Senate Parliamentarian makes Republican Medicaid cuts slightly less brutal
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Thune says he won’t overrule the parliamentarian, although they might try to re-write it:
Senate Majority Leader John Thune said Thursday the Senate would not move to overrule its parliamentarian after she advised that including key provisions in the GOP’s domestic-policy megabill would expose it to a fatal Democratic filibuster.
After the decisions were publicized Thursday, multiple conservative Republicans called on the Senate to sideline Parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough. But when asked by POLITICO about overruling her, Thune said, “No, that would not be a good option for getting a bill done.”
The rulings from MacDonough affected several major pieces of the GOP plan, including a provision that would crack down on provider taxes that states used to fund their Medicaid programs as well as measures meant to exclude undocumented residents from public benefits. Republicans are expected to try to rewrite the provisions in hopes of winning MacDonough’s blessing.
The limit on provider taxes would be particularly tough on states that accepted the Medicaid expansion in the ACA, which of course was the point.
Evidently, a majority in the Senate can overrule the parliamentarian if they want to. My guess is that Thune doesn’t want to because 1)weakening the filibuster is bad for reactionary interests in the long run, and 2)any excuse to limit the Medicaid cuts being demanded by most Republican members of Congress is worth taking politically:
Enrollment has roughly doubled in two decades in Medicaid and food stamps (formally, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP). The Affordable Care Act, signed in 2010 by President Barack Obama, subsidized households up to 400 percent of the poverty line, and pandemic-era subsidies, which expire this year, went higher.
Some corners of the Republican Party are expressing concern that the cuts could prompt a blue-collar backlash. Tony Fabrizio, a pollster for Mr. Trump, warned that voters have “no appetite” for cutting Medicaid.
Senator Josh Hawley, a Missouri Republican, called the proposed Medicaid cuts, which total about $800 billion, “morally wrong and politically suicide.” Senator Thom Tillis of North Carolina has warned that voters could punish Republicans.
Tillis — one of the two most vulnerable incumbents (and the most vulnerable if Maine Democrats infurinatingly continue to refuse to mount a serious challenge to Susan Collins) — will vote for anything Thune tells him to, so finding a reason to mitigate the Medicaid damage is worth taking.
The larger dilemma remains. On the one hand, the Medicaid cuts will still be very brutal and unpopular even with this mitigation. On the other hand, while Mitch McConnell is an amoral worm when he says most Republican voters losing potentially life-saving benefits will “get over it,” he has good reasons to make that bet.