Republicans Dodge Even Basic Questions On Medicaid Cut Plans: ‘Decisions Haven't Been Made'
House Republicans' work of making sweeping cuts to Medicaid — the social safety net program that provides health care coverage for 72 million low-income and disabled Americans — while publicly pretending they are not doing so continues this week.
House Energy and Commerce Committee Republicans met on Tuesday morning to try and work through their internal fight over how exactly they want to enact cuts to Medicaid. They also held firm in their commitment to publicly obscure how bad slashing the program will be for those who rely on it for health insurance. As we've reported, the committee is tasked with finding $880 billion in cuts to programs in their jurisdiction — a huge chunk of which is not just expected but almost certainly will have to come from Medicaid.
Several options on how to get to Republicans' self-imposed targeted reductions in federal spending are being discussed during these meetings, but the GOP conference is seemingly at an impasse as many vulnerable Republicans oppose deep cuts to Medicaid.
Most of the committee members walked out of Tuesday's closed-door meeting without saying a word. The Energy and Commerce Committee's chair, Rep. Brett Guthrie (R-KY), was never even seen exiting the meeting, at least not through the main door, where reporters were waiting.
Rep. Gus Bilirakis (R-FL), a member of the committee, described the nearly two-hours long meeting as 'productive.' 'No sticking point,' he told the reporters staked out outside the room. 'Decisions haven't been made.'
Energy & Commerce Republicans are expected to meet again tomorrow morning to continue discussions.
Meanwhile, Democrats on the committee and staffers say they're skeptical Republicans will be able to meet their self-imposed deadline as they internally battle over the cuts to the popular program.
'I have not seen a single word of legislation,' Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) told TPM as she walked out of a floor vote on Tuesday.
'From the beginning, Republicans have tried to have their cake and eat it too, which is: pass a reconciliation bill that gives massive tax breaks to the richest people in this country, not blow up the deficit, and a segment of them not wanting to cut Medicaid. And that's just math. You cannot accomplish all three of those things in one bill,' Ocasio-Cortez told TPM.
'There's no way they're going to be able to do the things they want to do without cutting Medicaid. Just point, blank, period,' she added. 'And so it does put them in a bind. I think that's why we've seen the markups on Medicaid … get bumped this week because I think they're realizing that all these promises that they've made to different parts of their caucus are not reconcilable. They're just not and they're going to have to make some hard decisions that they've been avoiding this entire time.'
When asked about the timeline, the New York Democrat said that even if the Republicans were able to provide the text of the legislation on time, 'I don't know how they're going to scrape together the votes, to be honest.'
Thune Acknowledges Ed Martin May Be Toast
Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) acknowledged what journalists have been speculating for a few weeks: that Ed Martin, Trump's nominee to serve as the head of the D.C. U.S. Attorney's office, 'probably' doesn't have the votes to get his nomination moved out of the Senate Judiciary Committee. That comes after Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) told reporters this week that he had communicated to the White House that he was a 'no' on Martin. Tillis has been saying as much for months, primarily due to Martin's beliefs about the Jan. 6 insurrection at the Capitol.
'I think that would suggest that he's probably not going to get out of committee,' Thune said today, referencing Tillis' 'no.' Senate Republicans hold a 12-10 majority on the panel, so Tillis voting against the nominee would leave it deadlocked 11-11 in the committee.
Tillis met with Martin earlier this week to try to work out their differences — as the clock on Martin's ability to serve in an interim capacity runs out and as Democrats on the panel indicate their interest in attempting to push for a public confirmation hearing for Martin. Since taking office in an acting capacity, Martin has used his post to threaten investigations into Trump's perceived political enemies, including Democratic members of Congress.
Tillis' remarks to CNN after his meeting with Martin on Monday night:
Who Among Us
Today on the Trump Administration Officials Are Bad At Technology beat, from Wired:
Tulsi Gabbard, the director of national intelligence, used the same easily cracked password for different online accounts over a period of years, according to leaked records reviewed by WIRED.
LMAO
Politico: Trump picks Rudy Giuliani's son for key World Cup post
Andrew Giuliani, who used to assist Trump with golf, had served as a special assistant to the President and associate director of the Office of Public Liaison during Trump's first term. Perhaps this seeming demotion had something to do with his laughably unsuccessful bid for New York governor in 2021 — during which he campaigned as an outsider, citing his father's law license suspension in the state. The suspension, of course, was due to his role in trying to steal the 2020 election for Trump.
Or maybe the demotion was due to how dumb this campaign video looked. He seemingly recorded in a parking lot, with the camera propped up on the back of a car.
In Case You Missed It
Another Judge Finds Trump Did Not Validly Invoke Alien Enemies Act Against Alleged Gang
While His Admin Delights In The Culture Wars, Trump Tiptoes Around Abortion. At Least For Now.
NEW this morning, from Hunter Walker: President Trump's Media Company Is Offering Movies About 'Lizard People' And Other Wild Conspiracy Theories
No One Is On The Same Page On Medicaid Cuts—Including Guy Running Medicaid Agency
Yesterday's Most Read Story
Trump Allies Sue John Roberts To Give White House Control Of Court System
What We Are Reading
ICE Agents Are Targeting DC Restaurants
The Company Behind the Signal Clone Mike Waltz Used Has Direct Access to User Chats
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Trump Is Using the National Guard as Bait
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The president and the men and women around him are acting with great ambition in this moment, and they are likely hoping to achieve three goals in one dramatic action. First, they will turn America's attention away from Trump's many failures and inane feuds, and reestablish his campaign persona as a strongman who will brush aside the law if that's what it takes to keep order in the streets. Perhaps nothing would please Trump more than to replace weird stories about Elon Musk with video of masked protesters burning cars as lines of helmeted police and soldiers march over them and impose draconian silence in one of the nation's largest and most diverse cities. Second, as my colleague David Frum warned this morning, Trump is establishing that he is willing to use the military any way he pleases, perhaps as a proof of concept for suppressing free elections in 2026 or 2028. Trump sees the U.S. military as his personal honor guard and his private muscle. Those are his toy soldiers, and he's going to get a show from his honor guard in a birthday parade next weekend. In the meantime, he's going to flex that muscle, and prove that the officers and service members who will do whatever he orders are the real military. The rest are suckers and losers. During the George Floyd protests in 2020, Trump was furious at what he saw as the fecklessness of military leaders determined to thwart his attempts to use deadly force against protesters. He's learned his lesson: This time, he has installed a hapless sycophant at the Pentagon who is itching to execute the boss's orders. Third, Trump may be hoping to radicalize the citizen-soldiers drawn from the community who serve in the National Guard. (Seizing the California Guard is also a convenient way to humiliate California Governor Gavin Newsom and L.A. Mayor Karen Bass, with the president's often-used narrative that liberals can't control their own cities.) 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Thwarting his authoritarianism will require restraint on the part of the public, some steely nerves on the part of state and local authorities, and vigilant action from national elected representatives, who should be stepping in to raise the alarm and to demand explanations about the president's misuse of the military. As unsatisfying as it may be for some citizens to hear, the last thing anyone should do is take to the streets of Los Angeles and try to confront the military or any of California's law-enforcement authorities. ICE is on a rampage, but physically assaulting or obstructing its agents—and thus causing a confrontation with the cops who have to protect them, whether those police officers like it or not—will provide precisely the pretext that some of the people in Trump's White House are trying to create. The president and his coterie want people walking around taking selfies in gas clouds, waving Mexican flags, holding up traffic, and burning cars. 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Effort to rename Navy ships honoring minority, gay leaders is wrong
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