"Exactly right, @POTUS," Sen. James Lankford (R-Oklahoma) tweets. "Cutting Medicaid is not on the table for reconciliation."
Exactly right, @POTUS. Cutting Medicaid is not on the table for reconciliation. https://t.co/CbpHSBMM7C
— Sen. James Lankford (@SenatorLankford) May 4, 2025
Sen. Lankford is Vice Chair of the Republican Conference in the U.S. Senate. There is no reason not to believe his signaling on such an issue. Republicans would not be playing around with the issue of cutting Medicaid for reconciliation. Cutting Medicaid through the process of reconciliation after declaring that cutting Medicaid is not on the table for reconciliation is a recipe for political disaster.
When the federal government grossly overspends or funds some unnecessary and irrelevant project, that is waste. Waste should be fought against by all who are in positions of power and leadership, elected or otherwise. Fraud and malevolent misrepresentation should be fought against. Abuse of power, abuse of government resources, abuse of office, and other forms of abuse should also be fought against.
There exists a limit to the amount of national spending that can be sustained. What exactly that limit is may not be clearly visible or precisely definable, at least not at the current moment, but it exists. A corporate checking account balance precisely defines the limit beyond which a company cannot spend without the consequence of borrowing. A speed limit sign on the side of a road precisely defines with clear visibility the posted lawful limit of speed beyond which a driver may subject himself to the consequence of being ticketed.
The budget reconciliation process can be confusing, and it may be that there are few who understand it well. There is no reason not to believe what Lankford's tweet reads, that cutting Medicaid is not on the table for reconciliation.
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