Why Biden’s Medicaid red line matters
Why Biden’s Medicaid red line matters
The president didn’t broker a perfect deal with Speaker McCarthy, but his insistence against any cuts to health care programs will keep millions of vulnerable Americans covered.
FIRST THINGS FIRST
President Joe Biden and his negotiators knew they would have to make some tough choices when they entered talks in earnest a few weeks ago to reach the deal he reached with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy to raise the debt limit and set government funding priorities for the next two years.
Initially, House Republicans looked to impose new work requirements for Medicaid similar to the ones they demanded for programs like SNAP for adults ages 19 to 55 without dependents.
The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimated that the Medicaid work requirements included in the proposal House Republicans passed late April would increase the number of uninsured people and redistribute the costs the federal government would save to states.
Maddie Twomey, a health care policy expert and senior spokesperson for the advocacy group Protect Our Care, told Supercreator on Tuesday afternoon in an interview that these Medicaid requirements would have impacted over 20 million Americans. These cuts would have been on top of the tens of thousands of recipients already grappling with the Medicaid unwinding of the pandemic continuous coverage requirements that have forced them to resubmit paperwork to keep their health care.
“President Biden has done so much to get people covered. It’s been a priority from day one. So I think that Republicans trying to chip away at that progress was unacceptable,” Twomey said. “And I think that President Biden drew a line in the sand and he did what he said, which was he was not going to touch on anything that threw people off their coverage.”
Despite this significant triumph, Twomey said health care advocates expect Medicaid to continue to be at the center of Republican attacks and that the threats to the program will continue to grow.
“Of course, Medicaid is not off the table. Even as we speak today, we still have states that haven’t expanded Medicaid,” she said. “And they’ll keep fighting to chip away at Medicaid. They’re still trying to repeal even the Inflation Reduction Act. They want to roll back the [Affordable Care Act] and we still have lawmakers who want to reverse protections for people with preexisting conditions.”
And as campaign season kicks into high gear this summer and fall, ahead of next year’s elections, health care will continue to be an issue top of mind for voters, some of whom are still experiencing the effects of the pandemic.
“The research just shows that if people can’t go to the doctor and they don’t have affordable health care, then there’s this major downwind effect of not being able to pay the bills, they can’t pay their rent, they can’t pay utilities,” Twomey said. “And of course, we see terrible disparities for people of color and rural Americans and other historically underserved groups. So I think health care is absolutely essential in any functioning nation.”
Related reading: “The debt-ceiling deal buys Biden time at a terrible long-term cost” by Jonathan Chait at Intelligencer
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The budget bill clears Rules: Speaker McCarthy on Tuesday night breathed a sigh of relief when the House Rules Committee advanced the agreement he reached with President Biden to a full floor vote scheduled for this evening.
There was a palpable mystery throughout the day if the three hardline conservatives McCarthy assigned to the committee would block the bill from moving forward in protest of an agreement some Republicans don’t go far enough.
But Republican Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky, who was the swing vote, joined six Republicans to push the bill one step closer to final passage. (Republican Reps. Chip Roy of Texas and Ralph Norman of South Carolina voted with the four Democrats on the committee against sending the rule to the floor for consideration this afternoon.)
McCarthy’s math: Speaker McCarthy on Sunday boasted that “over 95 percent” of House Republicans were “overwhelmingly excited about”
his agreement with the president.
And throughout the negotiations, McCarthy indicated he could produce at least 150 of the 218 votes required to pass the bill out of the House.
But Monday demonstrated this may be a taller task than the speaker may have realized as dozens of members across his conference came out in fierce opposition to the bill.
It also proved House Democrats have no intention of helping McCarthy save face.
“What we are interested in is how many votes the Republicans who negotiated this resolution going to produce,” House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries told reporters on Tuesday. “Initially, we heard that 95 percent of the House Republican Conference supports the agreement. That doesn’t appear to be the case. But we also are committed to making sure occurs that the House Republicans keep their promise to produce at least 150 votes, period. Full stop.”
House Democrats are in a tough position as many are torn between supporting a deal brokered by the president and leader of the party and rejecting it based on the merits. Every vote McCarthy brings is one that Jeffries won’t have to, which may save himself a few political headaches down the road.
Progressive perturbations: Congressional Progressive Caucus Chair Rep. Pramila Jayapal of Washington on Tuesday shared with reporters the top concerns her members have with the legislation:
The new SNAP work requirements
The IRS funding rescissions
The permitting reform and approval of the Mountain Valley Pipeline
But she stopped short of placing blame at the president’s feet.
“I very much appreciate what the president and his team did to minimize the most extreme demands and impulses of these MAGA Republicans,” she said. “And I think Progressive Caucus members and House Democrats were a big part of minimizing some of those most extreme demands.”
CPC members agreed to take a formal whip count of where the caucus stands to determine how their members will vote and if the caucus will take an official position separate from how individual members vote.
Some members, including Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, have already announced they will vote against the bill.
Jayapal also echoed Jeffries’ argument that McCarthy has to do the heavy lifting to get the bill across the finish line tonight.
“If not for Kevin McCarthy threatening default, we would not be talking about new bureaucratic red tape on food or cash assistance,” she said. “He got us here and it’s on him to deliver the votes for the deal.”
Ultimately, House progressives may get to vote their values without it collapsing the global economy.
A House Democratic side familiar with the New Dems’ whip count confirmed to Supercreator what was already pretty obvious: The majority of the Democratic votes for the deal are expected to come from members of the Coalition.
Oh SNAP: Speaker McCarthy since Sunday has repeated this bizarre talking point this Sunday about how the new work requirements for SNAP will encourage kids who are sitting on the couch to get a job, which gives them worth and value. (Don’t believe me? Just watch.)
Holy capitalism, Batman.
But as it turns out, the harsher restrictions may not even achieve their intended purpose for the adults McCarthy claims he’s looking to lift out of poverty.
The CBO released its cost estimate for the proposed Biden-McCarthy agreement and found it would increase the number of people who are eligible for benefits by 78,000 per month, a net can of about 0.2 percent when the entire point of the House GOP provision was to reduce the number of beneficiaries. (The changes to SNAP requirements would also increase — not cut — direct spending by $2.1 billion over the next decade, per the CBO’s analysis.) Read the full CBO report
“Republicans never cared about reducing the deficit and they were just using the debt ceiling as a way to force through their ideological priorities. And I think that this deal that’s been released really proves that point,” Jayapal told reporters prior to the release of the CBO report. “There is no meaningful debt reduction here.”
To be clear, some low-income Americans will still lose their SNAP benefits. It’s also worth noting that the exempted populations often face barriers to applying for benefits so the verdict is still out on whether the reality will match the projections. Still, this is welcome news for Democrats who recoiled from the deal because of this specific provision.
For McCarthy, it will be interesting to watch if the CBO score further complicates an already thorny whip operation for him and his top deputies.
Related reading: “There’s only one question now: Can Kevin McCarthy deliver the votes?” by Michael Tomasky at TNR
TODAY IN POLITICS
All times Eastern
President Biden will receive his daily intelligence briefing at 10 a.m. before he meets with leaders of his emergency preparedness and response team at 12 p.m. to receive the annual briefing on extreme weather preparedness. Biden will leave Washington, DC at 4:15 p.m. and arrive in Colorado Springs, Colorado at 7:40 p.m.
Vice President Harris is in DC and has no public events on her schedule.
The House is in at 2 p.m. with first votes expected at around 3:30 p.m. and last votes at around 8:30 p.m.
The Senate is in at 10 a.m. and will vote on a resolution to overturn President Biden’s student debt relief program at 2:30 p.m.
THEY DID THAT
Democratic Sen. Patty Murray of Washington and Rep. Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts teamed up to talk about affordable birth control.
President Biden and First Lady Dr. Jill Biden attended a memorial mass for their son Beau Biden to make eight years since his passing.
White House Domestic Policy Council Director Neera Tanden shared how excited she is to start her new gig.
Most US adults said they think the Supreme Court should allow colleges to consider race as a small part of the admissions process.
Journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones explained why reparations are about more than just reconciliation for slavery.
Tina Knowles performed her mom duties to perfection at one of Beyoncé’s recent shows.
READ ALL ABOUT IT
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“AI is an insult now” by Caroline Mimbs Nyce
“Inside the Christian legal crusade to revive school prayer” by Linda K. Wertheimer
“How to write the perfect resignation letter” by Alison Green
“The right’s war on brands is stupid and terrifying” by Alex Shephard
“We’ve hit peak dupe” by Sangeeta Singh-Kurtz
“How to tell if your skin care is counterfeit” by Jennifer G. Sullivan
“The Failson Celtics don’t deserve to be near the NBA Finals” by Will Leitch
“In defense of the lawn” by Ben Mathis-Lilley
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