In the midst of a terror attack and President Trump’s travels abroad, the fun-filled cast of MSNBC’s Morning Joe still found the time to bash the President’s new budget on Tuesday. Meeting with Senator McCaskill of Missouri they discussed at length the horror that would ensue were the budget to be brought into existence. Scarborough lamented the ‘savage’ cuts to different government programs before discussing the fate of McCaskill’s constituents,“Rural hospitals will be obliterated by these budgets that will not only severely curtail health care for Americans in rural America, but also as you were just saying, will also slash jobs from those communities, in communities that can't afford more job loss.”
But, the best was yet to come as commentator Mike Barnicle engaged the Senator with the following conversation:
MIKE BARNICLE: So, Senator, we have had more than a decade now of people in nations lining up in the supposed global war on terror, but here, as you've been speaking about this topic, we have a concerted attack on the poor in this country going on right now in this budget. I don't know anyone, anyone who would love to be born poor in America. So, who's going to lead the fight in the United States Senate against this attack on the poor?
First, I can imagine that there are many poor people in the world who would love to be born poor in America as compared to -- oh, let's say Somalia. Second, I’m sorry, but did this man just make a terrorist analogy to budget cuts hours after an actual terrorist attack had taken place? Well, surely the esteemed Senator of Missouri would immediately move to push back against such an ill-conceived and incorrect notion.
MCCASKILL: I think you're going to see a lot of people push back on this budget. By the way, I anticipate that's going to be bipartisan. I don't think there's very many Republicans that have an appetite for getting rid of meals on wheels. I don't think there's many Republicans -- we just passed a big increase in research funding with the majority of the Republicans voting for it in the budget bill we just passed a few weeks ago. So, I really don't think there's an appetite on either side of the aisle for this president's budget. I think it will have massive changes, as most president's budgets do, but it's telling that they thought this was a wise thing to tie around their neck, this budget. Because there's an awful lot to talk about in this budget that I think is going to really get the attention of a lot of voters in my state and states across the country.
Yes, those nasty Republicans are the clear monsters here with their vicious attacks on Meals On Wheels. Is it that much to ask that we refrain from accusing our political opponents of terrorism until at least a few days after these attacks take place? No? We can’t even have that small amount of decency anymore? Also, it should be noted that President Trump’s budget actually increases federal spending, so why exactly were we having this argument in the first place?
Here are the excerpts from the May 23 exchange:
8:39 AM
JOE SCARBOROUGH:...The proposed budget of the president's, the savage cuts to cancer research, the savage cuts to r&d, the savage cuts to education, the savage cuts to medicaid. I know you are a Democrat in a red state. What's your position going to be over Donald Trump -- and I just want to focus on the medicaid cuts because we have been sold this bill of goods by the president who said, oh listen, we're not going to-- and Republicans in congress, quite frankly, my friends in congress saying, we're not going to cut medicaid. We're just going to take it back to the states. Well, no. Now here the other shoe falls and we find out they are going to slash billions of dollars in health care funding from the poorest Americans who can afford it the least. What is your position specifically on the medicaid cutting that is proposed here?
CLAIR MCCASKILL: Well, in my state, there will be disproportionate paint in a lot of rural areas. My state has very limited coverage of medicaid anyway. They did not expand the medicaid program, even though they were entitled in Missouri to billions of dollars to help folks with healthcare. For political reasons the Missouri legislature turned away from that. I do think it's going to have a dire consequence on rural communities. I just came back from doing a lot of town halls in rural Missouri. I'm going to continue to do that because I think I need to show up, show respect and listen carefully, but what is really fascinating to me is that the rural hospitals will take a huge hit with these medicaid cuts.
SCARBOROUGH: Claire, that is so critical! That is so critical. The rural hospitals will be -- and this is -- this is not an opinion. It is fact.
MCCASKILL: It's fact.
SCARBOROUGH: Rural hospitals will be obliterated by these budgets that will not only severely curtail health care for Americans in rural America, but also as you were just saying, will also slash jobs from those communities, in communities that can't afford more job loss.
MCCASKILL: And I think people forget what a large proportion of nursing homes are paid with medicaid dollars. Also, in rural communities. The idea that we couldn't have nursing homes in rural communities. Think about the consequences for the families and for the loved ones and whether or not they can visit. I mean, this is -- there are so many cascading consequences of these kind of massive cuts to medicaid. You know, there's -- there's certainly places we can trim our sales and be more fiscally responsible in the federal government, but this is a sea change in terms of how we would look at taking care of the most vulnerable in our country. And, frankly, it is really going to have a big impact on the parts of my state that were the biggest supporters for Donald Trump.
MIKE BARNICLE: So, senator, we have had more than a decade now of people in nations lining up in the supposed global war on terror, but here, as you've been speaking about this topic, we have a concerted attack on the poor in this country going on right now in this budget. I don't know anyone, anyone who would love to be born poor in America. So, who's going to lead the fight in the United States Senate against this attack on the poor?
MCCASKILL: I think you're going to see a lot of people push back on this budget and, by the way, I anticipate that's going to be bipartisan. I don't think there's very many Republicans that have an appetite for getting rid of meals on wheels. I don't think there's very many Republicans -- we just passed a big increase in research funding with the majority of the Republicans voting for it in the budget bill we just passed a few weeks ago. So, I really don't think there's an appetite on either side of the aisle for this president's budget. I think it will have massive changes, as most president's budgets do, but it's telling that they thought this was a wise thing to tie around their neck, this budget. Because there's an awful lot to talk about in this budget that I think is going to really get the attention of a lot of voters in my state and states across the country.
