House Republican: ‘We’re not talking about taking away benefits from those who deserve those benefits’

Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) on Sunday stressed that her colleagues are focused on preserving benefits for recipients who deserve them as House Republicans push entitlement reform. 

“We’re not talking about taking away benefits from those who deserve those benefits,” Blackburn said on the Fox News’s “Sunday Morning Futures.”

{mosads}”The goal is to make certain that those who deserve and need those benefits get everything that they’re entitled to,” she continued. 

“You do it by making the system more efficient, by innovating, utilizing health-care technology.” 

Blackburn’s comments come as Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) has angled to make entitlement reform a GOP priority in 2018, calling Medicare and Medicaid the “big drivers of debt.”

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), however, has dismissed a focus on  entitlement reform, saying Democrats will not be interested. 

Democrats have argued that Republicans have added to the nation’s fiscal problems by passing a $1.5 trillion package of tax cuts earlier this month.