'He's playing with somebody's life here': Mom worries GOP budget cuts will impact Medicaid-dependent kids
PEWAUKEE, Wis. (CBS 58) -- Alex Garza's dream is to one day make a living selling spiders and working as a cartoon voiceover artist. Garza's mom, Sandra Lomeli, said her 29-year-old daughter will need Medicaid benefits to one day live on her own, so she's turned to pressuring Republican lawmakers to preserve the large program amid their pursuit of sweeping federal spending cuts.
Reading from a prewritten letter in her Pewaukee home, Garza outlined how she's autistic and receives help from Medicaid to cover treatments. Beyond that, Garza said she was the victim of a sexual assault, and a Medicaid-funded program provided legal aid when she pursued a restraining order.
More recently, Garza said Medicaid helped provide skills training, and she one day hoped Medicaid would help allow her to live independently, providing transportation to and from work.
"Medicaid-funded programs help people like me be safe to live [on] our own," Garza read from her letter.
Lomeli is part of a group who've sort of become lobbyists in recent days, pushing Wisconsin's Republicans in Congress to reject any budget that jeopardizes Medicaid. They rallied outside Sen. Ron Johnson's office Tuesday, and they attended a town hall Rep. Scott Fitzgerald held last week.
Sandra Lomeli and her daughter, Alex Garza, (2nd and 3rd from right) are pushing for Republican lawmakers like Rep. Scott Fitzgerald to reject any cuts to Medicaid.
House Republicans on Tuesday night narrowly passed a budget blueprint that clears a path for up to $4.5 trillion in spending cuts. To get there, the plan calls for $2 trillion in spending cuts. Within those cuts is a directive for $880 billion to come from the energy and commerce committee.
In an interview Wednesday, Rep. Glenn Grothman (R-Fond du Lac) noted the bill did not specify the exact sources of cuts, and he maintained President Donald Trump would not allow for Medicaid-funded services to be eliminated.
"It doesn't say where that money is gonna be taken from. It doesn't say what tax cuts are gonna be included, so the big, heavy lifting work is yet to go," Grothman said. "Donald Trump has said he doesn't want to cut Medicaid, and Donald Trump has a lot of influence in the Republican Party right now."
Critics have noted the biggest expenditures in the energy and commerce committee are Medicare and Medicaid. Rep. Mark Pocan (D-Madison) said it was disingenuous for House GOP leaders to say Medicaid was safe under this plan simply because it wasn't mentioned by name in the bill.
"The Republicans were told [Tuesday] morning that they could all tell everyone that there's no cut to Medicaid explicitly said in here, but that is such a 4th grade math problem," Pocan said. "A 4th grader could look at this and say, 'No, everything else in the budget is less than the cut.' You have to cut Medicaid."
Robert Kraig, executive director of Citizen Action of Wisconsin, a liberal healthcare advocacy group, said other states would likely feel Medicaid cuts more sharply than Wisconsin. That's because Wisconsin has not expanded Medicaid coverage to a larger pool of citizens. According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, Wisconsin is one of 10 states to not expand Medicaid.
Still, Kraig said Medicaid policy changes, such as work requirements and constant re-enrollment, could create headaches for Wisconsin families and discourage them from seeking help.
Lomeli, who also has an autistic adult son, said she was concerned this White House, with special advisor Elon Musk overseeing widespread cuts via the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), would allow cuts that affect her family. DOGE has already cancelled hundreds of government contracts, including four leases for physical locations in Wisconsin.
"I've worked in the corporate world. I understand the concept he's trying to throw out there, of saying, 'I'm looking at numbers.' This is not a corporation. These are not numbers," she said, gesturing toward Garza. "These are human beings. This is a human being. He's playing with somebody's life here, not just an algorithm that he's had somebody design."
House Republicans' majority is so slim, they can only afford to have one member vote 'no' and still pass legislation without any Democratic votes. When the time comes to fill in the blanks, there could well be friction between hardline conservatives who prioritize deep spending cuts and moderate Republicans who want to avoid unpopular Medicaid cuts at all costs.
A spokesperson for Fitzgerald said he was not available for an interview Wednesday. Spokespeople for GOP Reps. Bryan Steil and Tom Tiffany said they were also unavailable for interviews Wednesday.
The offices of Wisconsin's other House GOP members, Derrick Van Orden and Tony Wied, did not respond to messages Wednesday. The office of Republican Sen. Ron Johnson also did not respond. Senate Republicans passed a narrower budget blueprint last week that did not get into taxes, so that will be another obstacle for GOP leaders to navigate in the coming weeks.
Lomeli said she, and other parents in similar situations, will continue to call and visit Wisconsin's congressional Republicans.
"This is not about highlighting or siding with any political party," she said. "This is about asking the right people, in the right position, to do the right thing."