Rep. Mike Lawler on SALT increase: New Yorkers shouldn't be unfairly penalized with double taxation
Rep. Mike Lawler (R-N.Y.) joins 'Squawk Box' to discuss the passage of President Trump's broad tax and spending bill in the House, the increase in SALT deduction cap, future of Medicaid, and more.
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Politico
22 minutes ago
- Politico
Thune stares down ‘Medicaid moderates'
IN TODAY'S EDITION:— The Senate megabill talks to watch this week— Appropriations season ramps up— Chris Murphy launches PAC It's megabill crunch time in the Senate. Arm-twisting over what to change in the House-passed version of the 'big, beautiful' bill will largely play out behind closed doors the next few days. Strategy huddles include Senate Finance's meeting tonight and Wednesday's 'Big Six' confab between Senate Majority Leader John Thune, Speaker Mike Johnson, their tax committee chairs and lead administration officials, as we previewed last week. One of Thune's biggest challenges to passing the bill by July 4 will be winning over the 'Medicaid moderates' — an ideological cross-section of members who are aligned against the cuts passed by the House and have the numbers to force changes, our Jordain Carney reports this morning. Among them: Sens. Josh Hawley, Lisa Murkowski and Susan Collins. Thune can only lose three GOP senators to pass the megabill. Thune and Senate Finance Chair Mike Crapo, who is juggling Medicaid and tax conflicts in the bill, are talking to key members in anticipation of difficult negotiations. Crapo told Jordain he personally backs the House's Medicaid work requirements, which some GOP senators wary of benefit cuts say they could also support. But beyond that, they're steering clear of public commitments. One potentially major sticking point: The House-passed freeze on provider taxes, which most states use to help finance their share of Medicaid costs. Sen. Jim Justice, the former West Virginia governor, called it a 'real issue' and Hawley has also raised concerns. But other GOP senators, including Kevin Cramer, want to go even further in reducing, not just freezing, the provider tax. Republicans got a glimpse of the political minefield surrounding Medicaid while back home last week. Sen. Joni Ernst's 'we're all going to die' response to town hall pushback about the cuts — and her decision to double down on the comments — generated days of negative headlines and ad fodder for Democrats. Mehmet Oz, the head of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, told our Dasha Burns in the debut episode of her podcast 'The Conversation' that the Medicaid work requirements in the bill would 'future proof' the program. Then there are the deficit hawks. President Donald Trump over the weekend warned Sen. Rand Paul to get behind the megabill, with Paul vowing to vote against it over an included debt-limit hike. But it's not just Paul making noise. Sen. Ron Johnson is calling for a line-by-line budget review to find places to slash more spending, and Sens. Mike Lee and Rick Scott are also pushing for more cuts. Paul hinted at hard-liners' leverage Sunday on CBS' 'Face the Nation,' saying: 'I would be very surprised if the bill at least is not modified in a good direction.' GOOD MONDAY MORNING. Welcome back. Follow our live coverage at the Inside Congress blog at and email your Inside Congress scribes at lkashinsky@ mmccarthy@ and bleonard@ THE SKED The House is out. The Senate is in session and voting to end debate on Michael Duffey's nomination to be an undersecretary of Defense at 5:30 p.m. — Pennsylvania Sens. John Fetterman and David McCormick will have a live discussion, moderated by Fox News' Shannon Bream, at the Kennedy Institute in Boston at 9 a.m. — Senate Republican and Democratic leadership will hold separate private meetings shortly before evening votes. The rest of the week: The House will return on Tuesday. The Senate will continue working through Trump's nominees, including Allison Hooker to be an undersecretary of State. THE LEADERSHIP SUITE Thune's to-do list on Russia sanctions, crypto Internal pressure is growing on the Senate majority leader to take up Sen. Lindsey Graham's bipartisan Russia sanctions bill without waiting for the White House to weigh in. Graham, fresh off a Friday trip to Kyiv with Sen. Richard Blumenthal, told our Josh Berlinger and other reporters in Paris that he expects the bill will 'start moving' soon. He talked up a House discharge petition that could hit the floor this week and a plan that would put the bill on the Senate calendar for potential action 'hopefully the following week.' Graham and Blumenthal are pushing to bypass Senate Banking, which has jurisdiction over sanctions legislation, to speed up the process. Also on Thune's radar this week: GOP leaders need to finalize a deal on amendments for stablecoin legislation that's pending a floor vote. It may slip into next week. No longer on Thune's radar: Jared Isaacman's nomination to lead NASA, which Trump said over the weekend he was withdrawing. Contributions to prominent Democrats may have doomed him, per the New York Times. Schumer plots more megabill pushback Senate Democrats are preparing to challenge parts of the GOP megabill with the parliamentarian, Minority Leader Chuck Schumer wrote in a 'Dear Colleague' letter Sunday. He highlighted a specific House provision that critics say would weaken judges' power to enforce contempt orders. Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries spoke Sunday as the two step up coordination around the bill. Top House Democrats on three key committees are also briefing Senate colleagues on GOP fault lines. POLICY RUNDOWN APPROPRIATIONS ON THE AGENDA — Work on funding the government is ramping up this week with key committee votes and a round of pitches from Trump administration officials on the Hill. Here's what's coming: — House Appropriations will begin marking up the Military Construction and Veterans Affairs and Agriculture bills on Thursday. — Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick — the face of Trump's tariff agenda — will testify before Senate and House appropriations subcommittees on Wednesday and Thursday, respectively, on his agency's budget. — Education Secretary Linda McMahon will testify on Tuesday and will likely be pressed about the education programs the Trump administration plans to cut, including federal grants that support preschools and education services for homeless children. — Acting FAA Administrator Chris Rocheleau is set to testify Wednesday before a House Appropriations subcommittee and is poised to face questions about the nation's air traffic control system. — OMB Director Russ Vought will testify on Wednesday. Trump's budget chief has already faced backlash for the sweeping federal funding cuts. The Trump administration Friday sent the nitty-gritty details of his fiscal 2026 budget request to Congress, including a 22 percent cut in non-defense spending, our Jennifer Scholtes reports. ROBOTICS CAUCUS RELAUNCHES — A bipartisan group of House lawmakers is relaunching the Congressional Robotics Caucus. Reps. Jim McGovern, Haley Stevens, Bob Latta and Jay Obernolte will co-chair. Best of POLITICO Pro and E&E: CAMPAIGN STOP FIRST IN INSIDE CONGRESS: MURPHY'S NEW PAC — Sen. Chris Murphy is launching a PAC aimed at mobilizing voters against Trump and Republican lawmakers' agenda, our Holly Otterbein reports. The American Mobilization Project will start by doling out $400,000 to groups registering voters and opposing Medicaid cuts, and it plans to spend upwards of $2 million during the midterms. Murphy insists his PAC play isn't a sign of presidential ambitions. The Connecticut Democrat told Holly, 'I'm a believer that the only thing that is ultimately going to stop Trump's corruption and his destruction of democracy is mass mobilization.' MAXINE WATERS' CAMPAIGN FACES FINE — Rep. Maxine Waters' congressional campaign agreed to pay a $68,000 fine after a FEC investigation found it violated campaign finance laws, Dave Levinthal writes at OpenSecrets. Waters' 2020 campaign committee understated contributions and expenditures by hundreds of thousands of dollars, per the FEC's findings. THE BEST OF THE REST Aide to Rep. Nadler Is Handcuffed Amid Confrontation With Federal Agents, from Christopher Maag at The New York Times Republicans see Darin LaHood as 'best chance' for Senate flip in blue Illinois, from Rachel Schilke at the Washington Examiner CAPITOL HILL INFLUENCE BURR LOBBYING FOR TOBACCO COALITION — Former North Carolina Sen. Richard Burr has continued to add new lobbying clients since his cooling-off period to lobby the Hill ended at the beginning of the year, our POLITICO Influence reports. Among the newest clients for the former Senate HELP ranking member is the Coalition for Smarter Regulation of Nicotine. Though the group has a barebones online presence, lobbying disclosures show it is backed by tobacco giants Altria, Japan Tobacco International, Reynolds American and Reynolds parent company British American Tobacco. Burr and a pair of former staffers who have joined him at DLA Piper began lobbying last month on FDA regulation and enforcement policy on behalf of the coalition, according to a disclosure filing. Molly Fromm is now VP and general counsel at the Nickles Group. She previously was general counsel and parliamentarian for House Ways and Means Chair Jason Smith. Kim Trzeciak, who served as the FDA's deputy commissioner for policy, legislation and international affairs during the Biden administration, has joined Capitol Hill Consulting Group as a senior vice president. She previously worked on the Hill as a top aide on the House Energy and Commerce Health Subcommittee and for the late Rep. John Dingell, with stints at Glover Park Group (now FGS Global) and Mylan in between. Growth Energy has added Emma Keiser as director of government affairs. She was most recently a legislative assistant for Sen. Joni Ernst. JOB BOARD Sam Somogye is now press secretary for Sen. Katie Britt. He was most recently communications director for Rep. Diana Harshbarger and is a Ted Cruz campaign alum. Elisabeth Conklin is now legislative director for Rep. Tom Barrett. She previously was a senior professional staff member on the House Small Business Committee. HAPPY BIRTHDAY Rep. Delia Ramirez … former Rep. Mike Rogers … Mia Heck ... Mike Lynch … Jeanine Pirro … Crooked Media's Jon Favreau … Rich Ashooh … Ben Cassidy of the BLC Group … Vanessa Day … Zach Isakowitz of the Semiconductor Industry Association … Darby McQueen-Dever of Rep. Michael Cloud's office … Hannah Botelho of Kieloch Consulting … Edgar Barrios … Jane Meyer of Sen. Amy Klobuchar's office TRIVIA FRIDAY'S ANSWER: Don Lowe correctly answered that a proposed amendment becomes part of the Constitution as soon as it is ratified by 3/4 of the total states (38 for 50 states). TODAY'S QUESTION, from Mia: What percentage of the 119th Congress are four-year college graduates? The first person to correctly guess gets a mention in the next edition of Inside Congress. Send your answers to insidecongress@
Newsweek
22 minutes ago
- Newsweek
Donald Trump's Net Approval Positive on Only One Key Issue
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content. President Donald Trump's net approval rating is negative on a range of issues except immigration, a new poll shows. According to political analyst and statistician Nate Silver, writing in his Silver Bulletin Substack, Trump has a net negative approval rating on trade, the economy and inflation but a slightly positive rating on immigration. Why It Matters Taking the temperature of the nation, approval ratings are good measures of the public's response to Trump's policies and his actions as president. In the first few months of his second term, Trump's popularity has fluctuated, with some polls more favorable than others. Sustained backlash to his policies could persuade the president to change his approach. Trump, who made immigration a central part of his campaign, has vowed to crack down on border security, carry out mass deportations and end federal benefits for people residing in the country illegally. President Donald Trump speaking with reporters in the rain after arriving on Air Force One at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland on May 30. President Donald Trump speaking with reporters in the rain after arriving on Air Force One at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland on May 30. AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson What To Know Silver aggregated dozens of recent polls and found that Trump's approval rating on immigration was +2.5 percent. The president did not fare as well on other issues, with a -9.5 percent approval rating on trade, -11.3 percent on the economy and -17.5 percent on inflation. May polling conducted by Verasight U.S. for Strength in Numbers found similar results, with Americans disapproving of the president's handling of all the policy areas they were asked about except border security. That poll also found that 49 percent disapproved of his immigration policy, while 47 percent approved. Overall, Silver found that when analyzing the polls, Trump had a -5.4 net approval rating. An RMG Research/Napolitan News poll, conducted between May 14 and 21 among 3,000 registered voters, showed Trump's approval rating at 48 percent, with 50 percent disapproving. The poll had a margin of error of plus or minus 1.8 percentage points. Other polls have found a more positive response to the president. According to a recent Rasmussen survey, 53 percent of respondents said they approved of Trump, while 46 percent said they disapproved. What People Are Saying Scott Lucas, a professor in international politics at University College Dublin, previously cautioned against reading too much into any one poll, telling Newsweek: "Opinion polls have their own biases." President Donald Trump wrote on Truth Social on April 20: "We are, together, going to make America bigger, better, stronger, wealthier, healthier, and more religious, than it has ever been before!!!" What Happens Next The midterm elections, scheduled for November 2026, may offer a clearer indication of voters' attitudes toward the president's policies.
Politico
29 minutes ago
- Politico
The ‘Medicaid moderates' are the senators to watch on the megabill
The Senate's deficit hawks might be raising the loudest hue and cry over the GOP's 'big, beautiful bill.' But another group of Republicans is poised to have a bigger impact on the final legislative product. Call them the 'Medicaid moderates.' They're actually an ideologically diverse bunch — ranging from conservative Josh Hawley of Missouri to centrist Susan Collins of Maine. Yet they have found rare alignment over concerns about what the House-passed version of the GOP domestic-policy megabill does to the national safety-net health program, and they have the leverage to force significant changes in the Senate. 'I would hope that we would elect not to do anything that would endanger Medicaid benefits as a conference,' Hawley said in an interview. 'I've made that clear to my leadership. I think others share that perspective.' Besides Hawley and Collins, other GOP senators including Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Jerry Moran of Kansas and Jim Justice of West Virginia have also drawn public red lines over health care — and they have some rhetorical backing from President Donald Trump, who has urged congressional Republicans to spare the program as much as possible. Based on early estimates from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, 10.3 million people would lose coverage under Medicaid if the House-passed bill were to become law — many, if not most, in red states. That could spell trouble for Majority Leader John Thune's whip count: He can only lose three GOP senators on the expected party-line vote and still have Vice President JD Vance break a tie. Republicans already have one all-but-guaranteed opponent in Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky so long as they stick to their plan to raise the debt limit as part of the bill. They also view Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson as increasingly likely to oppose the package after spending weeks blasting the bill on fiscal grounds. Meeting either senator's demands could be enormously difficult given the tight fiscal parameters through which House leaders have to squeeze the bill to advance it in their own chamber. That in turn is empowering the senators elsewhere in the GOP conference to make changes — and the Medicaid group is emerging as the key bloc to watch because of its size and its overlapping, relatively workable demands. Heeding those asks won't be easy. Republicans are counting on savings from Medicaid changes to offset hundreds of billions of dollars in tax cuts, and rolling that back is likely to create political pain elsewhere for Thune & Co., who already want to cut more than the House to assuage a sizable group of spending hawks. At the same time, Speaker Mike Johnson is insisting the Senate make only minor changes to the bill so as to maintain the delicate balance in his own narrowly divided chamber. Thune and Finance Committee Chair Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) have already acknowledged that Medicaid, covering nearly 80 million low-income Americans, will be one of the biggest sticking points as they embark this month on a rewrite of the megabill. They are talking with key members in anticipation of difficult negotiations and being careful not to draw red lines publicly. 'We want to do things that are meaningful in terms of reforming programs, strengthening programs, without affecting beneficiaries,' Thune said, echoing language used by some of the concerned senators. Crapo voiced support in an interview for one pillar of the House bill — broad new work requirements for Medicaid beneficiaries — but rushed to add that he's 'still working with a 53-member caucus to get answers' to how the program can be overhauled: 'I can only speak for myself.' Complicating their task is the fact that some in the group — namely Collins and Murkowski — have a proven history of bucking their party even amid intense public pressure. The pair, in fact, helped tank the GOP's last party-line effort on health care, in 2017. Leaders view them as unlikely to be moved by the type of arm-twisting Republicans are planning to deploy to bring enough of the fiscal hawks on board. And then there's Hawley, who is playing up Trump's own warnings to congressional Republicans about keeping their hands off Medicaid. Hawley and Trump spoke shortly before the House passed its bill, with the senator recounting that the president said 'absolutely categorically, 'Do not touch Medicaid. No Medicaid benefit cuts, none.'' Hawley, like Crapo, has indicated he is comfortable with work requirements, but he is pushing for two major tweaks to the House language: undoing a freeze on provider taxes, which most states use to help finance their share of Medicaid costs, and new co-payment requirements for some beneficiaries that he has been calling a 'sick tax.' The provider tax changes would present an issue with multiple senators, who fear it would exacerbate the bill's impact on state budgets and slash funding that helps keep rural hospitals afloat. Justice, a former governor, called it a 'real issue.' 'They haven't done anything to really cut into the bone except that one thing,' Justice added. 'That's gonna put a big burden on the states.' Moran grabbed the attention of his colleagues when he warned in a pointed April floor speech that making changes to Medicaid would hurt rural hospitals. A 'significant portion' of his focus, he said, 'is to make sure the hospitals have the capability and the revenues necessary to provide the services the community needs — Medicaid is a component of that.' Collins, who is up for reelection in 2026, has also left the door open to supporting work requirements, depending on how they are crafted. She has also raised concerns about the provider tax provision, noting that 'rural hospitals in my state and across the country are really teetering.' Murkowski, meanwhile, isn't as concerned about the provider tax, because Alaska is the only state that doesn't use it to help cover its share of Medicaid spending. But she has expressed alarm over the House's approach to work requirements, including a decision to speed up the implementation deadline to appease House hard-liners. She said it would be 'very challenging if not impossible' for her state to implement. As it is, any effort to water down the House's Medicaid language will face steep resistance in other corners of the GOP-controlled Senate, where lawmakers are pushing to amp up spending cuts, not scale them back. Some senators, in fact, want to further tighten the House's work requirements or reduce, not just freeze, the provider tax. 'I'd be damned disappointed if a Republican majority with a Republican president didn't make some reforms,' said Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.). 'The provider tax is a money laundering machine. … If we don't go after that, we're not doing our jobs.' Ron Johnson and a few others are continuing to push to change the cost split for those Medicaid beneficiaries made eligible under the Affordable Care Act. The federal government now picks up 90 percent of the cost, and House centrists nixed an effort by conservatives to reduce it. One idea under discussion by conservatives is to phase in the change to appease skittish colleagues and state governments, but that is still likely to be a nonstarter for 50 GOP senators. Hawley warned that 'there will be no Senate bill if that is on the table.' Adam Cancryn contributed to this report.
