Republicans in both chambers released a flurry of statements after the bill’s passage on Tuesday indicating opposition to Medicaid cuts — though Missouri Republican Senator Josh Hawley has claimed that work requirements would likely get unified GOP support.
Steve Scalise, the House Majority Leader, has argued in return that the “proof” that Democrats are lying stems from the lack of any language explicitly mentioning Medicaid cuts in the passed budget framework — which, as it’s described, is not the final bill.
While the chair of the committee has looked to potentially eliminate state-level provider taxes as one way to reduce federal Medicaid spending, some say that will just force cuts to Medicaid benefits by individual states unable to make up the funding gap.
In the wake of the budget framework’s passage, some Republicans shifted to the assertion that Elon Musk’s DOGE hunt for “waste, fraud and abuse” in programs including Medicaid, Medicare, and Social Security will be able to make up the bulk of the GOP’s $2.3 trillion funding hole.
The budget framework passed by the House does direct the Energy and Commerce Committee, which oversees Medicaid (and other programs), to identify that massive savings sum for the final bill.
