Pennsylvania Democrats are calling on Republican Congressman Brian Fitzpatrick to break with his party and vote against the GOP budget that looks to gift massive tax breaks for billionaires and millionaires by gutting Medicaid.
The Pennsylvania Democratic Party with PA Congressman Chris Deluzio, DNC Vice Chair and State Representative Malcolm Kenyatta, and PA Dems Chair and State Senator Sharif Street held a press Zoom call Friday afternoon to make their case.
“Even if Brian Fitzpatrick … votes against this, we need to understand that Brian Fitzpatrick is the reason we’re here,” Kenyatta said. “The Republicans continue to have a very tight majority in the House. And so people like him, had they stood up in January, had they stood up in February, had they stood up in March, we wouldn’t even be having this conversation with this particular budget framework.”
Most recently, the House budget bill, which could cause 8.6 million Americans to be uninsured by the end of the decade, was struck down in the House Budget Committee Friday morning. Preventing it from reaching the House floor, five Republicans joined Democrats to block the bill from leaving the committee. Republicans on the committee will meet again on Sunday night at 10 p.m. to reconsider possible changes to the bill.
Republican lawmakers representing swing districts, including Fitzpatrick, are in the hot seat as their votes could decide whether or not the bill with massive cuts to social programs is passed in the House.
“It doesn’t take many. We need a handful of them,” Deluzio said.
Fitzpatrick said in a press release he wants to “ensure the long-term sustainability of these essential programs,” after voting to begin the process of budget reconciliation which initiated congressional deliberations on sweeping Medicaid cuts.
In nine years, the proposed Medicaid cuts, according to the Center for American Progress, would cut $1.31 billion in Medicaid and CHIP funding from Bucks County, along with reducing enrollment by 25,000 people. Health care for seniors is also on the chopping block, with 26 out of 31 Bucks County nursing homes relying on Medicaid.
The DNC, since launching their “Fight to Save Medicaid” campaign, has insisted that Fitzpatrick’s actions do not reflect the “moderate” Republican he has claimed to be.
“He puts up these signs during election time about how he’s the most bipartisan, moderate member of Congress,” Kenyatta said. “A part of what we need to do at this moment is not allow Brian or Rob Bresnahan or Ryan McKenzie to continue to position themselves with a label that they have not earned.”
Kenyatta noted polling shows most Americans are opposed to major Medicaid cuts.
“I don’t think Brian Fitzpatrick is going to grow a spine,” Kenyatta said. “I think that he has to be so terrified that he’s going to lose his seat, that he does the right thing out of pure self-preservation.”
On May 10, Senator Ruben Gallego and the DNC hosted a medicaid town hall in Bucks County, which featured Kenyatta and Street. As soon as the Q&A section was announced, about 20 attendees lined up behind the two microphones, speaking their own truths and representing the county’s apprehensions.
“They were really concerned about health care,” Street said. “And the Medicaid expansion population that so many congressional Republicans are talking about going after, that population is a lot of working people, people who work at jobs that just don’t have health care.”
