TRANSCRIPT

                          May 22, 2025

                          NEWS PROGRAM

                                

                    REP. DAN CRENSHAW (R-TX)

                                

                                

                                

           CNN INTERVIEW WITH REP. DAN CRENSHAW (R-TX)

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     CNN INTERVIEW WITH REP. DAN CRENSHAW (R-TX)

     MAY 22, 2025

     SPEAKERS:
     REP. DAN CRENSHAW (R-TX)

     KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN HOST

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT, CNN HOST,

THE SOURCE WITH KAITLAN COLLINS: And my next source tonight is Republican congressman, Dan Crenshaw, of Texas, who joins me now, and is also reading through these changes as they just came out, truly, as you were sitting down on set.

What do you make of what you're seeing so far in there? You on board with this?

REP. DAN CRENSHAW (R-TX): Yes, I mean, I think so. I was on board with it before this. I'm probably more on board with it now. Look, some of these were important, and some of these things I was in favor of already.

I'm on the Energy and Commerce Committee, so we've been debating the Medicaid issue for months. I appreciate others' opinions on that. They deserve to have those opinions. They're members of Congress. And we made some changes. Now, like, I actually think we should go further on Medicaid reforms, and I think those colleagues who advocated for these changes also agree with that.

So, here's what happened, just from me reading it, in front of you, right now. I can barely read it, because I'm a little bit blinder than you are.

So, one of the big things that they wanted was -- so the work requirements didn't kick in until 2029, OK? We changed that to 2026. The reason we had originally at 2029 was because that's what HHS said the time they needed to make it happen. We're now telling them, You know what? Make it happen faster. And I don't think that's unreasonable.

COLLINS: But can I ask you on Medicaid. Because part of what your more moderate colleagues are worried about is changing, for example, what the federal government matches that states do on Medicaid. They're worried about that.

Do you have concerns, even though you wanted to go further, that maybe going further could hurt your more moderate colleagues?

CRENSHAW: That's exactly the issue, right? I want to go further. I think we should normalize expansion state -- the FMAP for expansion states.

So, just so everyone knows, if you've expanded your Medicaid population under Obamacare, you get a 90 percent match from the federal government. That's well above what your actual match should be. That match is generally based on the per capita income per state, so it's different for every state. But it's usually between, I don't know, 70 and 50 percent. It's not 90.

So, it's very unfair to states who said, Hey, you know what? No, we're going to be fiscally -- like Texas, we're going to be fiscally responsible. We're not going to expand to that Medicaid population, which, by the way, is wealthier people, not wealthy, but wealthier people than the people that Medicaid was meant for, which is the poor and children and the sick.

And so, there is a very good argument that you need to normalize what's called that FMAP, which is that federal match. That's not happening at all. I mean, look, I've been in favor of per capita caps, which is just simply freezing that Medicaid populate -- that expansion population.

COLLINS: So do you--

CRENSHAW: We're not even doing that. We're taking the lightest touch possible on Medicaid, let's be honest.

COLLINS: But you were already -- well, I'm sure, there's a question of whether or not it'll be framed like that. Obviously, Democrats likely will--

(CROSSTALK)

CRENSHAW: Oh, they're framing it very different, but they're also not telling the truth, so.

COLLINS: But the big question and big concern, well, people will lose coverage--

CRENSHAW: I'll tell you about those people.

COLLINS: --because the subsidies are expiring as well.

But on the concerns that people like Andy Harris have, and Chip Roy, is about it adding to the deficit, and blowing up on you, right before the midterms, potentially, something like that. Do you share those concerns? Because you were already a yes on this. It is going to add to the deficit by multiple estimates.

CRENSHAW: Yes, like our -- but our deficit is a product of massive entitlement spending. And this is actually the 70 percent of our spending. You start adding DOD and VA benefits, now you're talking about almost 90 percent of our spending.

This is the first time we've even taken a -- taken an attempt to bend that cost curve. And we're only focusing on Medicaid. We didn't touch Medicare. We didn't touch Social Security.

This is the first time we're even doing that. So, all our fiscal hawks are like, Look, you're not wrong, OK? I agree with you. But I also want to propose a thought experiment to you. I'm going to make you king for a day. Do you want to raise taxes or not?

Democrats are pretty clear on this. They want your taxes to go up in December. Their position is very clear.

COLLINS: Because they don't want to extend the Trump tax cuts.

CRENSHAW: Right, they don't want to extend the tax cuts. But that means -- that means--

COLLINS: But do you -- do you have concerns?

CRENSHAW: Just to be clear, that means your taxes, and everybody's taxes watching, go up in December. You could prevent that.

COLLINS: But you do have concerns about it hurting the deficit?

CRENSHAW: I think--

COLLINS: I mean, could this bite Republicans, essentially, later down the road?

CRENSHAW: I don't think so. I think we're bending cost curves of massive, massive programs that we've never done before. We're putting in very pro-growth policies.

And look, the CBO has been wrong. Like, for instance, they were -- they were off by about a trillion dollars in revenue when the first tax cuts came around. Like, they're just -- because it is--

COLLINS: Yes, but it was multiple estimates, as you know, but.

CRENSHAW: It's because they don't do dynamic scoring.

COLLINS: Yes.

CRENSHAW: It's not their fault. Like, by law, they do a scoring, a very specific way. And it's philosophical too. Is it -- are we really -- are we really going into debt because we're letting you keep more of your money? We're keeping taxes the same. There's no tax cuts in here. We're keeping tax cuts the same. We're making sure your taxes don't increase. The Democrats want your taxes to increase. And on top of that--

COLLINS: Yes.

CRENSHAW: --well, I think, we're bending cost curves of programs that are totally unsustainable.

COLLINS: All right.

CRENSHAW: I think we should go a lot further on that, to be honest. But I'm happy with getting 218 votes, and moving this forward.

COLLINS: We'll see if you get there, Congressman Dan Crenshaw.

CRENSHAW: Might be tonight.

COLLINS: Still waiting on a few yeses. Thanks so much for your time tonight.

END