The late-night host argued why the Trump administration’s claims make no sense.
As the U.S. Senate continued to debate late into the night Sunday over President Donald J. Trump’s massive tax and spending bill, John Oliver poked massive holes in claims by the president and his Republican loyalists.
In Oliver’s monologue during his final episode of Last Week Tonight before his annual summer break, the Emmy-winning HBO host played clips of House Speaker Mike Johnson alleging on Meet The Press that the bill actually “strengthens Medicaid for the people who actually need it and deserve it,” a talking point echoed by, among others, Kansas Republican Sen. Roger Mitchell on Newsmax. Trump, for his part, said in a February interview with Sean Hannity while sitting alongside Elon Musk that: “Medicare, Medicaid, none of that stuff is going to be touched.”
“But there’s a few problems there,” Oliver said. “Starting with the fact that following through with a promise not to touch something has never exactly been one of Trump’s strong suits. Also the math just doesn’t support those claims.”
Oliver cited congressional budget analysis estimating more than 16 million Americans would become uninsured by 2034 should Congress pass Trump’s bill, and that rural hospitals and community services also would lose their funding as a result.
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The Republican bill, which would still need to go through reconciliation procedures with the House should it pass the Senate, would force low-income Medicaid recipients to prove they’d worked, volunteered or attended school for 80 hours a month. Oliver cited a November 2024 report by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, however, that found two-thirds of people on Medicaid already work, while most of the remainder are busy in school, functioning as family caretakers or living with a disability.
“And yet Republicans won’t stop painting lurid scenarios of Medicaid freeloaders,” Oliver said.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/john-oliver-dismantles-magas-best-defense-of-trump-budget-bill
