Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) has become the chief defender of Medicaid while Republicans move to slash hundreds of billions of dollars from the program through the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.
Hawley has staked a clear position: that he will not support a bill that cuts Medicaid benefits. The House-passed version of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act would find $880 billion in savings by making various changes and cuts to Medicaid.
During the vote on the budget resolution, which creates instructions for committees to find savings for the bill, Hawley joined with Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) to introduce an amendment stripping the House budget resolution’s directive to cut the entitlement program by hundreds of billions of dollars. The measure did not pass, although Sens. Susan Collins (R-ME) and Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) voted for the Hawley-Wyden amendment.
Hawley wrote in a New York Times op-ed that cutting healthcare benefits for the poor “is both morally wrong and politically suicidal.”
“Republicans need to open their eyes: Our voters support social insurance programs. More than that, our voters depend on those programs,” he continued.
The Show-Me State senator said that Republicans should focus on Trump’s directive: Focus solely on “waste, fraud, and abuse” in the program.
“His exact words were, ‘Don’t touch it, Josh.’ I said, ‘Hey, we’re on the same page,’” Hawley said.
The Hill wrote:
Outside observers said Hawley hasn’t suddenly become a defender of ObamaCare, but his Medicaid position reflects the changing politics of the low-income health care program. Lower-income, working-class people on Medicaid are now a major part of the GOP base, which has become more populist since the emergence of Trump.
Missouri is a ruby-red state Trump won handily in 2024, but those voters also overwhelmingly passed a ballot measure in 2020 to expand Medicaid.
Timothy McBride, a health economist at Washington University’s School of Public Health, noted that there are often more people on Medicaid in rural areas than in urban areas.
Stripping the legislation of its provision cutting Medicaid may also upset the delicate balance that led the bill’s passage through the House. Fiscal hawks have already fretted that the House-passed legislation adds too much to the deficit.
Although Hawley and others may not like the spending cuts to Medicaid in the bill, there are other reforms that would seek to remove waste, fraud, and abuse in the program.
The bill increases checks to verify eligibility for the program to twice per year instead of the standard one time per year.
One study found that there were $1.1 trillion in improper payments over the last decade.
Sean Moran is a policy reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on X @SeanMoran3.
