Populist Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) said he favors work requirements within certain parameters for Medicaid to help fund a massive fiscal overhaul that includes tax cuts.
Hawley’s support for work requirements clarifies his earlier statement that he would oppose cuts to Medicaid, the joint federal-state program that provides health insurance to low-income and disabled people.
Republicans are eyeing changes to the program to help pay for tax cuts and other spending as part of a major fiscal overhaul.
“Benefit cuts is where a red line would be for me,” Hawley told the Washington Examiner. “I mean a work requirement, that’s something that probably unites Republicans.”
Hawley has also noted that President Donald Trump has said no to Medicaid cuts.
“The president’s got it right on this,” the senator said. “We should not be enacting huge cuts to Medicaid and cutting off people who are working but who need the support and who rely on it for their families.”
Republicans in the House and Senate have passed separate budget resolutions out of their respective committees. The House resolution is much larger and includes spending cuts, funding for the border, and extending the expiring Trump tax cuts, while the Senate version leaves out the tax portion.
Republicans have been trying to thread a needle with the budget resolution process, given some Republican lawmakers’ demands for deeper spending cuts and concerns from some centrist members about the depth of cuts to major programs such as Medicaid.
The president has endorsed the House plan for one major bill that includes extending his namesake tax cuts and cuts spending, using budget reconciliation, a legislative process that allows for bills to bypass the filibuster and pass with only a simple majority in the Senate.
As passed out of committee, the House budget resolution includes a $1.5 trillion floor for spending cuts, with a target of $2 trillion, and would allocate $4.5 trillion in net tax cuts for the House Ways and Means Committee, which will be tasked with extending the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act and tacking on new tax cut provisions that were promised Trump.
The Senate is voting on its own budget resolution sometime Friday. Senate Budget Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham (R-SC) has framed the Senate’s separate, smaller resolution, which does not address taxes, as a backup for the House.
“I’m hoping the House can come together with a bill — the tax provisions matter, right?” Graham told reporters. Graham said he is “pulling for” House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA).
The difficulty advancing the budget blueprint is a preview for what will likely be months of wheeling and dealing during reconciliation. And while the desire for deeper spending cuts is vexing some conservative deficit hawks, the votes of some centrist Republicans could end up being threatened if the GOP pushes deeper cuts to Medicaid.
One such centrist, Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), told the Washington Examiner that she would be closely watching to see how the reconciliation legislation might end up affecting Alaskans who rely on the program.
“I come from a state where we have some of the highest costs, Medicaid is really important to many, many, many Alaskans, so I’m looking at all of the discussions that involve impact to Medicaid very critically,” she said.
Work requirements might not apply to a massive swath of Medicaid beneficiaries because many cannot work, including children, elderly adults, and those with disabilities. Also, many beneficiaries are already employed, so the savings would not apply to them.
Given that messing with entitlements is a political hot potato, Republicans would likely only focus the work requirements on able-bodied adults, especially those without dependents.
“I’m not talking about universal work requirements,” Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA) said Thursday. “I’m talking about it from between the ages of 18 and 55 and you’re not disabled and you don’t have minor kids at home, there should be a work requirement. We’re not talking about a mother with a sick child.”
Imposing work requirements on Medicaid would not be nearly enough to pay for the massive extension of the Trump tax cuts and Trump’s other tax priorities that he raised on the campaign trail.
The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget estimated that imposing work requirements for certain Medicaid beneficiaries would save the government $140 billion over the next decade, well short of the $1.5 trillion floor for spending cuts included in the House budget resolution.
SENATE CONFIRMS LUTNICK AS COMMERCE SECRETARY TO IMPLEMENT TRUMP TARIFF AGENDA
Still, it appears the concept of tying work requirements to Medicaid in some way is gaining steam among the GOP.
“It’s common sense,” Johnson said. “Little things like that make a big difference not only in the budgeting process but in the morale of the people. You know, work is good for you. You find dignity in work.”
Ramsey Touchberry contributed to this report.