MP David Valadao had a decision in the last month before a decision: left behind President Trump and votes for a budget decision that would almost certainly reduce Medicaid's financing, which risks the anger of his voters. Or vote against it, catapult his party into chaos and sit down for a primary opponent who may be supported by Trump.
Valadao, a Republican milk maker from Hanford, chose his party.
In His speech Before voting on the house floor, Valadao admitted that he had “heard of countless voters” who campaigned for the continued support of the program.
“I will not support a final reconciliation calculation that grants the risk,” he said, adding: “I ask that the leadership will continue to be generated for working with my colleagues and me an end product that is critical programs such as Medicaid and Snap and ensure that our voters are not left behind.”
Valadao speaks at a press conference in 2022 in the US Capitol. According to the UC Berkeley Labor Center, more than half a million inhabitants in his Central Valley district or about two thirds of the population are covered by the majority of a district in California.
(Bill Clark / CQ-Roll Call / Getty Images)
Valadoo's vote came at the beginning of a household process, which the Republicans say that they will finally offer savings of 2 trillion dollars. Assuming that all Democrats vote against a final expenditure plan, as they do with the budget decision, the spokesman for House, Mike Johnson (R-La.), Can affect only a republican vote.
At home, Valadao is faced with the difficult task of calming his voters in the 22nd Congress district that he will deviate cuts against Medi-Cal, as Medicaid is known in California. The Republican MPs, the young Kim and Ken Calvert, represented the other swing districts in California, also voted for the budget decision. But Valadao faces a steeper battle: According to the UC Berkeley Labor Center, more than half a million inhabitants in his Central Valley district or about two thirds of the population are covered by a district of California.
Democrats are already preparing to use his voice to coordinate the long -time Congress Member.
As a minority party in both the house and in the Senate, the Democrats have trouble deciding how to resist Trump and the Republicans in the congress. The voices for the budget solution, which is almost certainly reduced in Medicaid, gave them something with which they could work: House majority Forward, a progressive political action committee, began to lead Attect advertisements In 23 potential swing areas of Republicans, including Valada.
Valadao will take part in the Willow Fall Farm Festival button in October 2022.
(Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)
“David Valadao will regret Central Valley families by voting Medicaid for the financing of massive taxes for billionaires and large companies,” said Justin Chermol, spokesman for the democratic congress campaign campaign.
Many residents of the Central Valley are in poor health. Kern County, one of the three counties of which the district consists, had the highest mortality rate for diabetes in the state with 1,241 deaths between 2020 and 2022.
In the neighboring Kings County, heart diseases and cancer are the most common cause of death, and more than a quarter of the residents rated their health as “fair” or “poor”, as “poor”, as “poor”, as “arm”, as “arm”, as “arm”, as “arm”, as “arm”, as an arm “, as” poor “, as” arm “, as” arm “, as” arm ” “Poor”, they are as “poor”, and as “poor”, are heart diseases. According to the County Public Health Department. And in Tular County, Warning health officers These budget cuts could force the closure of rural hospitals, which are already working on narrow edges due to a high number of medi-Cal patients.
Kelly Kulzer-Reyes, a bakersfield resident and co-founder of the core-down syndrome network, has a work relationship with Valadao, who has supported her legal profession in the past, she said. In the district, more than 8,500 people rely on the regional service center to help people with developmental disorders.
“I know that he wants to support us, I know that he is a good person,” she said. “But the vote to advance the household solution was devastating for me. I've never been as scared as it was. “
Amelia Reyes, 12, practices her gymnastics skills in Club 21 in Pasadena. The Reyes family drives down from Bakersfield so that Amelia can use the learning and resource center for people with Down syndrome.
(Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times)
Recipients like her 12-year-old daughter Amelia are dependent on the state and federal health program to finance services that enable them to learn skills and navigate through the world, said Kulzer-Reyes. Amelia, who has the Down syndrome, gains access to a program with which the participants learn how to get in touch with others. Other families receive health care – e.g. B. annual doctor's appointments and dental examinations – otherwise they would not have.
“This type of service can provide or break a family,” said Kulzer-Reyes. “They are changing life and destructive to life if they have no access.”
She believes Valadao, when he says, he does not support the program. But she wishes he had done more to face his party.
“I only wish he would speak. It has to be exhausting, but it is the job for which he went, ”she said. “This is a professional or decisive situation for him at the moment.”
Republican leaders who are committed to the household solution emphasized that Medicaid was not expressly mentioned. Trump, who used certain republicans of the congress to support the household solution, also said that he would not support to shorten Medicaid.
However, the Congress budget office, which offers an impartial budget analysis, reported that it would be impossible for the energy and trade committee to find enough savings without touching medicaidMedicare or the pediatric health insurance program.
Learn children with Down syndrome to make contacts in a class in Club 21 in Pasadena.
(Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times)
“Medicaid is the only place – it is like the bank, there is money there,” said Mark Peterson, professor of public politics, political science, health policy and management at UCLA. He added Valadao: “He will have a problem.”
The Budget blueprint meanders through various committees. In the meantime, the Senate will initiate laws that passed the house on Tuesday to avoid closure and finance the government by September 30th. Valadao voted for the temporary measure and said in a statement that he “assures critical state services that protect social security, medicar and medicaid recipients from unnecessary interruptions.”
Almost safe Face ugly counter reactionsValadao avoided keeping the town halls in his district. Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Fremont) announced mockingly that instead he would hold meetings for Valadao as well as in Kims and Calverts districts.
The struggle for our coalition for health subjects organized a town hall in Bakersfield last month before the budget vote and invited Valadao, who said he could not take part. The event according to information Local reportsshowed many frustrated residents who rely on the health program.
The 80 -year -old Joyce Hall was wearing a sign with the inscription “Health Care for People and not for the billionaires” outside of Valadao's Bakersfield Office in one last afternoon. The pensioner said she ran on Medi-Cal to cover the costs of her co-plays and prescription medication. Without that, she would probably have to rely on her family to cover the costs.
If Valadao is right for the program, Hall said, she hopes that he will lose his seat in the congress during the next election cycle.
Valadao, a rather moderate Republican in a Democrat Majority district, is careful with the pronouncement. He avoids the media and rarely gives interviews. When Valadao was addressed by a reporter for this article, he referred questions to his spokesman who said he was not available.
The vote on the decisive legislation in healthcare is a well -known territory for Valadao. 2017He agreed to party borders and joined his Republican colleagues to lift and replace the law on affordable care. In this next election cycle he lost to the democratic challenger TJ Cox.
Valadao won its seat in 2020 and made it until 2022, even after he was tuned in Trump's second office. push the president In 2024, he won by more than 11,000 votes for promotion in Capitol on January 6, 2021.
If Valadao supports a final budget that reduces Medicaid, this could mean repeating his loss of 2018, said Matt Herdman, the California director of Protect Our Care, a non -profit organization that is committed to increasing access to affordable health care. He said that the people in the district had become energetic to defend against Medicaid.
“If David Valadao is right to shorten Medicaid, it will be the biggest problem that causes his defeat in 2026,” said Herdman.
Cathy Abernathy, a GOP strategist, denied this evaluation and said she didn't think Valadao should be concerned. The voters in the district trust him to deliver Medicaid services and not reduce unless they are wasteful and go into the “greedy”, she said.
“To shorten the size of this government, so that it is not so expensive for the workers, but still offers the necessary services, is still something that they trust Valadao,” said Abernathy.
Some, like German Cervantes, believe that Valadao will ultimately stand up for his voters who are dependent on Medicaid. Cervantes, who has autism and supporters of the autism community for Valadoa's office in 2014, where he met the Congress member and learned his values.
The 30-year-old Cervantes is dependent on Medi-Cal to cover the costs of a program that the doors opened to him to travel and take part in programs such as Happy Trails, a horse therapy program and volunteer trips. It also covers its medical expenses, including annual physical examinations, dental examination and new glasses.
His message to Valadao? Stand by his voters and medicaid.
“Hey David, if you are in Washington, DC, with the congress, is the only thing I encourage you to tell the congress that you should not shorten Medicare and Medi-Cal,” said Cervantes:
Gomez reported from Los Angeles And Pinho from Washington.