If Congress slashes Medicaid, Valley Republican David Valadao could be the loser | Opinion
David Valadao is playing a risky game.
The Republican congressman from Hanford who represents Kings and much of Kern and Tulare counties in the House of Representatives voted recently in favor of 2025 federal budget bill that is the start of a new tax-and-spend plan. To meet the goals of giving tax breaks that President Trump demands, while also cutting spending as far-right conservatives want, the majority Republicans in the House told a key committee to find $880 billion in cuts.
Most analysts — including the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office — believe that can only be done by making big reductions in Medicare and Medicaid, the federal government’s key health programs, as well as a children’s health initiative.
Almost two-thirds of Valadao’s 22nd District relies on Medicaid for health care. His district is one of the most Medicaid-dependent in the nation.
For that reason, Valadao joined seven other Republican congressional members in writing a letter to House Speaker Mike Johnson of Louisiana that identified the importance of maintaining support for Medicaid in their districts.
“Slashing Medicaid would have serious consequences, particularly in rural and predominantly Hispanic communities where hospitals and nursing homes are already struggling to keep their doors open,” the letter said.
Backing federal budget this time
Given Republicans’ razor-thin majority in the House, they needed nearly every member to support advancing the budget framework. In the end, including Valadao’s backing, House Republicans moved the budget forward on a 217-214 vote. Only one GOP member dissented. No Democrat supported the bill.
After the Feb. 25 vote, Valadao explained his support as merely moving the budget framework into committees for review. “I’ve made clear to House leadership that I will only support a final bill that protects essential resources like Medicaid or SNAP for Central Valley families,” he said in a news release.
SNAP is the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, another federal effort that is widely used by residents in the 22nd District. Its poverty rate is 11.4%, so food help is critical.
Valadao may want the nutrition and health programs to be spared. But the overarching political demands may make that impossible.
Valadao re-election?
Valadao knows well what is at stake. In 2018, he lost the district when Democrats campaigned on GOP efforts to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act. He narrowly won it back two years later. His seat has been considered a toss-up every time he has run for re-election, in large part because of the Democratic majority in the district’s registration.
His constituents also understand the gravity of Valadao’s votes. In a recent gathering in Bakersfield, local nurse Marbella Calderon said cuts to Medicaid would leave her parents without health care while putting her out of work, The New York Times reported.
“If you’re trying to cut Medicaid, a lot of these residents that we get in these nursing homes — a little more than half the nursing home will be empty,” she said. “And if we don’t have patients, we don’t have hours to give to employees.”
What would her message be to Valadao? “You will be destroying the health care community by taking away Medicaid.”
Valadao does not want to do that. But he will be under intense pressure to back any budget when it comes back for a final vote.
Trump really wants to maintain tax cuts that were initiated in his first term; without extensions, they will expire at the end of this year. And conservative Republican members in the House are pushing hard to reduce federal spending. Slashing the medical programs could be the answer.
But if Valadao again votes in favor of a budget that cuts Medicare and Medicaid, he will give a Democratic opponent an easy opening for attack in the 2026 midterm election.
