Republicans want to preserve Medicaid for “those who deserve it,” Sen Markwayne Mullin (R-OK) said during an appearance on Breitbart News Saturday while discussing the “big, beautiful bill.”
Mullin explained that the Senate is going to make some changes during reconciliation of the House bill, which has been dubbed the “big, beautiful bill.”
“They sent us a really good framework. But it’s like, you know, someone that bought a brand new house still wants to go in there and put their personal touch to it. And so they’re going to go in and they’re going to repaint the walls and maybe even redecorate some of the interior rooms… and so the frame is going to be there. We’re just going to repaint a few things and make into do that is to make it better,” he said, noting that they want to do better in deficit spending cuts, as one example.
He also talked about what they are dealing with when it comes to Medicaid and addressed the Democrat claims that they are gutting the program and that people are going to lose coverage as a result.
“We’re not kicking anybody off Medicaid that qualifies for Medicaid. That’s not what we’re doing. We’re kicking out the… waste and fraud out of it… the part that’s corrupting the plant,” he said, explaining that the waste and fraud will kill Medicaid if they “don’t kick the people off that shouldn’t be there.”
“And underneath the Biden administration, they put six million people on Medicaid that didn’t ever qualify, meaning that these are able-bodied individuals, or they’re illegal aliens that are residents now inside the United States. These are people that didn’t even apply for asylum, but they applied for Medicaid and they were able to get to it,” he said, stressing that they have “six million people that we’ve already identified” who do not qualify.
“They have no medical condition. They have no dependency. There’s no reason why they’re not working. And Medicaid was designed for the pregnant individual with no means, the child with no means, the people that were super sick and it couldn’t work. Medicaid was designed to help those people that actually needed help — not people that were just too lazy” to not work, he explained, stressing that they are focused on the fraud and waste.
LISTEN:
Breitbart · Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-OK) – June 7, 2025“Now you get to the to the rural hospitals, unfortunately, disproportionately speaking, a lot of people that go to rural hospitals — and I’m from rural I mean, if anybody’s from country, that’s me… I understand rural hospitals… and what they’re saying is that if you kick all these people off, disproportionately speaking, rural hospitals receive that care,” he said.
“I understand that. I’m sympathetic to it, but if they’re defrauding the American taxpayer and they’re taking advantage of a system and they don’t qualify for it, I don’t care. They shouldn’t be there just because it might hurt some hospital. It’s fraud and it’s waste,” Mullin said.
“They should not be there to begin with. We want people that’s going to go to hospitals that need to care, not the ones that are that are defrauding the system,” he said, rejecting their argument that reducing fraud will hurt hospitals.
“I disagree, because right now, there’s 700,000 patient waiting lists to get in and see a physician or specialty care that are trying to get in Medicaid. And if we get the … fraud and waste off of it, then the people that deserve the care, the people that earn the care, the people that Medicaid was designed for, they will be able to see the care and get the care that they need with the right position,” he said.
“And so I understand Josh Hawley’s argument, and I appreciate that. Rick Scott — no one knows the hospital systems more than Rick Scott. We take everything he says to heart, because he is the expert on this,” he said, adding that they are all committed to “preserve Medicaid for those that deserve it.”
Breitbart News Saturday airs on SiriusXM Patriot 125 from 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. Eastern.
