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White House Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney on Thursday testified that the Trump administration does not believe $1.4 trillion worth of cuts it is proposing for Medicaid would affect children, the disabled or the elderly. Under questioning from Sen. Angus King (I-Maine) at a Senate Budget Committee hearing, Mulvaney argued that the cuts would simply slow the growth of Medicaid spending, not cut the program. (Elis, 5/25)

Fireworks erupted Thursday when President Trump’s budget chief sparred with a Senate panel over the administration’s proposed 2018 budget, most notably trading barbs with Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., over potential cuts to entitlement programs. ... Sanders also blasted the budget’s steep cuts to antipoverty programs, noting that they come at the same time the Trump administration is pushing for tax cuts that benefit the wealthy. He particularly criticized the proposed repeal of the estate tax. “Answer the question: The wealthiest family in America gets a $52 billion tax break as a result of the estate tax,” Sanders told Mulvaney. “Tell the American people why you think that’s good when you cut Medicaid and you cut programs for kids.” In his response, Mulvaney noted that it is difficult to predict the expected impact of the tax cuts on wealthy Americans. (Bahl, 5/25)

Just how much does the Trump administration want to cut Medicaid? No one -- including the White House -- is really sure. $600 billion? $800 billion? Or a stunning $1.4 trillion over the next decade? "It's north of $610 billion, but it's not $1.4 trillion," according to a senior official from the White House Office of Management and Budget. ... Mulvaney told lawmakers on Wednesday that the reduction in Medicaid spending from the president's budget and the House bill can't be added together because they "contain some of the same factors." Bottom line: We don't know how much the Trump budget would cut from Medicaid. ... The confusion has left many health care and budget experts across the political spectrum guessing at the figure. (Luhby, 5/23)

One unlikely group could be affected by the divestments in Medicaid outlined in the American Health Care Act, AHCA, passed by the House. Nearly one in 10 U.S. veterans rely on Medicaid either as their primary or secondary source for healthcare coverage and could lose access to care, according to a report by Families USA, a left-leaning healthcare advocacy group. (Christ, 5/25)

If President Donald Trump has his way, hundreds of thousands of Arizona’s poor would either lose access to food and health care or the state’s taxpayers would have to fork over a lot more in taxes. The proposed cutbacks to programs like food stamps, welfare and Medicaid in Trump's proposed federal budget could complicate the tax-cutting agenda of Gov. Doug Ducey, who would be pressed to find significantly more cash to preserve the safety net in Arizona or face the reaction to abandoning the state's high poverty population. (Hansen and Pitzi, 5/25)