts, we want to keep that viable."
Buchanan was asked whether he supports work requirements for Medicare recipients.
"Ideally, where you can, but if you're talking about single moms with three kids, I don't know how that works," he said. "But the bottom line is that's something some people feel strong about. I think you have to look at it based on the situation."
Last month, Trump told Senate Republicans he's open to cutting "waste, fraud and abuse" in Medicaid.
While Democrats stressed that Trump has said Medicaid benefits won't be "touched," the president apparently believes ridding the system of abuse is a good thing, Axios reported.
Charlie McCarthy ✉
Charlie McCarthy, a writer/editor at Newsmax, has nearly 40 years of experience covering news, sports, and politics.
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