No. of Recommendations: 10
They do? democrats have been saying everything’s great for as long as I’m alive. Why all of a sudden do we need to do something?Not an abstract "they" - they, meaning the Republican members of the Energy and Commerce Committee. In order to meet the instructions in the reconciliation bill resolution, they have to come up with about $880 billion in spending reduction in that Committee. There isn't enough other stuff under that committee's purview to get close to that number other than reducing Medicaid spending.
Back when they wrote the reconciliation instructions, they felt that they could push the moderates to go along with one or more proposals that would reduce what the federal government spent on Medicaid, as long as it wasn't structured as a "cut" to eligibility or benefits. These were proposals like limiting state taxes on Medicare services or imposing caps (per capita or otherwise) on the federal contribution to Medicaid. Measures that Republicans could plausibly claim didn't involve
the federal government cutting off anyone's access to Medicaid....just things that the CBO determined would result in several million fewer people being covered by Medicaid. But the moderate wing has pushed back - in no small part because that sort of measure would end up blowing a hole in the budgets of both state governments
and a whole lot of rural and poorer-district hospitals.
Hence the problem. To get the full tax cuts without increasing the deficit, it is necessary to cut a lot of Medicaid spending. They're having trouble getting buy-in for big Medicaid cuts. So now the head of Ways and Means (who's writing the tax part of the bill) has to go to the White House tomorrow to tell Trump that he's not getting all the tax cuts he wants:
House Ways and Means Chair Jason Smith (R-Mo.) is set to meet Friday with President Donald Trump at the White House with the tax portion of the GOP megabill at risk of unraveling, according to three people granted anonymity to describe the private plans.
Smith will have to inform Trump that the tax portion of the megabill has been limited by the GOP’s inability to build support for deep spending cuts. That means Republicans will have to leave out some of Trump’s tax priorities, according to the people.https://www.politico.com/live-updates/2025/05/08/c...
