They would do anything for Trump, but they won’t do that

Let’s get an update on the completely brand new economically populist Republican Party:

In a bid to calm these members, Johnson has taken some forms of Medicaid cuts off the table (such as limits on spending per Medicaid enrollee or reducing the share of costs shouldered by the federal government rather than the states). But the options that are left — or at least, the ones that could still produce enough cost savings to get the math to work out — would still result in millions more Americans becoming newly uninsured, a new analysis from the Congressional Budget Office found.

The most likely of those options, involving a change to taxes on health-care providers, would disproportionately hurt red states (particularly poorer, Southern states).

To throw yet another wrench into the system, Trump this week suggested that lawmakers raise taxes on the ultra-wealthy to help pay for the bill. This is actually a good idea! It’s popular among voters. Democratic lawmakers support it. And it could produce a decent chunk of change — exactly the deus ex machina needed to solve our otherwise unsolvable riddle.

But while Republicans have usually fallen over themselves to prove obeisance to Trump’s orders, in this case, congressional leaders recoiled. “We don’t want to raise taxes on anybody,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-South Dakota) told Fox News. For once, it was Trump who backed down, acknowledging on social media, “Republicans should probably not do it.”

That big, beautiful rowboat, it seems, has sunk in the middle of the river.

The “remarkable shift in the Republican Party,” R.I.P. (May 8 2025-4:44 AM May 9 2025.) Ben Smith has not discussed any of this on his Twitter feed after proclaiming the GOP’s bold new direction, but does promote a podcast feat. Clay Travis, the Tucker Carlson of Skip Baylesses.