'Medicaid Moderates' Speak Up Within GOP

The Senate returns to business on Monday, with the biggest item on the agenda being debate over the "Big Beautiful Bill" that passed the House. Senate GOP leader John Thune can afford only three defections within the Republican ranks if he hopes to get the spending bill—crucial to President Trump's domestic agenda—onto the president's desk by July 4 as planned. Two stories illustrate the challenge:

• The hawks: GOP Sen. Rand Paul already promises to vote against the bill because he says it will raise the debt limit by too much, reports the Washington Post. He and other fiscal hawks such as Sens. Ron Johnson and Mike Lee are pushing for bigger spending cuts.

• Medicaid: The hawks may grab much of the headlines, but a group of GOP senators that Politico dubs the "Medicaid moderates" also pose a big problem for Thune. The story names Josh Hawley, Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski, Jerry Moran, and Jim Justice—an "ideologically diverse bunch"—as among those pushing back against Medicaid cuts passed by the House.
• Hawley's warning: "I would hope that we would elect not to do anything that would endanger Medicaid benefits as a conference," Hawley tells the outlet. (The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office has estimated that about 10 million people would lose Medicaid coverage under the House-passed bill.) "I've made that clear to my leadership. I think others share that perspective."

(GOP Sen. Joni Ernst brushed off a constituent's concern about Medicaid cuts by pointing out, "We are all going to die." Ernst also insists that nobody eligible will lose benefits.)