Congressional Republicans, stepping on what has long been considered a political third rail — cutting Medicaid — don’t have to face voters at the ballot box for at least another year.
That’s not the case for some in the party, who are campaigning in off-year elections as the GOP negotiates its reconciliation bill. The Republican nominee for governor in New Jersey, Jack Ciattarelli, is one such candidate.
The former state lawmaker, vying for the second time in a general election to become New Jersey’s governor, is having to answer for a bill that would cut Medicaid by $793 billion over the next 10 years and push 10.3 million people off the program by 2034, per the Congressional Budget Office’s estimates.