Washington (AP) As Republicans scramble to complete the deal this week, the Senate lawmaker has warned that a Medicaid provider tax change at the heart of President Donald Trump’s tax reduction and funding bill does not follow the chamber’s procedural rules.
The lawmaker’s advice is rarely disregarded, and Republican leaders are now compelled to take tough choices into account. Republicans’ major objective was to offset trillions of dollars in Trump tax incentives, and they were depending on significant cuts to Medicaid and other programs to do just that. The lawmaker, who serves as the Senate’s primary arbiter of its frequently convoluted rules, also cautioned against a number of GOP ideas that would have excluded some immigrants from health care programs.
Republicans rushed to react Thursday, with some demanding that the nonpartisan lawmaker, who has served since 2012, be challenged or perhaps fired. Instead, GOP leaders sought to alter the various bills, dismissing those opinions.
“We have backup plans,” stated South Dakota Majority Leader John Thune.
Thune insisted that we keep moving forward even as Friday’s anticipated votes seemed to be fading.
The procedural rulings, however, would destroy the GOP bill, according to Democrats, who are united against the package as a tax giveaway for the wealthiest at the price of American safety net programs.
The top Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee, Sen. Ron Wyden, claimed that the Republican plans would have resulted in significant Medicaid cuts that would have harmed working families, children, the elderly, and Americans with disabilities, as well as $250 billion less for the health care program.
As Senate Republicans scramble to pass the package and return it to the House for a second vote before Trump’s Fourth of July deadline, the result is a defeat. Truck drivers, firefighters, tip workers, ranchers, and other groups the administration claims will profit from the plan joined Trump in the White House’s East Room with House Speaker Mike Johnson and other Republican lawmakers.
Regarding the GOP holdouts, Trump stated, “We don’t want to have grandstanders.”
Trump claimed that the upcoming combination of tax breaks, budget reductions, and more funding will enable him to implement his plans for mass deportations. It’s excellent.
Fundamentally, the large plan, which has passed the House and is currently undergoing revision in the Senate, contains $3.8 trillion in tax incentives that were authorized during Trump’s first term but would expire in December, resulting in a tax increase if Congress does nothing. Republicans are using drastic cuts to food programs and health care, as well as increased taxes on immigrants, to partially make up for lost revenue.
Republican leaders were already having trouble mobilizing support for Medicaid reforms that some senators claimed went too far and would have denied coverage to millions of people. The House-passed bill would deny health care to over 10.9 million more people, according to the impartial Congressional Budget Office; Senate Republicans were calling for even more drastic cuts.
Republicans stated that they will attempt to amend the provision to make it acceptable, maybe by delaying the implementation of any changes, after the lawmaker cautioned against the Medicaid provider tax adjustment. Similar changes are being hurriedly developed for other proposals that have encountered breaches, such as one that would alter food stamps or the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.
All of this is postponing the bill’s implementation, but Republican leaders are at a loss for options. To counteract the trillions of dollars in tax cuts, they are relying on the health care limits to save billions of dollars.
The chairman of the Budget Committee, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., denied calls to dismiss the lawmaker and stated in a statement that he was collaborating with the office to determine a course of action.
By increasing their reimbursements from the federal government, states help support Medicaid by imposing the so-called provider tax on hospitals and other organizations. Although the system is criticized for being a form of money laundering, practically all states—aside from Alaska—use it to help pay for health insurance.
The Senate would lower the tax that certain states are permitted to levy, while the House-passed version would freeze the tax.
Cutting the Medicaid provider tax has been opposed by a number of Republican senators who claim it would harm rural hospitals that rely on the funding. Hospital groups have cautioned that hospital closures may result from it.
Among those opposing the move is Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., who said that after speaking with Trump late on Wednesday, the president instructed him to go back to the House’s original proposal.
Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., who had previously voiced worries about the provider tax cuts, said, “I think it just confirms that we weren’t ready for a vote yet.”
Together with the Affordable Care Act of Obama, Medicaid serves over 80 million individuals in the US. Republicans seek to return Medicaid to its purportedly original purpose of primarily serving mothers and children rather than a far wider range of individuals.
Republicans had been mulling a measure that would have established a rural hospital fund with $15 billion as a backup to assist cover lost hospital income. Sen. Susan Collins of Maine was among the GOP senators who demanded at least $100 billion, while others argued that was excessive.
In order to evaluate the legislation and make sure it conforms with the Byrd Rule—named for the late Senator Robert C. Byrd of West Virginia—the lawmaker has been working nonstop. In essence, it prevents budget reconciliation bills from addressing policy issues.
The initiatives might be contested if leaders proceeded without changing the provisions; a 60-vote threshold would be needed to overcome objections. In a Senate split 53-47 and with Democrats united against Trump’s package, that would be a difficult task.
Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., who wants even more drastic cuts, said it’s quite annoying.
The lawmaker cautioned against GOP ideas to repay student loans overnight on Wednesday and mentioned those that would have prevented non-citizen immigrants from accessing Medicaid and other health care programs on Thursday. Plans to dismantle the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau were previously discovered to be in violation of the regulations.
Sen. Kevin Cramer, R-N.D., however, stated that there is no intention to question the lawmaker’s counsel. According to him, it’s the institutional integrity. even though I’m positive she’s mistaken.
Republicans also lost another possible source of funding Thursday when they agreed to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent’s request to repeal section 899, the so-called revenge tax provision that would have permitted the government to tax businesses owned by foreigners and investors from specific nations. According to Bessent, he has a separate deal with these nations.
Contributions to this article came from Kevin Freking, Leah Askarinam, Joey Cappelletti, Michelle L. Price, and Fatima Hussein of the Associated Press.
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