America's Talking - White House ‘Suiting Up’ to Push Budget Bill Across Senate Finish Line

Starting point is 00:00:00 Hello and welcome to America in Focus, powered by the Center Square. I'm Dan McAleap, Chief Content Officer at Franklin News Foundation, publisher of the Center Square Newswire service. With absolutely no wiggle room, the U.S. House passed a sweeping package of spending bills 215 to 214, with two Republicans joining all Democrats and voting against it. Dubbed the big, beautiful bill by President Donald Trump, the package now heads to the Senate, where it is expected to be amended. Joining me to discuss this today is Casey Harper, Washington, D.C. Bureau chief for the Center Square. Casey, it was a long process to get to this point, but there's still plenty of work to do in the Senate. Tell us about this bill.

Starting point is 00:00:40 Sure. I mean, I think we're entered a new era of congressional Republicans because what I saw in this is despite, you know, many Republicans doubting House Speaker Mike Johnson's ability to get this across the finish line. He remained confident that he could do it and he delivered. And I think what we've seen these House Republicans is they're not intimidated by the media any longer. I think that's largely credit to President Donald Trump, who's just taken on the media head first and won, or at least survived when he was wounded. And so you saw in an uncharacteristic way that these congressional Republicans were totally immune to a lot of media criticism, a lot of pressure for the media and from outsiders, a lot of the Democratic lamenting going on cable news channels and talking about how they're going to cutting Medicaid and they're going to put people. take people's health insurance away. It just, it was like water and a duck's back. And so I think we might, you know, see, be seeing a new era of Republican, Republicans in Congress. Part of that is the Trump era. Part of that is the new leadership of Mike Johnson, who really was on pretty shaky ground at the

Starting point is 00:01:47 beginning, right? I mean, remember we were going through House speakers like very quickly. And we landed with Mike Johnson. It was not clear how long he would survive, but he's really cementing his power now. and he's got this bill, which you referenced. It does a few things. It extends that the Trump-era tax cuts from 2017. So for our listeners, that means the child tax credit that was doubled. That's going to remain in place that would have expired. It includes some of, you know, a lot of the tax cuts and jobs act priorities, but it adds to it.

Starting point is 00:02:20 There's no taxes on tips now, assuming it stays intact and gets through the Senate. We're talking no taxes on overtime, which was something that the, president ran on in this latest election. And then you see, you see a lot of cuts, about $1.5 trillion in cuts to help pay for, though not fully pay for, some of the tax cuts and other spending. And so, you know, there's different cuts around the, around the edges that we can talk about. But the one that's getting the most attention and the most of tax from Democrats is really the work requirements for Medicaid. And so during COVID and beyond, we, We've seen a couple of things happen.

Starting point is 00:03:00 We've seen that work requirements say, hey, you have to actually go to work if you want government health insurance. They've been eroded and removed, or it largely because some states, Dan, in particular, Democratic states say, can just wholesale have been saying, well, you're exempt from work requirements. Like, hey, you 20 million people, you don't have to work to get federal health insurance. And so Medicaid has become much more expensive because millions and millions of people, who are healthy, who do not have children, who do not have dependents, and who are not working, are getting on Medicaid. And it used to not be the case. And so these states have kind of found a workaround.

Starting point is 00:03:41 And this bill closes that loophole, what Republicans would call an abuse of the system. And so they're saying, hey, if you're, you know, you can't just be like a 25-year-old guy and not working a job or working, you know, driving Uber five hours a week and living with your parents and get on government insurance. Now you're going to have to work 80 hours a month, which is 20 hours a week, which, you know, most Americans who have a job work more than 20 hours a week, right? And so, and if you can find a job, it's usually possible to get more than 20 hours. And I understand if you're having trouble finding a job, that's one thing.

Starting point is 00:04:17 And there are ways where you can show for unemployment benefits, for instance, you can show, like, hey, I've been applying for jobs and I'm not able to get one. But if you're working somewhere, getting 20 hours a week is pretty reasonable. And so, you know, I'll hand it back to you, Dan, but this is a very large bill. It's going to face some, you know, difficulties in the Senate, but I think it can get passed. And it's a landmark piece of legislation for this new Trump administration. During the COVID-19 years, Medicaid, the program itself expanded largely. More people were eligible, et cetera.

Starting point is 00:04:53 In part, this bill scales some of that Medicaid expansion. back to pre-COVID days. There's also the salt tax, the state and local tax exemption that was scaled back when when Trump's Tax Cuts and Jobs Act passed during his first term, they lowered the threshold for how much you could claim in state and local taxes on your federal, when you file your federal income taxes, down to $10,000 max. It was raised to placate, even though no Democrats voted, but it was, it was raised to $40,000. It's raised to $40,000 in this bill. That's the exemptions you can claim when you file your federal income taxes. And there's plenty of Republicans. We're not happy about that either. Yeah. I mean, there's some concern about that. And it's a very, you know, it's a large bill. There's a lot of different components. The Senate is probably going to raise that issue. The Senate, you know, there's some senators who are worried about the deficit debt spending. This bill will add to the national debt. pretty sizably over the next decade.

Starting point is 00:05:58 It's not a paid-for piece of legislation. And so that's something that, you know, some fiscal hardline Republicans are going to have to grapple with. And, you know, there's other ways that they help pay for it. They're cutting back climate and, you know, renewable energy subsidies to go to these companies and are of mixed, depending on how you ask, their value is mixed. And so there's other cuts in other areas besides Medicaid to help pay for this. but it's going to be, we're going to be watching it closely in the Senate.

Starting point is 00:06:27 I think you can expect some amendments. And if they don't change it too much, it'll probably just sail through. But, you know, Rand Paul, for instance, has raised concerns about the debt spending. But overall, you know, Republicans seem pretty lockstep. We'll see how the Senate responds in the coming weeks. But the president wants to, he said publicly, he wants to sign something by Independence Day, July 4th. So that's a, you know, pretty good. workable timeline for the Senate.

Starting point is 00:06:56 And we'll see if they meet that July 4th deadline. Thank you for joining us today, Casey. Listeners can keep up with this story and more at thecenter square.com.

America's Talking - White House ‘Suiting Up’ to Push Budget Bill Across Senate Finish Line

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