April 17, 2025 10:38 AM UTC

Hurd Takes Action To Protect Medicaid While Gabe Evans' Excuse-a-Thon Goes On

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• by: Colorado Pols

Axios’ Andrew Solender reports today on major dissent building among U.S. House Republicans with a residual conscience, or failing that at least an instinct for self-preservation, against expected sweeping cuts to Medicaid as part of the “Big Beautiful Bill” being authored to enact President Donald Trump’s bulldozing fiscal agenda:

A dozen swing-district and centrist House Republicans are warning Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) that they won’t vote for a budget reconciliation package that cuts Medicaid too deeply.

Why it matters: It puts Johnson in a vise as members of the right-wing House Freedom Caucus demand steep cuts to the health program for low-income individuals…

What they’re saying: The 12 lawmakers wrote in a letter to Johnson and other GOP leaders that many of them represent “districts with high rates of constituents who depend on Medicaid.”

“Balancing the federal budget must not come at the expense of … their health and economic security,” they said in the letter, a copy of which was obtained by Axios.

As Colorado Public Radio’s John Daley reports, the Colorado congressman with the highest percentage of residents dependent on Medicaid, Rep. Jeff Hurd, is one of the dozen moderate/vulnerable Republicans blowing the whistle on cuts that will hurt his constituents–more than enough votes to kill the budget reconciliation bill in the House. This is just the latest in a series of high-profile dissents by Rep. Hurd over Trump’s reckless first few months in office, who has called out Trump over the pardoning of violent January 6th insurrectionists, the mass termination of federal workers, and most recently Trump’s ill-fated “Liquidation Day” tariffs that threw the global economy into chaos.

“When I was campaigning for Congress, one of the top issues was rural health care, and that’s something that matters to me personally, but it’s also important to the people of Colorado’s third congressional district,” Hurd said in an interview Wednesday with CPR News.

He said he and the others who signed the letter wanted to let leadership of both the House and House Energy and Commerce Committee “know that protecting Medicaid services for those who need it most is a critical priority for us. And that was what was animating my joining in this letter.”

With an estimated 31% of Hurd’s constituents in CO-03 covered by Medicaid, Hurd by far faces the highest political liability from major cuts to the program. Recent news stories across Hurd’s district from Grand Junction to Alamosa have quantified the harm that would be done to these communities in the event of a rollback in eligibilty. In addition to individuals losing their coverage, rural hospitals who depend on Medicaid coverage of their patients to survive could close, which would hurt privately-insured residents just as much.

The letter signed by Rep. Hurd yesterday was addressed not just to Speaker Mike Johnson, but also to the chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee Rep. Brett Guthrie due to that committee’s role in turning the budget cut targets in the resolutions already passed by Congress into the specifics everyone is dreading (or clamoring for if you’re a member of the Freedom Caucus). That makes this letter the closest thing yet to Rep. Hurd directly calling out fellow Colorado freshman GOP Rep. Gabe Evans, who serves on the Energy and Commerce Committee and will therefore play a direct role in formalizing these long-awaited cuts.

But while Rep. Hurd is taking action to protect his constituents from Medicaid cuts, Rep. Evans continues his sideshow of excuses:

As our readers know, the “Medicaid for the dead and illegal immigrants” canard adds up in reality to an infinitesimal fraction of Colorado’s total $13 billion Medicaid budget. Evans’ fixation on this tiny expense relative to the massive cuts the Energy and Commerce Committee is set to make is a classic example of dishonesty with anecdotes over data. Despite Evans’ insistence that the $880 billion his committee is charged with cutting will come from “across the economy,” every responsible analysis of the resolution says the money can only come from cuts to Medicaid.

With this letter, Colorado’s freshman GOP Reps. Jeff Hurd and Gabe Evans are on a collision course over Medicaid cuts.

Only one of them is being honest, and it’s throwing the dishonesty of the other into sharp relief.