ORANGE COUNTY, Calif. — Congress has a deadline of midnight Friday to vote on a budget resolution. A budget resolution doesn’t list specific cuts. It’s up to committees that oversee agencies to determine the specifics.

The nonpartisan congressional budget office projects spending for Medicaid accounts for $8.2 trillion of the $8.8 trillion of the committee budget, which medicaid falls under.

Medicaid is a government funded healthcare insurance program for people with limited income and resources, including people with disabilities. Some claim it’s mathematically impossible to cut $880 billion without effects to the program. 

That’s why Josephine Rios, a grandmother in Tustin, says she’s worried about what could be coming and how it might affect her grandson Elijah’s healthcare.

Elijah has cerebral palsy and relies on Medicaid to pay for medicine, medical equipment, physical therapy, and other healthcare related costs.

She says his medications alone cost an estimated $5,000 per month. Republican National Committee executive committee member Shawn Steel says what will be cut is fraud and talk of any benefits being cut is a “canard,” fear mongering, and the work of “panic artists.”