'These people don't understand capitalism': GOP rep. attacks Medicaid patients for not supporting tax cuts

Rep. Francis Rooney (R-FL) defended his party's plan to strip Medicaid from hundreds of thousands people while passing the saving on as tax cuts to the richest Americans.

"Those that would be hurt the most," MSNBC host Chris Jansing told Francis in an interview on Monday, "are those who would, in fact, be those who have the most difficulty: the poor, the elderly, the people most in need of the help that Obamacare provides."

According to Rooney, people who are current on Medicaid could expect to have "favorable outcomes" under the Republican plan.

The congressman explained that he would support the GOP health care bill even if the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) determined that millions would lose health insurance because of the policy.

"The voodoo economics of the CBO score was faulty the first time around," he insisted. "It assumes that nobody will buy insurance unless they are mandated to by a statist system like Obamacare. It doesn't give any credit for behavioral modification and incentive through the tax credit."

Jansing noted that experts have said that the Republican plan "is a bill that makes sure the wealthy get tax cuts."

"The savings, a lot of it is expect to go in this bill toward tax cuts," she observed. "Seven million dollars a year in the tax cut -- a year -- that each of the 400 wealthiest families in America we get as a result of this. That's okay with you as people are losing their coverage?"

Rooney disagreed: "I happen to think that tax cuts stimulate investments, which is what this tax cut is. Obama put in a tax on investments, cutting those taxes are very important to stimulate investments and job creation."

"Sometimes these people don't understand how capitalism works," the Florida Republican opined about people on Medicaid. "You incentivize investment, people deploy capital, create jobs, build companies and put more people to work so they can afford all these things and not have to be on Medicaid."

Watch the video below from MSNBC, broadcast July 26, 2017.