Tuberville said that healthcare cuts will target "Waste, fraud, and abuse"

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Tommy Tuberville (R-Alabama) told reporters recently that proposed budget cuts to Medicaid and healthcare will be targeted toward waste, fraud, and abuse rather than service cuts.

The Alabama Gazette asked Senator Tuberville about the House budget bill that had passed that decreased the amount of money for Medicaid and healthcare spending. We asked Tuberville if he was concerned that if they go too far with the Medicaid and healthcare cuts causing more of our rural hospitals to close?

"We don't want to do that," Senator Tuberville responded. "If there is anything we have learned from DOGE, the group out there that is cutting back on the federal waste, is that our government if full of waste, fraud, and abuse."

Tuberville said that cuts are necessary to address the federal budget deficit.

"You know we are currently $36 trillion in debt and are spending $2 trillion more than we bring in every year," stated Tuberville. "We can't do that or we won't have a country anymore. We are going to leave our kids with a country that is going to be dead broke if we don't do something."

Tuberville said that reforms will be made to get people who are healthy and off of the Medicaid rolls by passing new regulations with work requirements.

"We have to take a chainsaw to the waste, fraud, and abuse," said Tuberville. "Now here is the thing about Medicare, Social Security and all that, there is not going to be cuts. There is going to be different regulations put in where we can make people go back to work if they can work. We can't have people just getting a every month just because they want to stay home."

Tuberville said that DOGE has uncovered large amounts of waste, fraud, and abuse within Social Security, Medicaid, and Medicare.

"Last year alone we know of $500 billion of fraud that is stolen of your taxpayer money. $500 billion," said Tuberville. "We can't allow that to happen anymore. A lot of it is going to our entities such as Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security. You saw the numbers that DOGE has pointed out - People who are 150 years old getting a Social Security check. We can't allow that to happen."

Tuberville said that people who need the aid will get the aid; but those who are scamming the system will be identified and removed from the rolls.

"We are leaking oil very badly," said Tuberville. "We have got to go back to a business model that takes care of the people that need to be taken care of and those that don't need to make that change and go back to work."

The House and Senate have days remaining to pass a spending bill they both can agree on and President Trump will sign or there will be a possible government shutdown.