[Congressional Record Volume 171, Number 131 (Wednesday, July 30, 2025)]
[Senate]
[Page S4860]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                                Medicaid

  Mr. BARRASSO. Mr. President, I just heard the minority leader, once 
again, come to the U.S. Senate Chamber and cry wolf. This time, it is 
about Medicaid reform.
  Let's be very clear: We need to strengthen Medicaid, and we did that 
in the bill that we just passed and was signed into law. The minority 
leader, once again, puts fear above the facts. He is upset. He is upset 
because Republicans are asking able-bodied adults to work if they want 
to receive taxpayer-funded healthcare benefits.
  He also is upset because Republicans believe that illegal immigrants 
should not receive Medicaid benefits. Let me set the record straight. 
Medicaid is for the vulnerable. It was never meant to cover able-
bodied, working-aged adults who refuse to work nor was it meant to 
cover illegal immigrants whom the Democrats continue to embrace. Today, 
there are over 1.2 million illegal immigrants receiving Medicaid 
benefits. Today, there are 4.8 million able-bodied, working-aged adults 
who refuse to work who are on Medicaid. That doesn't strengthen 
Medicaid. It strains it. It weakens it. It makes it harder for the 
people who need Medicaid whom Medicaid was designed for. It also wastes 
taxpayer dollars.
  Work requirements are common sense. You know, they used to be 
bipartisan. Bill Clinton, from the Presiding Officer's home State, 
signed that into law in the 1990s. President Obama defended it in 2008. 
President Obama said: Work must be the centerpiece of any social 
policy. Democrats today don't believe that. They think Clinton was 
wrong, and they think Obama was wrong. They are for laziness, and they 
are for illegal immigrants.
  The Democrats, today, are defending dependency rather than 
independency. That is what they are doing today. That is what Chuck 
Schumer did on the floor of the U.S. Senate this morning.
  Republicans believe in a safety net--a safety net to help people 
reach their full potential, to get back up on their feet. We believe in 
hard work. We believe in work as part of somebody's identity, their 
dignity, their self-worth, how they view themselves as role models for 
their children. If you are healthy and you refuse to work, it is a 
choice you may want to make, but don't expect the taxpayers to pay for 
it. No child, no pregnant woman, or disabled person will lose coverage.
  What the Democrats want to do is remove work requirements and 
continue to fund healthcare--Medicaid--for illegal immigrants. That is 
just not fair to everyone else.
  Mr. President, I came to the floor to talk about a different topic, 
but in listening to the minority leader, I couldn't help myself but to 
talk about just how far to the left the Democrats have gone, and, oh, 
it is no surprise that they are at their lowest level ever in the 
polls. The front page of the Wall Street Journal this weekend shows 
Democrats at an alltime low in the history of polling in terms of the 
people who identify with the Democratic Party and who reject the 
Democratic Party. Only one in three accepts what the Democrats are 
preaching while 63 percent of the American people do not identify with 
that at all.
  This is no surprise given the Democrats' goal of raising taxes and 
making illegal immigration easier and continuing to recruit more 
illegal immigrants to this Nation by offering a lot of free things, 
which is what the Democrats want to continue to do, but that is not the 
reason I came to the floor today.