{"id":8935,"date":"2025-05-07T12:32:34","date_gmt":"2025-05-07T12:32:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/laura-loomer-hammers-trump-ally-for-backing-medicaid-cuts\/"},"modified":"2025-05-07T12:32:34","modified_gmt":"2025-05-07T12:32:34","slug":"laura-loomer-hammers-trump-ally-for-backing-medicaid-cuts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/laura-loomer-hammers-trump-ally-for-backing-medicaid-cuts\/","title":{"rendered":"Laura Loomer hammers Trump ally for backing Medicaid cuts"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Far-right activist Laura Loomer is going after a prominent conservative health policy expert and former Trump administration official for his proposals to overhaul Medicaid \u2014 stoking larger intraparty tensions at a pivotal moment for negotiations over President Donald Trump’s \u201cbig, beautiful bill.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a social media post Monday, Loomer called Brian Blase, the president of Paragon Health Institute, a \u201cRINO Saboteur\u201d for helping draft a letter circulated by 20 House conservatives that advocated for deep cuts to Medicaid in the GOP\u2019s domestic policy megabill.<\/p>\n

His role in writing the missive was first reported by Blue Light News.<\/u><\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cIn a shocking betrayal of President Donald Trump\u2019s unwavering commitment to America\u2019s working-class families, and his promise to protect Medicaid, [CEO Brian Blase] \u2026 is spearheading a dangerous campaign to undermine the Republican Party\u2019s midterm prospects,\u201d Loomer said on X.\u00a0<\/u><\/a><\/p>\n

Fiscal hawks believe cuts to the safety net program will deliver necessary savings to finance President Donald Trump’s desired package of tax cuts and extensions, border security spending, energy policy and more. But Trump has also continued to insist there will be no provisions included in the bill that would result in cutting Medicaid benefits \u2014 though he hasn’t detailed how that might be the case.<\/p>\n

Loomer accused Blase of \u201ccurrently pressuring congressional Republicans to defy the President\u2019s ironclad pledge to protect Medicaid \u2014 a program critical to the heartland voters who propelled Donald Trump to his election victories.\u201d<\/p>\n

Blase worked in Trump\u2019s first administration as a special assistant to the president on the National Economic Council. He\u2019s one of the most influential conservative health policy thinkers in Washington, frequently writing op-eds in the Wall Street Journal and publishing a mountain of policy papers pushing Medicaid reform.<\/p>\n

In a statement Tuesday, Blase defended himself and his work.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am proud to have served President Trump for two and a half years at the White House, leading the implementation of his health care agenda,\u201d Blase said \u201cParagon shares the president’s commitment to reducing waste, fraud, and abuse in government programs and reversing the harmful health policies of the Biden administration \u2014 like California’s $10 billion scheme to put illegal immigrants on Medicaid.\u201d<\/p>\n

A Paragon spokesperson said last week the group sent a list of Medicaid reform principles to policymakers and that it “It appears that the excellent letter by [Texas GOP Rep.] Chip Roy and colleagues incorporated some of our ideas.”<\/p>\n

It’s significant that Loomer would make Blase a target: She has a history of crusading against people she sees as disloyal to Trump, having in the past personally persuaded the president to fire several top national security officials over their perceived lack of sufficient fealty.<\/p>\n

The situation also speaks to the broader friction within the Republican Party between the moderate and the populist wings \u2014 which are wary of benefit cuts \u2014 and the more traditional conservative faction \u2014 bent on making major changes to safety-net programs.<\/p>\n

The divide has threatened to imperil the package central to Trump\u2019s agenda as Republicans are under immense pressure to find savings for the bill.<\/p>\n

Roy and a handful of House Republicans who are in touch with Blase are full-steam ahead to force GOP leaders to pursue deeper cuts across Medicaid and other safety-net programs, which they argue need massive reforms to curb long-term spending.<\/p>\n

Freedom Caucus members met Tuesday morning to discuss reconciliation and to try to push back on attacks that they\u2019re gutting Medicaid, according to three Republicans with direct knowledge of the matter.<\/p>\n

Meredith Lee Hill contributed to this report.<\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Far-right activist Laura Loomer is going after a prominent conservative health policy expert and former Trump administration official for his proposals to overhaul Medicaid \u2014 stoking larger intraparty tensions at a pivotal moment for negotiations over President Donald Trump’s \u201cbig, beautiful bill.\u201d In a social media post Monday, Loomer called Brian Blase, the president of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8935","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-congress"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8935","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8935"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8935\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8935"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8935"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8935"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}