Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley urged his Republican colleagues on Monday to refuse deep Medicaid cuts as part of legislation implementing President Trump's ambitious domestic agenda, including plans to cut more than $4 trillion in taxes.
In an opinion piece published in the New York Times, Holy declared that cutting funding for a program that provides health insurance to more than 70 million low-income Americans, including over 1 million people in his state, is “morally wrong” and “political suicide.”
“Republicans need to open their eyes. Our voters support the social insurance program,” wrote Holy. “More than that, our voters rely on those programs.”
His plea comes the day after House Republicans announce plans to cut an estimated $715 billion from Medicaid and Affordable Care Act, with 8.6 million people likely to remain uninsured, but the proposal doesn't include more dramatic cuts than fiscal hardeners have been demanding. He argued that his opposition to the cut coincided with Trump's own repeated promise to never “touch” the program.
Holy carves the lane for himself as the only Republican populist voice in the Senate. He repeatedly diverged from the party, for example, by accepting policy proposals that would limit the cost of insulin to $25 a month. He was the only Republican to vote earlier this year in support of limiting bank overdraft fees to $5.
He also accused Republican organizers of prioritizing the interests of wealthy Americans and businesses at the expense of working-class voters who formed the wave of populism that sent Trump to the White House. Unlike most of his party, Holy said he was skeptical that Trump had done much to either return manufacturing jobs to the US or treat businesses better, following the call to extend the tax cuts he enacted in his first term.
“If Republicans want to become the working class, if they want to become the majority party, they must ignore the call to cut Medicaid and begin to fulfill American promises to American workers,” writes Holy.
