House and Senate GOP leaders are divided over Medicaid cuts, going in opposite directions on the biggest obstacle to their reconciliation package.
Democrats are slamming the GOP over proposals to slash hundreds of billions of dollars from Medicaid. Meanwhile, Speaker Mike Johnson and Senate Majority Leader John Thune can’t agree on how much to cut the program.
After Thune and Senate Finance Chair Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) privately said Wednesday that they wanted to consider lowering the federal match rate, Johnson reiterated that option is dead.
“The Senate is going to get their opportunity real soon,” House Majority Leader Steve Scalise said about the differing views.
The stakes couldn’t be higher for Hill Republicans. House and Senate Republicans need to agree on the extent of Medicaid reductions to ultimately enact the tax cuts that are crucial for President Donald Trump’s agenda.
The full picture: The White House hasn’t been keen on drastic Medicaid cuts, as the Trump administration sees the policy as the most politically perilous plank of reconciliation.
Democratic groups are flooding the airwaves with ads accusing Republicans of putting health care for millions of Americans at risk. Republicans are starting to respond by insisting they’re only focused on rooting out waste, fraud and abuse.
Meanwhile, fiscal conservatives are urging GOP leadership to remain committed to big spending cuts.
House and Senate GOP disagree. Johnson and House Republican moderates ruled out lowering the federal match rate or instituting per capita caps. That’s a challenge for the Energy and Commerce Committee, which still needs to find $880 billion in savings to comply with reconciliation instructions.
Thune and Crapo’s comments on Medicaid were news to Energy and Commerce Republicans, who learned about it during their four-hour Wednesday reconciliation huddle.
Even if Senate GOP leaders do push for those massive Medicaid cuts, they’ll have issues among their own colleagues. Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine), Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) and Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) aren’t likely to go for those proposals.
Time for Trump? With a self-imposed July 4 deadline for reconciliation approaching, senators acknowledge they’re not on the verge of any deal.
“I think at some point the president is going to have to become intimately involved,” Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) said.
House Republicans also said it’s difficult to find consensus given the conflicting demands of moderates and conservatives.
“It’s really hard to have those conversations in isolation, so that’s part of the challenge of the way we do these markups – one policy committee at a time,” Rep. Jay Obernolte (R-Calif.) said.
