President Trump Tweets Misleading Medicaid Graph

WASHINGTON, DC — President Trump on Wednesday accused Democrats of lying about a key aspect of the most recent GOP health care bill, arguing on Twitter that spending on Medicaid "actually goes up" under the Senate's plan.

"Democrats purposely misstated Medicaid under new Senate bill - actually goes up," he wrote.

Trump's claim can be characterized objectively in two ways: it is technically true in an exceptionally narrow context but is wildly misleading in context.

Fact: While Medicaid spending in future years would increase under the Senate plan, funding would be cut by about $770 billion over the next decade compared to what would be spent under current law. (For more information on this and other political stories, subscribe to the White House Patch to receive daily newsletters and breaking news alerts.)

It's not just Democrats who make this point; the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office concludes in its analysis of the bill that the changes in the Senate bill represent a reduction: "Spending on [Medicaid] would decline in 2026 by 26 percent in comparison with what CBO projects under current law."

The cuts in funding, the CBO found, will result in 15 million people losing out on Medicaid coverage by 2026 compared to the number who would be covered under current law. As the CBO explains, if the the Senate bill passes, we can expect in 10 years that "among people under age 65, enrollment in Medicaid would fall by about 16 percent and an estimated 49 million people would be uninsured, compared with 28 million who would lack insurance that year under current law."

This graph provided by CBO clearly shows the impact of the bill's cuts on the budget deficit, which the Republicans have touted. But to claim that the bill reduces the deficit, as it does, one must also recognize that it cuts Medicaid:

As Kelly Whitener, an associate professor at Georgetown University, told FactCheck.org, "The reality is that fewer federal dollars mean fewer lives will be covered."

Photo: Twitter