OPINION:
President Trump is on a roll. By Friday, the stock market had recaptured the value lost after traders sustained a severe case of tariff jitters. A successful strike against Iran’s nuclear development sites ended with a ceasefire. And the One Big Beautiful Bill Act cleared Senate procedural hurdles Sunday.
These victories are precarious, as brokers, ayatollahs and members of the world’s greatest deliberative body are a fickle bunch. Even so, the Senate is poised to pass the 940-page reconciliation measure that makes Mr. Trump’s 2017 tax cuts permanent by Tuesday.
This is possible because the largest sticking point has been addressed. A handful of politicians from conservative states had complained about “rural hospitals” being hurt if lawmakers reverse the massive expansion in Medicaid coverage under Presidents Obama and Biden. This set the country on an unsustainable path, with Medicaid spending surging to $871 billion in 2023, far outpacing the inflation rate.
Democratic administrations bribed states to enlarge their Medicaid programs by handing extra cash to those with the highest taxes on “providers.” This surcharge, of course, is baked into the patient’s bill. The potential Senate reform merely places an upper limit on the tax to reduce the overall federal liability, which is considerable because Uncle Sam picks up 70% of a state’s tab.
Thanks to this generous and convoluted arrangement, hard-left legislators in California decided they could get away with boosting subsidies by showering Medicaid freebies on anyone who sneaks over the border. Republicans want to curb the excess through work and citizenship requirements. Liberals misrepresent these sensible alterations as snatching hundreds of billions of dollars in assistance from sick people.
“Democrats are lying about Medicaid in an attempt to hide their support for illegal aliens and able-bodied adults scamming a program meant for the American people who need and deserve it,” House Speaker Mike Johnson wrote on X.
It’s not just Democrats who played that game. Sen. Thom Tillis, North Carolina Republican, attempted to rally his colleagues to oppose Mr. Trump’s bill by circulating a flyer claiming, “Medicaid coverage for over 600,000 North Carolinians will be at risk.” He said his state would lose $9.8 billion in hospital receipts and $29.1 billion in federal matching funds over 10 years.
Mr. Tillis voted to stop the One Big Beautiful Bill Act but failed to enlist anyone to his cause. Shortly thereafter, he announced his intention to retire at the expiration of his term next year, avoiding the inevitable Republican primary challenge.
Senate leaders enticed the rest of the Republican caucus with $25 billion in pork for hospitals through the Rural Health Transformation Program. Fortunately, the Supreme Court opened another avenue for eliminating waste last week.
In Medina v. Planned Parenthood, justices ruled that states could deny Medicaid funding to abortion facilities. A Medicaid recipient had sued over her loss of “civil rights” because South Carolina prohibited subsidizing outfits that kill unborn babies.
In a move that should be familiar by now, U.S. District Judge Mary Geiger Lewis, who was appointed by Mr. Obama, proclaimed South Carolina’s statute unconstitutional in 2018. It took seven years and millions of dollars to correct her error.
Federal taxpayers shouldn’t be paying for abortions, illegal aliens or individuals who are not working at least 80 hours a month out of laziness rather than disability. Fixing this mess would be a huge win for the president and the nation.
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