Nicole Jorwic
speaker
68 appearances
1 recordings
1 series
first heard May 2025
last heard May 2025
Nicole Jorwic’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
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Appearances
But we need to be louder because now they have these warring two different bills. There's a Senate version that doesn't have the cuts and a House version that does. But now they have to actually write it. So President Trump and other people said, oh, no, or Speaker Johnson are saying, no, no, we're not going to touch Medicaid. But the Congressional Budget Office, which is a nonpartisan
completely objective office of the government said that there is no way to get to that $880 billion number without cutting Medicaid by at least 500 billion. So now they actually have to write it down. So they can't hide from it before the next vote. So we have a lot of chances to make them really scared in the finding out phase of this fight.
I am a little bit.
Luckily, there's a lot. I mean, obviously, there's a lot of outside advocacy groups, including the National Political Advocacy Department of ACLU, Caring Across Generations, Little Lobbyists, the Arc of the United States, a lot of. the AAPD, a lot of disability rights groups, but there's also a lot of legislators.
And I will say I was very pleasantly surprised the day of that vote to have every member, a Democratic member of the Senate sent a letter saying no Medicaid cuts. You had Leader Jeffries in the House standing with every member saying no Medicaid cuts.
You had even in the joint address that President Trump did to Congress last week, you had some of the protests, and I'm using air quotes, protest signs that said, save Medicaid. And then you also had Representative Greene, who was the only member who stood up. And one of the reasons he stood up and waved his cane as a proud disabled man was in protection of Medicaid.
I just got excited about the green card. No, no, but that's the reality. And that's the same energy that came the last time that President Trump was in office in 2017. They proposed cuts that, frankly, almost were exactly the same size. It was around $900 billion that time. So they haven't learned their lesson.
But at that time, and folks might remember the late Senator John McCain's thumbs down, which was when that terrible cut was saved. We were saved from that. And at that time, you had disabled people from different groups, including National Adapt, come and stage a die-in at Leader McConnell at the Times office.
That is what you have disabled advocates like folks like Alice Wong and folks like Amani and everybody else putting their bodies on the line because this is literally a life and death issue for disabled people. Disabled people who have fought for decades to get out of institutions. There are still institutions open in over 35 states.
And that's the funding shift, the magic wand thing I want to do, getting that money out of those institutions and into the community. But that's what you're going to have to see, and that's what we know that disability advocates and allies have lined up to fight against the Medicaid cuts this time around again.
Yeah, I think the threats to 504 are really about protecting the rights of people to be part of their communities in all the different ways that Zoe said. And then you pair that with cuts to Medicaid that actually funds the services to keep people part of their communities and on the job. A lot of Medicaid funding goes to job coaching and work supports for disabled people.
So it's really when you think about the Trump administration continuing and the attacks on 504, and then the administration and congressional attacks on Medicaid, it's a real double whammy.
Yeah.
Well, internalized ableism is real. And there are a lot of people who don't want to think about themselves as a disabled person and then make really heinous policy decisions along those lines. But ultimately that I think is
the role and the goal of those of us that are fighting against the Medicaid cuts and fighting against the attacks on 504 is that anybody at any point could become part of this community. And these are members of our community that we should be celebrating and supporting and not pushing back behind closed doors.
Texas also does have the longest waiting list in the country and is the heaviest institutionalized per capita state in the country. So he's He's supporting attacks on 504 and also has an over 100,000 person waiting list for Medicaid home and community-based services. And all of the Republican members of Congress in Texas would support gutting the program.
That Medicaid might not be called Medicaid in your state, and you should know what it's called, and that's it.
I would like them to reach out to their members of Congress and tell them to vote no on any bill that includes cuts to Medicaid.
And even if you live in a state and are represented by all Democratic members who are currently standing, still make the calls and then make calls to your friends and family and make sure that they understand what Medicaid covers, who it supports, and that they should also make those same phone calls.
Absolutely. And yes, absolutely. Because they need to know that they that as deals are being made and side conversations are happening, that Medicaid can't be on the table in any way, shape or form.
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