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In an interesting turn of events, the House Republican budget resolution is in trouble because of Medicaid, and not for the reason you might think. The issue is that a dozen House Republicans don’t want to go along with the deep cuts to the program in Speaker Johnson’s budget.
Speaker Mike Johnson is staring down at least a dozen Republican holdouts on the budget blueprint he wants to put on the House floor in the coming days — and he can only afford to lose one member and still approve the resolution along party lines.
Johnson and his whip team are using the current week-long recess to ramp up engagement with undecided Republicans, including seven members — if not more — who have raised serious concerns about deep cuts to Medicaid in the House GOP budget resolution.
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The vulnerable incumbents wary of slashing Medicaid services include Reps. David Valadao of California, Nicole Malliotakis of New York, Don Bacon of Nebraska, Rob Bresnahan of Pennsylvania and others from redder districts. They were generally blindsided by the deeper level of proposed cuts, a Republican said, as that possibility never came up in earlier discussions with GOP leaders.
The problem for Republicans is that without steep cuts to Medicaid, they can’t find the money to pay for Trump’s tax cuts for the rich.
House Republicans know that voting for Medicaid cuts in swing districts would equal kissing their seats goodbye in 2026.
Republicans have to pass their budget resolution on their own because Democrats have refused to help them.
Vulnerable House Republicans aren’t going to give up their seats to appease a lame-duck one-term president.
Mike Johnson’s budget looks dead in the water, which will give Democrats even more power to stop Trump’s agenda and save Medicaid.
What do you think about the idea that it might be House Republicans who save Medicaid? Share your thoughts in the comments below.
This story originally appeared on Politicususa
