GEOFF BENNETT: President Trump's agenda is facing a major test in Congress to help fund his tax cuts.

Medicaid is the single biggest area of savings on the table.

Last night, we spoke with GOP Congresswoman Nicole Malliotakis, who opposes some Medicaid cuts.

Tonight, a different view.

And correspondent Lisa Desjardins picks it up there.

LISA DESJARDINS: Today, the Congressional Budget Office sent out its analysis of the impact of some potential Medicaid cuts that some Republicans have proposed, finding that these particular cuts would mean 5.5 million fewer people on Medicaid and about 2.5 million without insurance.

Those proposed cuts at the same time would save $700 billion.

To discuss the Republican plans, Texas Congressman Chip Roy joins me now.

Thank you, Congressman.

Those millions of Americans who could lose Medicaid coverage are the reason that moderates have pushed back so hard, as you know.

And they say Speaker Johnson told them he's taken those cuts off the table.

Are those cuts off the table now, as far as you're concerned?

And could you support a bill without them?

REP. CHIP ROY (R-TX): I think those numbers are not quite right.

So we think we can get better services, better programs, save money for the American people and be more fair and have a better overall health care system.

So we have some pretty simple thoughts, that you shouldn't get more on Medicaid than Medicare, that you shouldn't be able to qualify if you're ineligible, for example, if you're illegal or if you're not qualified under the program, that, if you can work, that you should work, and that you shouldn't get more if you're able-bodied than if you're vulnerable.

We think it's pretty straightforward.

LISA DESJARDINS: Congressman, Congresswoman Malliotakis told us last night that she has managed to take these larger reforms, these larger changes, she would call them cuts to some people, out of the bill.

And Speaker Johnson has indicated that as well.

Is it your understanding they're out of the bill and are you OK with that?

REP. CHIP ROY: Well, I don't know of a bill yet.

The Energy and Commerce Committee has not produced a bill.

LISA DESJARDINS: But are they off the table in the discussion?

REP. CHIP ROY: Lord knows the bill has not gone through the Rules Committee, on which I sit, and it sure as hell hasn't gone off the House floor, which I certainly have an election certificate to sit on.

The fact of the matter is, they need to come to the table and show us the math.

How are they going to balance the tax cuts that they so often want to dole out, but not do the spending reform we need to do when we're $37 trillion in debt, and the average American can't afford health care, and the average American can't afford a car, and the average American can't afford to live, and the average American can't afford a house?

And interest rates are going up.

And we're spending a trillion dollars a year on interest because Republicans never met a promise they didn't want to make without the taxes to actually pay for the promise that they're delivering to people.

So I would say to my Republican colleagues, my moderate friends, you have a hard wall you have got to get through.

And that is me and a bunch of others that believe that our budget needs to balance, the deficits need to go down, and that we need to be honest with the American people.

And I'm tired of the vulnerable getting screwed by the empty promises of both Republicans and Democrats who want to try to lie to them and say that they can have this magic fairy dust of government-provided programs which are subpar and then complain when we have $37 trillion of deficits.

We owe our kids and our grandkids better than that.

So that's my answer.

Nothing's off the table, because, if it's off the table, then I'm off the table.

LISA DESJARDINS: What do you say to some of those vulnerable populations?

I think 9 percent of your district or so is on Medicaid.

And also rural hospitals are really concerned.

They have been struggling as it is.

That's a -- I know, a larger problem, but they're concerned that if there are more uninsured, that's going to fall on them and that that could be an existential crisis.

What do you say to those vulnerable populations?

I know you're fighting for a bottom line here, but people could get hurt in the middle.

REP. CHIP ROY: Yes, I'm fighting for the vulnerable population who are getting screwed by empty promises from politicians.

That's what I'm fighting for.

LISA DESJARDINS: But rural hospitals and those on Medicaid are concerned, like in your district.

REP. CHIP ROY: Because -- they're concerned, but they're concerned because they don't want the provider tax touched, but it's a provider tax that is a flawed model.

Rural hospitals can do just fine if we create a model in which they can work and so they can actually have doctors.

How about doctors owning hospitals, instead of major corporations?

How about letting an individual go to a doctor and a DPC model, so you have a direct relationship and you have money in an account that you can use to go shop for care, instead of being screwed by an insurance company, who tells you that, oh, you don't have the doctors in your network?

Or you know what?

You only can have a co-pay of this or a high deductible of this, when you're spending $2,000 a month for the privilege of insurance.

I don't think that Medicaid coverage or highly regulated insurance coverage is actual coverage.

I think I should just be able to go to the doctor.

And that's what I'm fighting for, the average hard-working American who can't afford health care, the poor and vulnerable who are getting hosed because we're making promises to corporate executives, and all of these people making tons of money off of a crony, capitalistic, rigged system by both Democrats and Republicans who don't want to tell lobbyists no.

I'm happy to tell the lobbyists no, to stand up for the hardworking Americans that I represent.

LISA DESJARDINS: In just a minute or so we have left, Congressman, I am a debt nerd.

You are a debt and deficit hawk.

Where this bill stands right now, do you think it could add trillions to the deficit, could it not?

Or how do you see it?

And is it on a track you can support?

REP. CHIP ROY: Yes, well we're only going to be able to support legislation that will reduce the deficit.

Otherwise, we will be a no.

The only question is going to be, what math are we looking at, right?

There's going to be a lot of people throwing a lot of models around.

They're going to want to say they get enough savings out of Medicaid, enough savings out of food stamps, enough savings out of student loans or whatever to add it up.

And they're going to want to be really robust on tax cuts.

And they're going to want to say, oh, the economic growth plus the savings will be fine.

And I'm going to be looking at it and trying to be honest about what we're actually talking about.

The American people deserve honesty.

They don't deserve simple campaign rhetoric.

I'm tired of that.

Republicans campaign on balanced budgets and they campaign on tax cuts, but they only deliver tax cuts and never deliver a balanced budget.

We have got to actually deliver.

I applaud Jodey Arrington and a bunch of my colleagues across the spectrum who recognize and believe in that, and my good friends like Nicole, whom you mentioned, who I share a whole lot of values with and I think we can actually come together and produce a product that matters.

But what we can't do is put our head in the sand.

We have to deliver for the people we represent.

LISA DESJARDINS: Being honest, and we want to have you on another time to talk about Social Security and Medicare, which are the biggest drivers of the debt and not addressed yet in this bill.

But, Representative Chip Roy of Texas, thank you so much.

REP. CHIP ROY: Thanks, Lisa.