Trump's budget bill faces "nightmare scenario," Hawley warns
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Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) is warning that the Senate's version of "one, big beautiful bill" can't pass the House with the Medicaid changes it unveiled this week — urging leadership to change it fast and not to let the fight drag on.
Why it matters: Hawley has been the loudest GOP voice fighting against Medicaid cuts. He was shocked and angered by the Senate going even further than the House to find Medicaid savings. House leadership's concerns could help his case.
- "It seems to me that now we're in a place where this provision is threatening the entire bill, and we just don't have time for that," Hawley told Axios in a phone interview.
- President Trump wants the bill on his desk on July 4, which White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles reiterated to senators this week.
- "I just think the idea of having now to go to a conference committee with the House because they say, well, we can't pass this... I mean, good lord, that's just a nightmare scenario," Hawley said.
Zoom in: Reports have been surfacing that House leaders and Republican moderates do not think they can pass the Senate bill as-is. The changes to Medicaid and the state and local tax deduction (SALT) cap are the two biggest issues.
- Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.)'s team has told people he has not been consulted on the changes, as Punchbowl reported.
- Hawley is willing to support the House version of the Medicaid provider tax, which froze it at 6%.
What to watch: Earlier this week, Hawley told reporters he had been pitching solutions to leadership to help rural hospitals, which he and other Republicans worry would be hit hard by the even lower provider tax in the Senate bill.
- He still likes the idea of a rural hospital fund, but also wants to scrap the Senate's slow decrease of provider taxes to 3.5% for states that expanded Medicaid.
- "We could do both," Hawley said. "I mean, they're not mutually exclusive."
Zoom out: Hawley has been clearly frustrated by the changes in the bill, but said he still supports Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.).
- "This is a tough job," Hawley said. "I think he's doing a great job, and it's just ... this is a hard job."
The bottom line: "I'm 100% confident it will not get to the floor the way they introduced it on Monday," he said. "They will have to change it."
- He hopes that changes include a significant return to the House framework.
