Senior House Republican eviscerates Dems for 'fear campaign' against Trump's 'big, beautiful bill'
Chairman Brett Guthrie, R-Ky., told Fox News Digital on Monday he believed Democrats had been waging a "fear campaign to scare Americans" ever since Republicans began discussions about the budget reconciliation process.
"Now, Democrats are pedaling incorrect reports that include policies that aren't even in the bill," Guthrie said.
"This bill refocuses Medicaid on mothers, children, people with disabilities, and the elderly – not illegal immigrants and capable adults who choose not to work."
The Kentucky Republican was specifically referring to his panel's portion of Trump's bill, the text of which was released late on Sunday night.
The Energy and Commerce Committee, which has broad jurisdiction, including over federal health programs, telecommunications and energy, was tasked with finding at least $880 billion in spending cuts to pay for other priorities in the bill.
It's the largest share of any of the 11 committees involved in the reconciliation process – some of which have been given additional funding to enact Trump's priorities on tax cuts, defense, immigration and the border.
The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO), however, said on Monday the legislation would likely achieve even more savings than its $880 billion benchmark.
Guthrie himself told Republicans on a lawmaker-only call on Sunday night that the committee found "north of $900 billion" in savings, a source told Fox News Digital.
Democrats immediately seized on the legislation as what they saw as a smoking gun of Republican plans to cut Medicaid.
But the details released on Sunday night appear to show House GOP leaders veered away from the much more severe cuts to the low-income healthcare program that some conservative lawmakers were pushing.
The legislation would put a new 80-hour-per-month work requirement on certain able-bodied adults receiving Medicaid, aged 19 through 64.
It would also put guardrails on states spending funds on their expanded Medicaid populations. The Affordable Care Act (ACA) allowed states to expand Medicaid coverage to adults who make up to 138% of the poverty level.
More specifically, states that provide Medicaid coverage to illegal immigrants could see their federal Medicaid reimbursement dollars diminished, putting more of that cost on the state itself.
The bill would also require states with expanded Medicaid populations to perform eligibility checks every six months to ensure the system is not being abused.
State Medicaid plans would be affected by a moratorium on any new state provider taxes, while freezing current rates where they are. State provider taxes are state-imposed fees on healthcare providers that help those states get more federal funding for Medicaid.
New Jersey Rep. Frank Pallone, the top Democrat on the committee, released a CBO projection requested by his own party that said at least 13.7 million people would lose health insurance based on a draft of Republicans' Medicaid proposals.
"Let's be clear, Republican leadership released this bill under cover of night because they don't want people to know their true intentions," Pallone said.
"This is not trimming fat from around the edges, it's cutting to the bone. The overwhelming majority of the savings in this bill will come from taking healthcare away from millions of Americans. Nowhere in the bill are they cutting 'waste, fraud, and abuse' – they're cutting people's healthcare and using that money to give tax breaks to billionaires."
Guthrie dismissed the calculations in the Democrats' press release.
"It is reckless that my colleagues on the other side of the aisle claimed an artificially high number in alleged coverage loss just so they can fearmonger and score political points," he told Fox News Digital.
"This reconciliation is a win for Americans in every part of the country, and it's a shame Democrats are intentionally reflexively opposing commonsense policies to strengthen the program."
Republicans are expected to advance the Energy and Commerce portion of the bill on Tuesday afternoon. If it passes through committee, it will be added to the final bill, which Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., hopes to pass the House by Memorial Day.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
23 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Trump eyes US government stakes in other chip makers that received CHIPS Act funds, sources say
By Nandita Bose and Max A. Cherney WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick is looking into the federal government taking equity stakes in computer chip manufacturers that receive CHIPS Act funding to build factories in the country, two sources said. Expanding on a plan to receive an equity stake in Intel in exchange for cash grants, a White House official and a person familiar with the situation said Lutnick is exploring how the U.S. can receive equity stakes in exchange for CHIPS Act funding for companies such as Micron, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co and Samsung. Much of the funding has not yet been dispersed. Aside from Intel, memory chipmaker Micron is the biggest U.S. recipient of CHIPS Act cash. TSMC declined comment. Micron, Samsung and the White House did not respond to requests for comment. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed on Tuesday that Lutnick was working on a deal with Intel to take a 10% government stake. "The president wants to put America's needs first, both from a national security and economic perspective, and it's a creative idea that has never been done before," she told reporters. While Lutnick said earlier on CNBC that the U.S. does not want to tell Intel how to run its operations, any investment would be unprecedented and ramps up a new era of U.S. influence on the big companies. In the past, the U.S. has taken stakes in companies to provide cash and build confidence in times of economic upheaval and uncertainty. In a similar move earlier this year, Trump approved Nippon Steel's purchase of U.S. Steel after being promised a "golden share" that would prevent the companies from reducing or delaying promised investments, transferring production or jobs outside the U.S., or closing or idling plants before certain time frames, without the president's consent. The two sources said Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is also involved in the CHIPS Act discussions, but that Lutnick is driving the process. The Commerce Department oversees the $52.7 billion CHIPS Act, formally known as the CHIPS and Science Act. The act provides funding for research and grants for building chip plants in the U.S. Lutnick has been pushing the equity idea, the sources said, adding that Trump likes the idea. The U.S. Commerce Department late last year finalized subsidies of $4.75 billion for Samsung, $6.2 billion for Micron and $6.6 billion for TSMC to produce semiconductors in the U.S. In June, Lutnick said the department was re-negotiating some of former President Joe Biden's grants to semiconductor firms, calling them "overly generous". He noted at the time that Micron offered to increase its spending on chip plants in the U.S.
Yahoo
23 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Vantage Data Centers plans $25 billion AI campus in Texas
(Reuters) -Vantage Data Centers said on Tuesday it would spend more than $25 billion to build a 1,200-acre data center campus in Shackelford County, Texas, as surging demand for artificial intelligence infrastructure fuels mega-scale developments. Backed by private equity firm Silver Lake and asset manager DigitalBridge, Vantage said the 1.4-gigawatt campus, dubbed "Frontier", is the largest in its global portfolio. Chatbots such as OpenAI's ChatGPT and Google's Gemini need massive compute, prompting demand for purpose-built data centers. These facilities are costly as they require cutting-edge chips, servers, adequate power and cooling solutions. Companies including Alphabet, Microsoft and Meta Platforms are committing billions of dollars to expand and create their data center facilities. Vantage says the construction of the campus has begun, which will be home to 10 data centers and support ultra-high-density racks exceeding 250 kilowatts each. The first building is due in the second half of next year. Silver Lake was a founding investor in Vantage in 2010. Vantage CEO Sureel Choksi joined the company from Silver Lake in 2013. After exiting Vantage in 2017, Silver Lake said it was invited back on a proprietary basis in 2023 to support capital raising and co-lead a $9.2 billion equity financing with DigitalBridge in 2024.
Yahoo
23 minutes ago
- Yahoo
It's Been The 'Summer of Stablecoins,' Goldman Says. Will Traditional Finance Be Upended?
Key Takeaways The roughly $270 billion global stablecoins market stands to disrupt the traditional financial services industry, but to what degree remains an "open question," according to a recent Goldman Sachs report. Goldman analysts say that concerns about the potential disintermediation of companies that provide payment and remittance services are overdone. The firm sees Circle's USDC taking greater share of the stablecoin market at the expense of Tether's offshore USDT. The first federal regulatory system signed into law brought about something of a summer awakening for stablecoins. Whether the roughly $270 billion global market in tokens pegged to real-world currencies will grow to trillions, and eat into traditional financial services industries, remains to be seen. Stablecoins, now predominantly used for crypto trading and for dollar access outside of the U.S., have been prophesied to replace and modernize legacy systems with blockchain efficiency. However, total disruption is unlikely, Goldman Sachs Research said in a report published Tuesday. Analysts including Will Nance and James Yaro wrote that stablecoin benefits will accrue to the infrastructure layer of the financial sector, particularly in interbank payments, as well as settlements in capital markets, complex, and cross-border transactions. However, they see "limited threats" to payments services, including the consumer card ecosystem, and that their collective underperformance presents an opportunity to buy. Visa (V) and Mastercard (MA) are less rivals and more"likely to play a large role in facilitating stablecoin payments at scale in a consumer context," the report said. Also, risk to remittance players, including Remitly (RELY) and Western Union (WU), are exaggerated, according to the report. Goldman thinks GENIUS Act-compliant stablecoins such as Circle's (CRCL) USDC will take greater share at the expense of USDT, Tether's offshore stablecoin. The firm sees $77 billion of growth in USDC, or an estimated compound annual growth rate of 40% from 2024 to 2027. Tether's USDT is the world's largest stablecoin, with a $165 billion market cap, compared to Circle USDC's $66 billion, according to research platform However, with Circle's elevated valuation after its blockbuster IPO earlier this year, Goldman favors Robinhood (HOOD) for its continued innovation in crypto. Read the original article on Investopedia Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
