...they all voted for the budget bill that included those $880B of cuts and they all KNEW that this implied massive cuts to Medicaid. They hoped people wouldn't do that math at the time, and figured they could avoid pissing off Trump and kick the can down to the road for the next vote.

IOW, they shouldn't be seen as principled defenders of Medicaid. They toed the party line, got heat at home and are now SAYING that they want to do this right. But watch their feet and ignore their lips. These are not people with a history of standing on principle, or for their constituents.

The tell here is this paragraph, which is a lot of words that sound thoughtful but are deeply evil. Let's translate:

"A general acceptance for cutting waste fraud and abuse" is word salad. There isn't a hospital in the world getting rich off of Medicaid reimbursements. To the contrary, most complain that they make more on every other patient. But it's a way to dog whistle the race card (see: "welfare queens")

"work requirements for able bodied adults without children" = if you have a job that pays so poorly that you qualify for Medicaid, we'll give you healthcare. But not if you have kids. That's not thoughtful. It's just mean.

"Johnson promised not to cut Medicaid for individuals who are “qualified” to receive the benefit". By definition, anyone getting Medicaid today is qualified for the benefit. You don't cut $880 billion without stripping away from people who are eligible.

Johnson, BTW, is a sanctimonious a**hole. He plays this bible thumping, constitutional scholar card as he ignores every one of the beatitudes. As a pastor asked me yesterday "why do these so called Christians only seem to like the worst parts of the old testament?"