The Senate has set an ambitious schedule for the adoption of President Donald Trump Invention of legislation To reduce taxes and expenses. But to get it on the republican president’s desk Until July 4th Will require some major decisions and soon.
Republican senators have concerns about various parts of legislation, including cuts against medicaid, changes to food aid and the effects on the deficit. Bring the invoice to the passage,Majority leader of the Senate John ThuneSouth Dakota and other negotiators have to find a compromise that fulfills both goals of their conference – and that can fulfill the house, which has passed the bill last month.
A look at some of the groups and senators who have to convince leaders when they work to stir up Trumps“Big, Beautiful” BillOn the way to a coordination of the Senate:
Legislators of the rural state
Every Republican senator represents a state with a rural constituency – and some of its states are among the most rural in the country. Many in less populated areas rely on Medicaid for health care and lead to some of the fact that the changes to the program in the legislative template for municipalities that already have to struggle could be devastating.
Particularly worrying is to freeze a so-called provider tax, which use some states to pay large parts of their Medicaid programs. The additional tax often leads to higher payments by the federal government, which critics say that it is a gap that enables states to increase their budgets. Senator Josh Hawley from Missouri and several others have argued that freezing these tax revenue would damage rural hospitals in particular.
“Hospitals will close,” said Hawley last month. “It’s so easy. And this pattern replicates in states across the country.”
Alabama’s senator, Tommy Tuberville, said on Thursday that provider taxes in his state “are the money we use for Medicaid”.
“They start to cut it out, we have big problems,” said Tuberville. The removal of these taxes could “lose some people”.
At the same time, the Republican senators have little interest in a house -driven destination that spends more money by increasing an upper limit for state and local tax deductions known as salt. The higher upper limit traditionally benefits more urban areas in states with high taxes such as New York and California.
The house included the new upper limit after the Republicans threatened to oppose the bill, but the Republicans of the Senate do not like them uniformly. “I think there have to be some adjustments to the salt supply, said Thune on Wednesday and found that” senators are only in a completely different place “than the house.
Former (and maybe future) governors
The legislative template adopted in the house would also shift some medicaid and food stamp costs in states, a change in which the former governors in the Senate are particularly worried.
Jim Justice, Senator of West Virginia, who was a governor of his state for eight years, said last year that he favored many aspects of the law. He supports the new work requirements for Medicaid and Food Stamp recipients, the restrictions on benefits for immigrants who are illegal in the country and the efforts to reduce fraud. “There are real savings there,” said Justice. “But then we should stop.”
“We are on the way to cannibalization ourselves,” said Justice. “We don’t want to hurt children and hurt our families.”
The determination, which stirs most of the uncomfortable stirring, would shift 5% of the administrative costs to the state for the administration of food brands – which referred to as a supplementary nutritional program or SNAP. States with high error rates in the program would have to cover an even higher percentage of federal costs.
The Senator of North Dakota, John Hoeven, also a former governor, said that senators are working on receiving feedback from the current governors, and may suggest some “incentive-oriented ideas” instead of a punishment for the high error quotas.
“We do not know whether the states have really examined the effects of some of them,” said Hoeven.
Tuberville, who runs for Alabama’s governor next year, said the program should be reformed instead of relocating the costs.
“I know what our budget is and what we can afford, and we cannot start a federal program and then say:” Oh, let’s let us send it back to the states and take them a big difference, “said Tuberville.” I do not do it that way. “
The moderate
Thune has to bring republican moderate with the bill, including Maine Sen. Susan Collins and Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski. Among other things, both have reservations with the Medicaid cuts.
Collins said she wanted to check how the SNAP changes will affect your condition. Murkowski has questioned expiring subsidies for the Affordable Care Act and whether they may be needed if the people of Medicaid are started.
Last month, Murkowski said she wanted to make sure that people are not negatively influenced by the invoice.
Murkowski and Sens. Thom Tillis by North Carolina, John Curtis from Utah and Jerry Moran from Kansas also supportedEnergy tax non -fontsThat would expire quickly under the house bill. The four senators argued that the quick cancellation creates uncertainty for companies and that prices for consumers could increase.
The right flank
Sens. Rand Paul from Kentucky, Ron Johnson from Wisconsin, Mike Lee from Utah and Rick Scott from Florida have argued the legislationDon’t save enough moneyand threatened against it.
Paul is likely to be considered the measure. He says he will not vote if the debt limit increases – an important priority for GOP leaders both in the house and in the Senate. The package would increaseThe debt limit of the nationBy 4 trillion US dollars to enable more borrowingmust be raisedMid -July.
Johnson has admitted against legislation since her unveiling in the house and argues that it is not very concerned with reducing government expenditure over time. He brought these arguments to Trump last week at a meeting between the President and the members of the Senate Finance Committee.
After the meeting, Johnson said that he would continue to argue that the bill had to do more to reduce the costs. But he said he had recognized that he had to be “more positive” because Trump puts the republican pressure on political pressure to exist.
“We are far from bending the deficit curve, but I realize that the time will take time,” said Johnson. “The truth is, there are many good things in this bill that I absolutely support. I want it to be successful.”
This story was originally on Fortune.com
