Lawmakers will ask SD voters for permission to end Medicaid expansion if federal support declines
South Dakota voters will decide next year whether to continue requiring Medicaid expansion if federal support for the program declines.
The state House of Representatives voted 31-3 on Monday at the Capitol in Pierre to support a resolution that will send the question to voters. The Senate had already approved the measure, which does not require a signature from the governor.
The question will appear on the ballot in the November 2026 general election.
South Dakotans approve consideration of Medicaid expansion work requirements
Medicaid is government-funded health insurance for people with low incomes, and for adults and children with disabilities. In 2022, South Dakota voters expanded Medicaid eligibility to adults with incomes up to 138% of the poverty level, to capitalize on a 90% federal funding match included in the Obama-era Affordable Care Act. The expansion is part of the state constitution and can only be altered by voters.
The resolution approved Monday will ask voters to authorize the termination of Medicaid expansion if federal support falls below 90%. Speculation about a reduction in federal Medicaid expansion funding has been swirling as the Trump administration and a Republican-controlled Congress look for spending cuts.
Sen. Casey Crabtree, R-Madison, sponsored the resolution in the Senate. He said if the federal government reduces its support to 70%, the state would be responsible for an additional $72 million to sustain Medicaid expansion.
'South Dakotans at that point would have to consider whether they want cuts to other programs, including public safety, education and others,' Crabtree said.
Nearly 30,000 South Dakotans have enrolled in expanded Medicaid coverage so far. Sen. Liz Larson, D-Sioux Falls, unsuccessfully argued against the resolution. She said Medicaid expansion has saved lives in South Dakota.
'People shouldn't die because they can't afford to live,' Larson said.
Last fall, South Dakota voters authorized state officials to consider imposing work requirements on people covered by Medicaid expansion. The state has not yet applied for federal permission to impose those requirements.
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11 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Republican Matt Hall leads Michigan House in tumultuous period of divided government
When Michigan House GOP Leader Matt Hall took the stage in May 2024 at a campaign rally for President Donald Trump, Republicans in the state found themselves in the political wilderness, navigating a historic period of full Democratic control of state government for the first time in decades. As his voice blared through the crowd at a Saginaw County airport, Hall urged those gathered to not just send Trump back to the White House. "This election in November, we need to elect Republicans to the Michigan House, so we can take the House back and put a check and balance on Gov. Whitmer," he said, adding that Republican victories would help support Trump's policy agenda in Michigan. Less than a year later, Hall had ascended to House speaker with the support of Republicans who flipped enough blue seats red to deliver a GOP majority in the chamber, and, in his new post, he joined Gov. Gretchen Whitmer in the Oval Office to meet with Trump to advocate for Michigan's federal priorities. The two have claimed some wins, including a new fighter jet mission for Selfridge Air National Guard Base, a push by Trump to protect the Great Lakes from invasive Asian carp and a disaster declaration from the president to support ice storm recovery efforts in northern Michigan. But back in Lansing, Hall's tenure as speaker has coincided with a tumultuous new era of divided state government, with a GOP-controlled Michigan House and Democratic-controlled Michigan Senate. Gridlock has come to define Lansing, with a Legislature that hasn't sent many bipartisan policies Whitmer's way. The logjam has Hall pointing his finger at Democratic lawmakers who, in turn, have routinely blasted Hall as uncooperative. In his job as House speaker, Hall pulls strings or pushes buttons, depending on which side of the aisle someone sits. Since taking the speaker's gavel, Hall has helped broker major bipartisan compromises on Michigan's minimum wage and sick leave policies, held back bills that the Legislature before him approved but failed to forward to Whitmer for signature and has yet to emerge from state budget negotiations with a deal after blowing past the July 1 deadline for approving a plan. Hall, 42, of Richland Township outside Kalamazoo, has publicly embraced political partnerships with some Democrats, including Whitmer, whose willingness to collaborate with Trump has received Hall's praise. Whitmer, in turn, has commended Hall for putting forward a road funding plan after years of legislative inaction. But Hall has also angered Democrats who castigate his Trump-like penchant for lobbing insults across the aisle. "It's an unserious approach that's going to lead to dangerous consequences," said House Minority Leader Ranjeev Puri, D-Canton, in a May interview about Hall's leadership style. Hall, who doesn't typically shy away from the news media when his legislative priorities are the topic, declined to be interviewed for this profile. A spokesperson for Hall initially agreed to an in-person interview with the Detroit Free Press for this profile but the offer was later rescinded. Asked why he wouldn't go through with an interview, Hall told the Free Press during an April 2025 event that he disagreed with a fact-check the newspaper published in 2021 that found he made a misleading claim, as a state representative, about Michigan's voter rolls. Lansing insiders frequently describe Hall as a creature of politics. "This is what he lives and breathes," said former state Rep. Andrew Beeler, R-Port Huron, in a November 2024 interview after Republicans flipped the state House and the GOP caucus tapped Hall as the next House speaker. Beeler — who chaired the House Republicans' campaign committee during the last election cycle — described Hall then as the hardest working person in Lansing and said he received frequent late-night calls from the GOP leader to strategize. Democratic legislative leaders, however, have complained about Hall's communication with them, saying he had ignored their attempts to negotiate ahead of the July 1 budget deadline. Bipartisan discussions eventually took place as the clock ticked, but when it struck midnight, a deal was nowhere to be found and budget negotiations appear to have reached a standstill. Michigan's next fiscal year begins Oct. 1. During a news conference Aug. 6, Hall again blasted Senate Democrats and their spending plan, saying it doesn't reflect current fiscal realities. He said he does routinely talk to Senate Majority Leader Winnie Brinks, D-Grand Rapids, and outlined plans to produce a House budget soon but didn't specify a deadline. Brinks declined a request to comment on Hall for this profile but speaking generally about the legislative session in a May interview, she bemoaned the lack of bipartisan action in Lansing and cast blame on Hall. "So I would say it's easy to be the party of opposition if you have to be, but you know he's got a chamber, he's in the majority and he has an opportunity to actually be productive, so it's unfortunate that he's not taking us up on working together on anything," she said. Hall, on his end, has repeatedly during news conferences blamed Democrats for inaction and touted his ability to bring House lawmakers together across party lines to pass policies to fund police and roads. Still, bipartisan cooperation hasn't always appeared to be Hall's goal. In March, Hall made a last-minute addition to the House's daily agenda that put his Democratic predecessor on the hot seat. He put a bill up for vote, introduced by state Rep. Joe Tate, D-Detroit, who served as House speaker during the previous legislative session. Tate's bill proposed providing driver's licenses for immigrants in the United States illegally. Hall and every House Republican opposed the bill, yet Hall put it up for a vote anyway, likely knowing it would fail. If Hall's goal was to underscore Democratic divisions on immigration — a key issue in the 2024 election — he succeeded. Six Democrats broke from their party to join every Republican lawmaker to vote against the bill. Before the vote, Tate in a speech on the House floor, called Hall's move "nothing but a political ploy." Hall has continued to rile Democrats but his ability to unite Republicans has also faced a test. During a July 24 House session, Hall couldn't cobble together enough Republican members to advance legislation to restrict students' phone use at school and extend the timeline to prosecutors to pursue resentencing hearings to seek life sentences for convicted murderers who committed their crimes when they were 19 or 20 years old. Hall said Democrats reneged on commitments they made to support the bills. Among them was state Rep. Alabas Farhat, D-Dearborn, according to Hall who said the Democratic lawmaker promised to vote for the resentencing legislation. Farhat has denied that he made a deal to vote for the bill. During the House session, Hall ousted Farhat as the Minority Vice Chair on the powerful House Appropriations Committee and during a news conference immediately after the votes, Hall said that he needs a partner to achieve a bipartisan budget deal and said Farhat wasn't up to the job. Hall has rejected Puri's recommendation to reinstate Farhat as the Democratic appropriations chair, made in a letter that blasted the speaker's approach to budget negotiations. On Hall's side of the aisle, state Rep. Matt Maddock, R-Milford, who serves as majority vice chair on the House Appropriations Committee, has praised Hall's speakership. "I'm glad he is where he is, he's been nothing but impressive to me," he said during a July appearance on WKAR's "Off the Record." "He knows what he's doing, he's a fighter and I got his back." Hall makes his way to Lansing Hall grew up in Rochester Hills but he didn't stay in metro Detroit. He attended Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo, worked as former Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette's west Michigan liaison from 2011 to 2015 and received his law degree from WMU Cooley Law School in 2017. Hall fought some of his early political battles with members of his own party, according to Republicans who encountered him as an emerging political force. In 2016, when the Michigan GOP met to choose delegates for the Republican National Convention, it wasn't clear Trump would secure enough delegates to win on the first ballot, which could have seriously threatened his nomination, according to former Michigan GOP Executive Director Jeff Timmer. Trump had won most of the Michigan delegates but U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and then-Ohio Gov. John Kasich each won delegates, too, so their Michigan supporters had some level of bargaining power at the gathering. Former Michigan GOP Chair Saul Anuzis served as the lieutenant for Cruz's presidential campaign, Hall represented the Trump campaign and Timmer helmed the faction for Kasich, and they all cut deals with one another related to which delegates would serve on key committees at the convention, according to Timmer. Ultimately, Timmer said he and Hall sidelined Anuzis, reneging on the deals they made with him. Timmer, who has become a vocal critic of the Republican Party under Trump, said the episode left a lasting negative impression of Hall on him. Anuzis did not respond to a request for comment. In 2018, Hall launched his first bid for the state House with a campaign to take on GOP incumbent state Rep. David Maturen, R-Vicksburg, who represented the 63rd District at the time. On the day of the deadline for candidates to file to run, Maturen said Hall asked to meet him outside the Michigan House chamber, where Hall told the GOP lawmaker that he had launched a campaign to challenge him. The last-minute primary fight in 2018 wasn't pretty, according to Maturen, who said his opponent's campaign operatives portrayed him as evil. Maturen described himself as a moderate Republican running against a "Trumper" and said that he struggled to mitigate the president's influence in the race. "It was a national election based on him," Maturen said of Trump. He recounted questions on the campaign trail seeking his thoughts on the president to which Maturen said he responded by saying he sought a seat in the state House, not Congress. Maturen lost to Hall by 20 percentage points. Hall then won the general election. Republicans tap Hall to lead Hall honed his combative style in his first term when he led hearings as chair of the Joint Select Committee on the COVID-19 Pandemic, challenging Whitmer's handling of the public health crisis. In 2022, Whitmer won reelection and Democrats flipped control of both chambers of the Michigan Legislature, delivering a Democratic governing trifecta for the first time in 40 years. Hall worked tirelessly to seize opportunities to assert Republicans' power as the minority party. When Democrats temporarily lost their majority to a tied House after a pair of special elections in 2023, Hall insisted that the two parties come together to broker an agreement to share power, essentially asking Tate to relinquish some of his authority as House speaker. Tate didn't budge and Hall proceeded to put on stunning displays of GOP unity. For instance, Beeler — the former GOP state representative — said Hall encouraged every House Republican to stick together to vote against the budget Democrats crafted in 2024, despite funding included for GOP districts. "It was a master class in leadership," Beeler said in November. After Republicans selected Hall to serve as the next House speaker, he led every GOP lawmaker in the state House in a walkout of the 2024 lame duck session, the period of lawmaking after the election when defeated and outgoing Democratic lawmakers still held power. Hall helmed the GOP boycott with the stated goal of forcing a vote on legislation to stop pending changes to Michigan's minimum wage and paid sick leave laws, opposed by business groups. The move infuriated Democrats, who characterized the Republican protest led by Hall as a dereliction of duty by elected representatives. "Republicans aren't here. So how can we have a conversation if they're not here and decided to, you know, go make snow angels in front of the Capitol, I guess?" Tate told reporters in December 2024 on the day Republicans stormed off the House floor. The fallout from the last legislative session has continued to linger over the current one, with an ongoing lawsuit from the Michigan Senate against Hall for refusing to send bills passed in the previous legislative session to the governor's desk. When he took the gavel as House speaker at the start of 2025, Hall expressed hope that Michigan would not transform into a mirror image of politics at the national level. "You know, we've been able to keep all that Washington, D.C. stuff out of here," he said. Yet Hall quickly proceeded to use his speakership to bring Trump's policy fights to the Michigan House. Republicans have passed resolutions, which were nonbinding, supporting the president's efforts to eliminate the U.S. Department of Education, encourage county sheriffs and local law enforcement to cooperate with federal immigration enforcement and ban transgender girls from competing on girls' sports teams in Michigan. Hall has modeled his quest to slash state government spending after former Trump aide Elon Musk's cost-cutting "Department of Government Efficiency." Michigan's U.S. Senate race: Who's winning — and losing — the fundraising sweepstakes While Hall has reshaped policymaking in Lansing, he has also brought a cutting communication style to the Capitol. He has said one Democratic lawmaker — state Rep. Mai Xiong, of Warren — has a low IQ for calling out Hall for being away from Lansing when he was in Macomb County with Trump for his announcement of a new fighter jet mission at Selfridge Air National Guard Base. Xiong condemned Hall's comment as evidence that he seems more intent on bullying than working together to solve Michigan's challenges. Hall's regular and lengthy news conferences as House speaker, in which he blasts Democrats one minute and then outlines why they should support his policy demands in the next, have become a fixture in the Michigan Capitol. During them, he has advocated for new mandates for state employees to work in-person and a permanent cut to Michigan's income tax. He has also used the forum to take a victory lap, once displaying a photo of him and Whitmer at the Oval Office with Trump in April. In a July statement, Whitmer said she has been consistent in her willingness to work in a bipartisan manner to deliver results for Michigan. "That's no different this term. We have a productive relationship and I appreciate Speaker Hall's willingness to work together," she said. Michigan's economy: Gretchen Whitmer? Donald Trump? We all lose in semiconductor plant blame bingo. | Opinion John Sellek, chief strategist and CEO of Lansing-based public relations and affairs firm Harbor Strategic, said Hall has set the terms of debate in the Capitol and shown he won't shy away from sharing his conversations with other legislative leaders, publicly to praise or pressure them. Sellek and Hall both worked for Schuette when he was attorney general. Sellek tied Hall's approach back to his path to the state House. "He is not somebody who very carefully ran for school board and then ran for city council and then ran for House. He actually moved and challenged a sitting representative and beat him," Sellek said. "And he carries that same swagger and fearlessness into what he's doing now." Contact Clara Hendrickson: chendrickson@ or 313-296-5743. This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Republican Matt Hall's path to Michigan House Speaker
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21 minutes ago
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Sorry, Trump — Taylor Swift's Career Is Still Very Hot
This week, President Donald Trump once again decided to bring up Taylor Swift, still feeling slighted at her Democratic voting patterns. He made another post on Truth Social, celebrating Sydney Sweeney's controversial 'great jeans' ad for American Eagle as well as the revelation that she's a registered Republican. In praising Sweeney, he took random shots at Swift, saying that the 'woke singer' is 'NO LONGER HOT.' Unfortunately for Trump, his repeated claims that Swift has lost value or momentum due to his one-sided beef with her continues to be far from the truth. According to reps from Luminate, Swift is ranked the highest-streaming female artist in the U.S. so far this year (as of July 31). That's without releasing any new music in 2025 and based on total On-Demand Audio streams (5.3 billion total). She is still ranked third overall behind Morgan Wallen and Drake, who have released new projects and singles this year. More from Rolling Stone What's Going on With the Gerrymandering Chaos in Texas? 'Defending Paradise': Julia Louis-Dreyfus Takes on Big Oil in California How the Epstein Files Blew Up a Pro-Trump AI Bot Network on X The biggest Swift news this year was her regaining control of her master recordings, a multiyear battle that had her rerecording four of the six albums she released with Big Machine Records. According to Hits Daily Double, regaining those masters means that she will have a market share 'in the neighborhood of two percent.' That alone is worth billions. Trump's constant comments about his perception that Swift is somehow less successful only ramped up after she finished Eras Tour in December. With 149 shows under her belt, Swift's trek became the highest-grossing tour of all time and the first tour to ever rake in over a billion dollars in revenue. And upon releasing her 2024 album, The Tortured Poets Department, she broke her own record of having the most-streamed album in a single day, surpassing her 2022 LP, Midnights. Trump's only proof that she's less successful is that she's not actively working, but even when she's not doing anything (that we know of, at least), she's still one of the most commercially successful artists of all time. Best of Rolling Stone Sly and the Family Stone: 20 Essential Songs The 50 Greatest Eminem Songs All 274 of Taylor Swift's Songs, Ranked Solve the daily Crossword
New York Post
33 minutes ago
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Trump vows federal law to override state cash bill bans; Stefanik to author legislation
WASHINGTON — President Trump pledged Monday to push through federal legislation outlawing so-called 'no cash bail' policies in states and cities across the country — with upstate Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY) quickly telling The Post she will be writing the bill. 'Every place in the country where you have no cash bail is a disaster,' Trump said at a White House press conference where he announced that he was taking temporary control of DC's police department. 'That's what started the problem in New York, and they don't change it. They don't want to change it. That's what started in Chicago.' New York state in 2019 barred judges from requiring bail for most crimes, including burglary and simple assault, leading to many high-profile instances of offenders quickly finding new victims upon their release — prompting Albany to make some changes to expand judges' authority to hold suspects. 3 President Trump said Monday he will seek to legislative the end of local rules against cash bail. Yuri Gripas – Pool via CNP / MEGA 'I will be leading legislation to end [Gov.] Kathy Hochul and New York's failed bail reform once and for all to save New York and save America,' Stefanik told The Post soon after Trump spoke. 'The radical, dangerous and insane criminals and illegals-first policies must end now. We need law and order that puts America first.' 3 Rep. Elise Stefanik told The Post she will write the bill. CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images Trump floated potential additional measures against New York at his press conference, without going into details. 'Bad politicians started it, bad leadership started it, but that's one thing that's central, no cash bail,' Trump said. 'Somebody murders somebody and they're out on no cash bail before the day is out.' Trump vowed to force a bill through Congress, despite slim Republican majorities in the House and Senate, where 60 votes generally is needed to approve legislation. 'I'm going to have to get the Republicans to vote. Because the Democrats are weak on crime — totally weak on crime. They don't know why. They want it to stop because they get mugged too,' he said. 'We'll count on the Republicans in Congress and the Senate to vote. We have the majority, so we'll vote. We don't have a big majority but we've gotten everything, including the great big beautiful bill.' DC US Attorney Jeanine Pirro praised the concept, but added Monday that she wanted to heap pressure on the District's Council to change other laws, including the city's Youth Rehabilitation Act, which allows judges to set aside the sentences of offenders 24 and younger. 3 US Attorney Jeanine Pirro of DC slammed the DC Council and bans on cash bail. Ron Sachs – CNP / MEGA Pirro, whose office uniquely prosecutes both federal and local crime, noted that gunman Javarry Peaks, 19, was sentenced to probation last month by DC Superior Court Judge Rainey Branch — despite being filmed shooting a fellow bus passenger in the chest. 'I convict someone of shooting another person with an illegal gun on a public bus in the chest [with] intent to kill,' Pirro said. 'I convict him and you know what? The judge gives him probation, says you should go to college. We need to go after the DC Council and their absurd laws.'
