News: Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer is warning Senate Republicans in a new “Dear Colleague” that passing a rescissions package will have “grave implications” for any FY2026 government-funding deal.
In the letter, Schumer said that it’s “absurd” to expect Democrats to cut a bipartisan deal on government funding while Republicans are approving President Donald Trump’s “purely partisan scheme… to tear up those very same agreements.”
“This is beyond a bait and switch — it is a bait and poison-to-kill,” Schumer wrote.
What America is reading. Trump and GOP congressional leaders got the big spectacle they wanted on July 4. A White House signing ceremony for the One Big Beautiful Bill, lots of flags, fireworks, even a B-2 bomber flyover. Speaker Mike Johnson gave Trump the gavel he used to close out the House vote.
But now comes the reality — and the headlines back home. Medicaid cuts of nearly $1 trillion. No extension of Obamacare subsidies. Tens of billions of dollars in SNAP cuts. Governors may be forced to call special legislative sessions to deal with gaping holes in their own budgets.
While the biggest federal cuts won’t come until after the midterm elections, the negatives for the GOP reconciliation megabill may overwhelm any political boost that Trump and Republicans get from extending and expanding the 2017 Trump tax cuts, at least in the short term. That means vulnerable GOP lawmakers get hit now, with the worst coming later. Republicans will need to turn around public perception of the OBBB, even in their own party.
Let’s focus on Medicaid, the biggest issue, and one that Schumer, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, and other party leaders will make their focus for 2026.
In Maine, where Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) is up for reelection, two rural hospitals are in danger of closing, with another two potentially in trouble. Roughly 40,000 Mainers could lose health care. These Medicaid cuts were the main reason Collins was just one of three Senate Republicans to vote no, even as she fought for inclusion of a $50 billion rural hospital “stabilization fund” in the bill.
Yet Collins — the only Republican senator up for reelection in a state won by Kamala Harris – knows she’ll still have to defend the bill even though she voted against it. Collins denied to the Portland Press Herald/Maine Sunday Telegram that she was allowed to vote no because Senate GOP leaders knew they had the votes to pass the measure without her. “That is absolutely ludicrous,” Collins said as Maine Democrats hammered away.
In Pennsylvania, Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro – a potential 2028 White House contender up for reelection next year – warned that as many as 25 rural hospitals could go under while more than 310,000 Pennsylvanians lose Medicaid coverage. Pennsylvania has at least four House districts that may be in play next year. GOP Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (Pa.) was one of only two House Republicans to vote no.
“They knew what they were voting for. They voted for it,” Shapiro said on Monday of the nine Pennsylvania House Republicans who backed the measure.
This is happening in other swing states too. North Carolina GOP Sen. Thom Tillis – who was under heavy pressure from Trump for criticizing the reconciliation bill – retired and voted no, putting a Republican-held seat in jeopardy next year. Tillis handed out flyers saying the Tarheel State would lose nearly $40 billion in funding and coverage for more than 660,000 residents would be at risk.
What about Minnesota, now a 2026 Senate battleground? UCare, a Minnesota health provider, withdrew temporarily from Medicaid on Monday, affecting 88,000 members. Dozens of the state’s hospitals are already in financial distress and some may close.
How about Michigan, another battleground state? The Michigan Health and Hospital Association says state hospitals will lose out on $6 billion in Medicaid funding over a decade. At least 200,000 Michiganders – possibly up to 700,000 – will lose coverage. Obamacare enrollees will get hit by sharp premium increases with the end of subsidies.
Some news on this front. Liberal outside group Unrig Our Economy is launching a new ad attacking Rep. Rob Bresnahan (R-Pa.) on Medicaid cuts. The $1 million ad buy in Pennsylvania’s 8th District, part of the group’s larger $10 million House campaign, features a constituent who says Bresnahan promised to her that he wouldn’t vote to cut Medicaid.
“Afterwards, when the votes were done, when I found out how he voted, I was very upset to hear that Congressman Bresnahan voted for the largest cut to Medicaid in history,” the constituent says.
And as we told you in the Midday edition on Monday, the DCCC has launched digital ads in three dozen districts focusing on how Medicaid cuts impact hospitals.
