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Democrats push OMB nominee on Medicaid cuts and work‑requirement proposals
Summary
Senators raised concerns that policies supported by Russell Vought or his affiliated think tank would cut Medicaid, affect nursing‑home care and low‑income families, and promote work requirements that critics say have failed in trials.
Russell Vought, the president’s nominee for director of the Office of Management and Budget, was pressed repeatedly by Democrats at the Senate Budget Committee hearing over proposals that would shrink Medicaid, impose work requirements and reduce other social-safety programs.
Senator Jeff Merkley accused Vought of continuing to advocate work requirements and policies that Merkley said previously produced no increase in employment. “You’ve been a big advocate of work requirements,” Merkley said, citing Arkansas as an unsuccessful experiment and asking whether Vought would press for the approach again.
Vought defended the concept by referring to welfare‑reform-era policies of the 1990s, saying those reforms “led to caseload reductions, people getting…
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