The Senate is set for "one big, beautiful" rewrite of the reconciliation budget bill passed by the House on Thursday, with Republicans focusing on deeper spending cuts, as well as softening Medicaid reforms, lowering the cap on state and local tax deductions, and halting any increase in the federal debt ceiling.
Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., can afford to lose only three votes, provided all Democrats are opposed, to get any measure passed by the July 4 deadline.
Spending Cuts
Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., is among those adamantly opposed to the House bill because it doesn't go far enough in spending cuts.
"The goal of the House effort has been to pass one big, beautiful bill," Johnson reportedly said Thursday. "It's rhetoric. It's false advertising. The goal should have been to reduce average annual deficits, so we have to focus on spending."
Johnson said that House Republicans "set the bar way too low" in aiming for $1.5 trillion in spending cuts.
Medicaid
Several Republicans, including Sens. Josh Hawley of Missouri, Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, and Jerry Moran of Kansas, are concerned that reductions in federal Medicaid funding to states will put pressure on rural hospitals and could force some to close, The Hill reported Friday.
They oppose Medicaid reforms that would cut benefits, and they will be taking a closer look at limits in the bill on states' ability to use healthcare provider taxes to collect more federal Medicaid funding.
"We're still trying to figure out what the provider tax reforms are, but I'm very worried about our rural hospitals in Maine," Collins told The Hill.
Hawley, who talked with Trump earlier this week, said he is concerned about language in the House bill requiring people earning between 100% and 138% of the federal poverty level to pay up to $35 per medical service.
"These are working people in particular who are going to have to pay more," he said, according to The Hill.
Other Republicans want to expand the Medicaid reforms to reduce the program's costs over the next decade, with some seeking to restrict able-bodied adults from obtaining Medicaid.
"Medicaid ought to go back and do what it was set up to do," said Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., a Trump ally, according to The Hill. "It was set up to take care of poor children and the chronically ill, and that's what the focus should be."
Scott added that Florida didn't expand Medicaid coverage under the Affordable Care Act passed during the Obama administration.
SALT Deduction Cap
House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., worked a compromise with House Republicans from high-tax blue states regarding the state and local tax deduction cap, which the House bill set at $40,000 for those making below $500,000, up from the $10,000 cap set by the 2017 tax overhaul in Trump's first term. But because there are no Senate Republicans from high-tax blue states, many members want to reduce what they view as a generous $40,000 figure to something more manageable, The Hill reported.
"It's not a Senate issue," Thune told The Hill. "I know the House had to make a deal, but our members want to be heard on it, and I assume we'll have something to say."
Debt Ceiling
Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., reportedly said Thursday that he cannot support the House bill because it raises the federal debt limit by $4 trillion over the next two years. He said he supports other aspects of the bill, such as cutting taxes and spending. Paul said Republicans will have to take responsibility for the deficit if they add $4 trillion to the national debt.
But Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, said if the Senate deals with the debt ceiling outside of this bill, then they would have to "pay a king's ransom" to Democrats to get enough votes, ABC News reported Friday.
Michael Katz ✉
Michael Katz is a Newsmax reporter with more than 30 years of experience reporting and editing on news, culture, and politics.