Thune faces 'biggest gamble yet' as GOP seeks 'explosive' change on bill: report
Senate Republicans are considering a delay on a "politically explosive" part of the so-called "Big, Beautiful, Bill," an early-morning report showed Thursday.
Punchbowl News reported mid-week that "Senate Republicans are considering delaying a politically explosive Medicaid cut as they look for ways to win over GOP moderate holdouts threatening the massive reconciliation bill."
"The discussions come as Senate Republican leaders are trying to ratchet up the pressure on wavering GOP senators to fall in line and meet their self-imposed July 4 deadline for sending a bill to President Donald Trump’s desk," wrote Andrew Desiderio, Laura Weiss, John Bresnahan and Jake Sherman of Punchbowl News. "Several Republican senators are quietly pitching their leadership on delaying the implementation timeline of the Senate’s stricter crackdown on Medicaid provider taxes. Paired with a stabilization fund for rural hospitals, this could help win over enough of the half-dozen or so wavering senators."
The report states that Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), "who faces a tough reelection next year, said he wants to learn more about how each state’s rural hospitals will be impacted before moving forward. Those analyses won’t come quickly."
“I don’t have a problem with the [provider tax] scale-down,” Tillis is quoted as saying. “I’m just asking some questions so all members know programmatically how this will be dealt with in the states… You need to do a scenario analysis for every single one.”
The report goes on to describe how the bill might reach Trump's desk, noting, "Thune has always banked on Trump and outside pressure to help seal the reconciliation deal."
"But choosing when exactly to kick off the floor process for the bill could be Thune’s biggest gamble yet," the report says.