CNN’s Paul Begala slams Trumpcare: GOP wants to ‘kick some kid out of his wheelchair’ so the rich pay fewer taxes

During an appearance on CNN, Democratic political consultant Paul Begala wiped the floor with former Sen. Rick Santorum (R-PA) over the GOP's American Health Care Act's planned multi-billion dollar cuts to Medicaid.

After Santorum touted the Republican's Medicaid reform under President Bill Clinton and attempted to cite that healthcare overhaul's "block grants" as the principle behind the Affordable Care Act repeal, Begala immediately took him to task.

"It's a tax cut bill, let's call it what it is," Begala began. "It cuts taxes a trillion dollars for the wealthiest people in America. To pay for that, they're gonna kick millions of people off of Medicaid."

He went on to list the vulnerable Medicaid recipients who may suffer under the bill: two-thirds of nursing home residents, 49 percent of people giving birth and 60 percent of special needs kids.

"This is the Republican's dream, this is why they become Republicans: to cut taxes for the Koch brothers and kick some kid out of his wheelchair," he said.

"Paul, you very well know that the cuts that are going to be happening to the Medicaid program are not the disabled, are not the elderly," Santorum claimed. Rather, he said, they're the people who enrolled in the program who "couldn't find reasonable prices on the Obamacare exchanges, so they were dumped into the Medicaid program."

Undeterred, Begala said the AHCA is "the epitome of modern Republicanism."

"The president, for once, committed the sin of candor: it is mean," he concluded.

Watch the entire exchange below, via CNN.

CNN’s Paul Begala slams Trumpcare: GOP wants to...by sarahburris