Republicans defend cuts to Medicaid, renewable energy in big beautiful bill: Out of control

Key Republican senators pushed back Sunday against criticism of cuts in the One Big Beautiful Bill, including Medicaid work restrictions and the elimination of many green energy subsidies.The Senate version of President Trump’s signature tax and spending legislation imposes 80 hours a month work requirements on able-bodied adults, including those with children ages 15 and up.It also reduces the health care provider tax, which helps fund state Medicaid plans.Critics argue that those changes could result in millions of people losing access to Medicaid, which provides health care to over 70 million low-income Americans.

“There’s 35 million people under the poverty line inside the United States, and there’s 70 million people that are signed up for Medicaid,” Sen.Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.) told NBC’s “Meet the Press” Sunday.“What we are focused on is making sure that Medicaid is there for people in the future that need it and get rid of the fraud, waste and abuse.”Medicaid reform is the largest source of savings in the megabill, with the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimating the legislative bundle would reduce Medicaid costs by about $930 billion over the next decade.Several senators have been uneasy about the Medicaid reform in the Senate bill, which goes further than the House version of the megabill.

Sen.Thom Tillis (R-NC), for example, voted against proceeding with the bill Saturday, citing Medicaid as his top concern.“I cannot support this bill in its current form.

It would result in tens of billions of dollars in lost funding for North Carolina, including our hospitals and rural communities,” Tillis said in a statement Saturday.“This will force the state to make painful decisions like eliminating Medicaid coverage for hundreds of thousands in the expansion population, and even reducing critical services for those in the traditional Medicaid population.”Sen.

Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) had raged against the Medicaid provisions of the O...