Trump holds WH event to push for the passage of GOP spending bill
House Speaker Mike Johnson and GOP lawmakers went to the White House Thursday as President Donald Trump hosted an event designed to urge Congress to pass his big tax cuts bill.
As Republicans struggle to push the package to passage, one invited GOP holdout, Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, said it鈥檚 probably going to be 鈥渁 mass arm-twisting.鈥�
Earlier Thursday, the Senate parliamentarian advised that a key Medicaid provider tax overhaul that is central to Trump's big tax cut and spending bill does not adhere to procedural rules, delivering a crucial blow to Republicans rushing to finish the massive package this week.
The guidance from the parliamentarian is rarely ignored, and it forces GOP leaders to consider options. Senate leaders could try to revise it or strip it from the package. Otherwise, the provision could be challenged during floor votes, requiring a 60-vote threshold to keep it, a tall order in the narrowly split 100-member Senate. Democrats are unified against the Republican president鈥檚 bill.
Republicans scrambled to respond, some politically attacking the nonpartisan parliamentarian, while Democrats said it would be devastating to the GOP package.
Sen. Ron Wyden, the top Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee, said the GOP proposal would have been as much as a $250 billion cut to the health care program, 鈥渕assive Medicaid cuts that hurt kids, seniors, Americans with disabilities and working families.鈥�
The outcome is a setback as Senate Republicans hoped to launch votes on the package by the end of the week, to meet Trump鈥檚 Fourth of July deadline for passage. Republican leaders are relying on the Medicaid provider tax change to save billions of dollars in the GOP package, to offset the cost of trillions of dollars in tax cuts, which are their top priority.
Some Republicans even called for challenging, or firing, the parliamentarian, who has been on the job since 2012 as the nonpartisan chief arbiter of the chamber鈥檚 historic and often complicated rules.
But GOP leaders had already been struggling to rally support for the change. Several GOP senators warn it would harm rural hospitals that depend on the funds. Hospital organizations have been warning it could wipe out their balance sheets and lead to hospital closures.
Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., who's among those fighting the change, said he had spoken to Trump late Wednesday as the president returned from the NATO meeting in the Netherlands. Hawley said Trump told him to revert back to an earlier proposal from the House.
States impose the taxes as a way to help fund Medicaid, largely by boosting the reimbursements they receive from the federal government. Critics decry the system as a type of 鈥渓aundering,鈥� but almost every state except Alaska uses it to help provide the health care coverage.
The House-passed bill would freeze the provider taxes at current levels, while the Senate proposal goes deeper by reducing the tax that some states are able to impose.
One plan Republicans had been considering to win over GOP senators opposed to the provider tax cut was to create a new rural hospital fund, with $15 billion, to help defray any lost revenue to the hospitals and providers. But some GOP senators said that was too high, while others, including Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, wanted at least $100 billion.
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Associated Press writer Kevin Freking contributed to this story.