Department of Government Efficiency head Elon Musk has made no secret of his desire to take a hatchet to Medicaid, and now Congress is planning to vote on a huge domestic policy agenda that has even die-hard MAGA Republicans nervous.
House Speaker Mike Johnson is hoping to push the vote through this week, even though the enormous proposed cut to Medicaid — totaling more than $800 billion over the next 10 years — hasn't been endorsed by President Donald Trump, who has "expressed reservations" about the cuts.
That's because at last count, more than 72 million people were enrolled in Medicaid, and voters have been vowing to fight the cuts at all costs.
Rep. Tony Gonzales (R-TX) told reporter Rachel Bade with Politico that he's "all in on DOGE" and that cutting the federal workforce is "wildly popular" with Republicans in his district.
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When news broke in the Wall Street Journal that "Representatives of Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency have been working at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services [CMS], where they have gotten access to key payment and contracting systems," Musk posted to X that CMS "is where the big money fraud is happening."
“That’s where the battle’s coming,” Gonzales told Bade. “There’s no doubt that there’s waste, fraud and abuse in every program in the government, including Medicaid — but at what point do you stop cutting into the fat and start cutting into the bone? You can’t pull the rug out from millions of people.”
Bade wrote that Gonzales has co-authored a letter with seven other House Republicans representing large Hispanic communities "asking Johnson to rethink where the GOP is headed on Medicaid. And he said he plans to personally confront the speaker about the issue at a scheduled meeting" Monday night.