Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez hits back at 'disrespectful men' over GOP Medicaid cuts

Dave Goldiner, New York Daily News on May 14, 2025

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Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez hit back at “disrespectful men” early Wednesday after Republican lawmakers tried to shut down her criticism of deep health cuts in President Donald Trump’s sprawling budget bill.

The progressive congresswoman told GOP colleagues around 3 a.m. that she wouldn’t keep quiet in the face of a late-night cuts to Medicaid that could leave millions of Americans without health coverage.

“There are 13.7 million Americans on the other side of that screen there. Hello, hello,” Ocasio-Cortez said, waving to the camera that beams House proceedings to viewers nationwide.

“I’m talking to you because I work for you,” she added. “They deserve to see what is happening here because there are plenty of districts, including Republican ones, where 25% (or) 40% of your constituents are on Medicaid.”

The scolding unfolded during a GOP push to expand work requirements and make other deep cuts in the Medicaid program that provides some 70 million lower-income Americans with health care.

Ocasio-Cortez, who represents parts of Queens and the Bronx, demanded to know why the proposal doesn’t exempt pregnant women who have suffered a miscarriages, raising the danger they could lose their coverage if they are unable to work.

Rep. Randy Weber, R-Texas, took offense at what he considered grandstanding by Ocasio-Cortez.

“We’d like for you to address the Republicans,” Weber said. “Let’s have a dialogue this way and not to a camera.”

Weber instructed Ocasio-Cortez to stop talking and give back her allocated time to other Democrats. But she refused.

“I will not yield because it was a terribly disrespectful comment,” she said. “And I will not yield to disrespectful men.”

The dispute came as the Energy and Commerce Committee continued its marathon effort to pass its part of the GOP’s sprawling proposed package of tax and spending cuts.

A centerpiece of the package is more than $900 billion in spending cuts, most of that to Medicaid.

The bill needs to pass the House, where the GOP can likely afford to lose the votes of no more than three members, then get the green light from the Senate to avoid a filibuster under a complex legislative process known as reconciliation.

Dozens of House Republicans have claimed they will not support cuts to Medicaid, but it remains to be seen how many will cave in the face of pressure from Trump and Republican leadership.

Republicans insist they are simply rooting out “waste, fraud and abuse” in the program to generate massive savings with new work and eligibility requirements.

But Democrats like Ocasio-Cortez and health watchdog groups say the effort is really aimed at cutting health coverage for millions of Americans.

“What I believe you’re doing … is figuring out every way possible for them not to qualify,” said Rep. Frank Pallone, D-New Jersey, the ranking Democrat on the panel.