Vice President Mike Pence’s speech before more than 100 supporters and businesspeople at the Cajun Industries factory marked a rally of sorts, as the Trump Administration lobbies seeks backing for its first-ever budget.
“I’m sure one of the secrets of this company is that they know how to make a budget work,” Pence said of Cajun Industries. “So does President Trump.”
The White House’s $4.1 trillion fiscal outline proposes cutting $1.3 trillion in non-defense discretionary funds, ending dozens of federal programs, all to seek budgetary balance within 10 years.
The roadmap leans on the Senate’s passage of a House Republican-backed plan to replace the Obama-era Affordable Care Act. The budget would scale back Medicaid expansion, for which some 428,000 Louisianians have enrolled. Meantime, White House budget director Mick Mulvaney has said the administration’s proposed American Health Care Act would lower the costs for patients and build flexibility for states, a point echoed Wednesday by Pence.
“It holds back Obamacare’s mandates on the American people by literally repealing the taxes and penalties at the heart of Obamacare,” said the vice president. “It gives working families more choices with expanded health savings accounts, and a new tax credit to help buy insurance at a price you can afford.”
Not attending the rally was Gov. John Bel Edwards. Upon greeting Pence Wednesday morning, the Democratic governor handed the vice president a letter. “Medicaid expansion is not just a critical source of care for our workers, but a needed source of jobs,” Edwards wrote. The vice president did not mention the letter in his address.
Pence closed his speech by suggesting the audience call the state’s two Republican U.S. Senators — Bill Cassidy and John Kennedy — and urge them to vote for the healthcare bill, which is now up before the senate.
“The American Health Care Act starts the process of repealing and replacing Obamacare with a healthcare system that will actually work,” said Pence. “But we need Louisiana’s help to get it across the finish line.”
The vice president’s comments came just before the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office released its analysis of the AHCA, estimating that by 2026, 23 million fewer people would have healthcare coverage under the administration’s proposal. Pence has yet to comment on the CBO findings.