It Is Happening Every Day, Every Where
Republicans targeting safety net programs once invoked women they claimed were living lavishly on government funds. Now as they seek to pare back Medicaid, the imagery has changed — but not the argument.
Senator Josh Hawley, Republican of Missouri, has emerged as one of his party’s staunchest defenders of Medicaid.
Three key committees advanced legislation that would combine into the “one big beautiful bill” to enact President Trump’s agenda. But the package faces a rocky path in Congress.
Lawmakers bickered, protesters shouted and senators came to take in the moment as a House committee weighed a critical portion of a bill to enact President Trump’s domestic agenda.
A widely circulated talking point about Medicaid cuts inflates the legislation’s effects by about five million people.
With a crucial week looming in the House, the G.O.P. is groping for ways to achieve savings without provoking a political backlash. It’s a little tricky.
The Republican senator from Missouri called potentially deep cuts in the program “morally wrong” and “politically suicidal” for his party as it courts working-class voters.
The proposal, which is to be considered this week by a key House panel, omits some of the furthest-reaching reductions to the health program but would leave millions without coverage or facing higher costs.
The president’s stated opposition to cutting the program has put Republicans laboring to enact his domestic agenda in a bind.
Now, Trump’s big budget bill might require particularly painful cuts in the South.