From WNYC Studios. I'm Brian Lehrer. This is my daily politics podcast. It's Tuesday, May 20th.

On Sunday night, House Republicans released a proposal to cut federal spending on Medicaid

and the so-called Obamacare

expansion of it. One in five Americans are on Medicaid nationwide. Listen to these stats.

Approximately 40% of all children, according to the American Hospital Association,

and they cite the incredible stat of nearly half of the births in rural

parts of the country, as well as many low-income, elderly, and disabled individuals.

That's how central Medicaid is, as a starting point to the conversation, to the goal of

every American having health insurance. Back with us now is the local member of Congress,

who is most at the center of the Medicaid funding debate.

It's New Jersey Congressman Frank Pallone.

He is the ranking Democrat on the House Energy and Commerce Committee,

where all this gets hashed out before it goes to the

full House floor. They have jurisdiction over Medicaid and other health care laws, also climate

and other environmental laws, and fossil fuel industry laws, too. It's the Energy and Commerce

Committee. Congressman, thanks for joining us periodically this year, as you have, with your

committee being so central to what's happening. Welcome back to WNYC. Thank you, Brian. Thanks a lot.

Medicaid. I read that according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, this proposal

as written would cause an estimated 8.6 million Americans to lose their health insurance.

Some other estimates are even higher. Do you have a breakdown, and we'll go through some of these

categories, but a basic breakdown of why the number is so big or which Americans would be most

at risk of becoming uninsured based on what criteria? Well, what's this, what really this is all about, Brian, is I call it red tape or paperwork.

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