'It just baffles me': Senate Republicans sound alarm over Medicaid changes, spending in Trump megabill

Senate Republicans are steadily moving along in their quest to advance President Donald Trump s big beautiful bill but particular remain dissatisfied with one of the majority crucial portions of the package The Senate Finance Committee unveiled its portion of the budget reconciliation package Monday night that deals directly with making the president s first-term tax cuts permanent and the more controversial proposed changes to Medicaid niche tax issues and Biden-era green vitality subsidies Senate Republicans met behind closed doors to get a crash syllabus on the bill and several left distraught over provisions they hoped they would see on the cutting room floor Senate Majority Leader John Thune R-S D can only afford to lose three votes in the upper chamber SENATE PANEL NAVIGATES DELICATE COMPROMISES ON MEDICAID TAXES IN LATEST CHUNK OF TRUMP'S MEGABILLAnd due to the nature of budget reconciliation which allows lawmakers to skirt the filibuster he can t count on Democrats who would demand serious changes to the broader decree to help get the package across the line The changes to the Medicaid provider tax rate which were a stark departure from the House GOP s version of the bill particularly ruffled feathers among Republicans who have warned not to make revisions to the healthcare venture that could shut down rural hospitals and boot working Americans from their benefits I want changes Sen Lisa Murkowski R-Alaska declared I'm still not satisfied with where we are on Medicaid 'IT'S WRONG' HAWLEY WARNS SENATE GOP NOT TO BOOT AMERICANS FROM MEDICAID IN TRUMP MEGABILLThe Senate Finance Committee went further than the House s freeze of the provider tax rate or the amount that state Medicaid programs pay to healthcare providers on behalf of Medicaid beneficiaries for non-Affordable Care Act expansion states and included a provision that lowers the rate in expansion states annually until it hits percent To date states and Washington D C have opted into the Medicaid expansion plan The idea behind the changes to the provider rate taxes was to help pay for Trump s mammoth bill in part and discourage the remaining states from opting into Medicaid expansion Sen Josh Hawley R-Mo argued for a state like his dotted with rural hospitals that the bill is not a good advancement for their survival BLUE STATE REPUBLICANS THREATEN REVOLT AGAINST TRUMP'S 'BIG BEAUTIFUL BILL' IF SENATE CHANGES KEY TAX RULE I mean it's really not he stated And in order to pay for increased subsidies for the Green New Deal I mean it just baffles me The Senate s version of the tax package does add more flexibility to green potential tax credits than the House s an issue pushed for by a handful of Senate Republicans who requested to see the truncated phase-out of the credits in the House bill slowed down Senate Republicans met with Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Dr Mehmet Oz Tuesday afternoon to discuss the Medicaid tweaks in the bill Oz mentioned the White House did not believe changing the provider tax would influence the ability of hospitals to stay viable In fact the provider tax and the state-directed payments are often used to pay institutions that have the best connections to the administration of the state not necessarily the hospitals that need the help the largest part he reported It is vital that we clean up this system Sen John Hoeven R-N D sought to extinguish anger among his colleagues noting that Senate Finance Committee Chair Mike Crapo R-Idaho and Senate leaders were still working on what the final product would look like Everybody's got an opinion and I think it's gonna be that way right up until we vote he mentioned Fiscal hawks were not pleased with the bill either Sen Ron Johnson R-Wis has stumped for a return to pre-COVID- pandemic era spending a gouge to federal spending that would be trillions of dollars more than the rough goal of trillion in spending cuts that specific Senate Republicans are eying He concluded there was no way that the current parts of the broader reconciliation package could be fixed and stitched together by the Senate GOP s self-imposed July deadline The challenge is it just merely doesn t meet the moment he explained CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APPBut Crapo cautioned he and lawmakers were still working out the kinks and that a resolution to his colleagues issues could still be discovered All I can say is that we will work it out Crapo noted We have to work that out not only among our colleagues in the Senate but with the House and with the White House