Trump pollster has bad news for lofty GOP policy goal

 Bob Ward, partner with Fabrizio Ward, the firm of veteran GOP pollster Tony Fabrizio, said that the idea that the Republican Party is going to take away people's health insurance will be a "political problem" for the party.

“I think you’d find support for getting rid of waste and fraud,” Ward said. “But the whole idea that we’re going to take away people’s health insurance and that’s not going to be a political problem for us, I don’t know where that comes from," he told Politico in an interview published Monday.

"There’s really not a political appetite out there to go after Medicaid to pay for tax cuts,” the GOP pollster said, acknowledging that Medicaid has made a difference in peoples' lives. "People have made up their minds about what they don’t want to see cut," he continued.

Fabrizio Ward is owned by Tony Fabrizio, who was Trump's 2024 campaign pollster. A new polling from the firm said a majority of people who voted for Trump oppose potential moves from congressional Republicans to cut Medicaid funding.

Approximately two-thirds of swing voters expressed their disapproval of cutting the safety-net health program in the context of the GOP's broader initiative to implement a partisan package that includes tax cuts, enhanced border security, and increased defense expenditures.

These numbers from Fabrizio Ward, the firm responsible for the survey, emerge as some Republicans voice their opposition to Medicaid cuts intended to fund that package. However, they may have limited alternatives, considering the significant deficit reduction goals lawmakers are facing.

On Saturday, several House Republican lawmakers pledged to oppose the comprehensive budget proposal that Senate Republicans had approved earlier.

Reps. Andy Harris (R-Maryland) and Jodey Arrington (R-Texas,) who lead the House Freedom Caucus and the House Budget Committee respectively, criticized the Senate bill in separate statements on Saturday.