The Republicans' healthcare plan is even worse than being mean — "it is cruel," because it will allow tax cuts for the wealthiest taxpayers, while cutting benefits away from the nation's poor, Sen. Al Franken said Monday.
"The top 400 people, in terms of tax cuts here, the amount of money they'll get in tax cuts would pay for Medicaid for 750,000 people," the Minnesota Democrat told MSNBC's "Morning Joe" program.
If that happens, "one to 2,000 people will die," he continued, quoting a survey from the New England Journal of medicine.
"That means you are killing one to 2,000," Franken said. "People on Medicaid have better healthcare outcomes, they have access to a doctor. They don't have to have catastrophic costs, they don't go bankrupt. This works and it saves lives."
Franken said that under his best case scenario, the Republican plan would be defeated and hearings would be held on what should be done about healthcare in the United States.
"What we need to do is address the exchanges," said Franken. "They have been sabotaged and undermined in every way possible by the Republicans and by Trump, so we need to make them stronger."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.