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It's the Brian Larry Show on WNYC.

Good morning, everyone.

Last month, we invited New Jersey Congressman Frank Pallone on the show as one of our first national politics guests of the new year, even before the Trump inauguration.

That's because in the new Republican Congress, he is now the ranking Democrat on the Energy and Commerce Committee,

which has jurisdiction over some of the biggest areas of policy that affect all Americans

and that could change with the new government, energy policy, climate and other environmental policy,

also health policy, including Medicare,

Medicaid, the Affordable Care Act, and more. And we told Congressman Pallone we would follow up with

him when the real action in his committee starts. Well, he's back with us now because the House

budget blueprint that Republicans pass this week,

as we've been talking about, calls for his committee to find $880 billion in cuts over the next 10 years

to help pay for an extension of President Trump's tax cuts.

The big question that that number has prompted is, can they cut that much without reducing

people's Medicare or mostly Medicaid health insurance coverage?

Just about every U.S. senior is on Medicare.

Another 72 million Americans who have low incomes or are disabled are on Medicaid.

And those programs make up the biggest share of the funding

that the Energy and Commerce Committee oversees. So we'll talk about that, plus some of what

might happen with energy and the climate if this spending cuts mandate stands. Congressman

Polone, nice of you to come on with us again. Welcome back to WNYC.

Thank you, Brian. And I'll just go right there. Can your committee find $880 billion in

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