Congress
Laura Loomer hammers Trump ally for backing Medicaid cuts
Far-right activist Laura Loomer is going after a prominent conservative health policy expert and former Trump administration official for his proposals to overhaul Medicaid — stoking larger intraparty tensions at a pivotal moment for negotiations over President Donald Trump’s “big, beautiful bill.”
In a social media post Monday, Loomer called Brian Blase, the president of Paragon Health Institute, a “RINO Saboteur” for helping draft a letter circulated by 20 House conservatives that advocated for deep cuts to Medicaid in the GOP’s domestic policy megabill.
His role in writing the missive was first reported by Blue Light News.
“In a shocking betrayal of President Donald Trump’s unwavering commitment to America’s working-class families, and his promise to protect Medicaid, [CEO Brian Blase] … is spearheading a dangerous campaign to undermine the Republican Party’s midterm prospects,” Loomer said on X.
Fiscal hawks believe cuts to the safety net program will deliver necessary savings to finance President Donald Trump’s desired package of tax cuts and extensions, border security spending, energy policy and more. But Trump has also continued to insist there will be no provisions included in the bill that would result in cutting Medicaid benefits — though he hasn’t detailed how that might be the case.
Loomer accused Blase of “currently pressuring congressional Republicans to defy the President’s ironclad pledge to protect Medicaid — a program critical to the heartland voters who propelled Donald Trump to his election victories.”
Blase worked in Trump’s first administration as a special assistant to the president on the National Economic Council. He’s one of the most influential conservative health policy thinkers in Washington, frequently writing op-eds in the Wall Street Journal and publishing a mountain of policy papers pushing Medicaid reform.
In a statement Tuesday, Blase defended himself and his work.
“I am proud to have served President Trump for two and a half years at the White House, leading the implementation of his health care agenda,” Blase said “Paragon shares the president’s commitment to reducing waste, fraud, and abuse in government programs and reversing the harmful health policies of the Biden administration — like California’s $10 billion scheme to put illegal immigrants on Medicaid.”
A Paragon spokesperson said last week the group sent a list of Medicaid reform principles to policymakers and that it “It appears that the excellent letter by [Texas GOP Rep.] Chip Roy and colleagues incorporated some of our ideas.”
It’s significant that Loomer would make Blase a target: She has a history of crusading against people she sees as disloyal to Trump, having in the past personally persuaded the president to fire several top national security officials over their perceived lack of sufficient fealty.
The situation also speaks to the broader friction within the Republican Party between the moderate and the populist wings — which are wary of benefit cuts — and the more traditional conservative faction — bent on making major changes to safety-net programs.
The divide has threatened to imperil the package central to Trump’s agenda as Republicans are under immense pressure to find savings for the bill.
Roy and a handful of House Republicans who are in touch with Blase are full-steam ahead to force GOP leaders to pursue deeper cuts across Medicaid and other safety-net programs, which they argue need massive reforms to curb long-term spending.
Freedom Caucus members met Tuesday morning to discuss reconciliation and to try to push back on attacks that they’re gutting Medicaid, according to three Republicans with direct knowledge of the matter.
Meredith Lee Hill contributed to this report.
Congress
Mike Johnson tries again to extend contested spy law
House GOP leaders on Thursday unveiled the text of a new three-year extension of a key spy law, as Speaker Mike Johnson tried to overcome ultra-conservative resistance and pass it next week.
The proposed reauthorization of the so-called Section 702 law includes some new oversight and penalties for abuses of the spy authority but stops short of warrant requirements sought by GOP hard-liners.
Conservatives have pushed back on extending Section 702, which allows warrantless surveillance of foreigners, because of concerns about U.S. citizens being caught up in the program.
The faction that’s been opposing an extension has not yet signed off on the latest plan. GOP leaders plan to continue talks into the weekend.
Congress
House GOP leaders scramble to sell Senate’s slimmed-down budget with promises of ‘Reconciliation 3.0’
House Republican leaders want a floor vote next week on the Senate’s budget resolution, the first step in writing an immigration enforcement bill and passing it by President Donald Trump’s June 1 deadline.
“It has to be clean because it has to be quick,” Speaker Mike Johnson said Thursday, indicating that conservatives could not make major changes to the other chamber’s blueprint at this time.
But Johnson and others still have to lock in support from conservatives who are threatening to vote against it if it doesn’t encompass more top GOP policy priorities, and it is proving to be a delicate balancing act.
House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (La.) met Thursday morning with Budget Chair Jodey Arrington (Texas) and leaders of key House GOP factions, according to four people granted anonymity to share details of private meetings — an effort to quell concerns among some conservatives about the narrow scope of the current plan. Arrington and other senior Republicans have been pushing to expand the party-line bill currently under discussion.
Johnson, Scalise and others in GOP leadership are promising that as soon as Republicans pass a bill funding immigration enforcement and some border patrol activities, they will get to work on another measure through the filibuster-skirting budget reconciliation process.
“We’re going to move right to reconciliation, what will now be 3.0,” Johnson said, referring both to the current plan and the tax and spending megabill Republicans passed last summer. “We’re going to do it as quickly as possible.”
Some of the ideas that circulated during the closed-door leadership meeting Thursday included opening up the possibility for more tax policy changes, addressing the Trump administration’s request for $350 billion for the Pentagon, additional funding for the Iran war and spending cuts across social programs in another package.
Arrington, who is among those wishing to expand the upcoming reconciliation effort, is seeking steep spending reductions to social programs and hopes to revisit Obamacare spending — including cost-sharing reductions, which would reduce out-of-pocket health costs.
Leadership of the Republican Study Committee, meanwhile, is demanding that any third reconciliation bill be fully paid for. There has been limited angst over “pay-fors” for the current party-line pursuit because the measure is an attempt to fund the immigration enforcement agencies and circumvent regular appropriations negotiations, which have been stuck for months.
But many Republicans are doubtful their party will be able to pass another party-line bill ahead of the midterms and see the immigration funding bill as their last bite at the apple. Some of them, including Rep. Warren Davidson of Ohio, are threatening to vote against the Senate budget resolution that would unlock the reconciliation process for the immigration funding measure unless it can incorporate more items from the hard-liners’ wishlist.
GOP leaders are now scrambling to stave off defections. Adoption of identical budget resolutions in both chambers will unlock the ability for lawmakers to write and pass a bill through reconciliation that would send tens of billions of dollars to immigration enforcement operations run through the Department of Homeland Security, which has been shuttered since February.
Republicans are on a very tight schedule to send this bill to Trump’s desk and pave the way for ending the record-setting DHS shutdown, given White House demands.
Congress
‘Junior reporters’ pepper Hakeem Jeffries with tough questions
Hakeem Jeffries celebrated Take Your Child to Work Day by taking questions from the children of the Capitol Hill press corps, but it got heavy fast.
The first question: “Why do voters view Democrats so poorly?”
Jeffries responded with a lengthy explanation of broad voter distrust in institutions.
“There’s a great frustration that applies to every organized institution in this country, and Democrats are not immune from that,” he said.
But, Jeffries added, “Consistently in state after state and race after race and contest after contest, irrefutably, the American people are choosing the Democratic Party.”
He fielded other tough questions from the “junior reporters” in the room, including if he would have voted to expel Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick if she hadn’t resigned earlier this week.
“She did the right thing in stepping down,” Jeffries said.
Other questions from kids in the room did tackle lighter subjects.
Jeffries’ favorite candy? Sugar-free Hershey’s chocolate.
What did he want to be when he grew up? A point guard for the Knicks or a hip-hop star.
Does he think the Yankees will win the World Series? “Hope springs eternal.”
And, simply, “What’s next?”
To that Jeffries said: “As Democrats, we’re fighting one battle after another, pushing back against the extremism that we believe is being released on the American people by Donald Trump and my colleagues on the other side of the aisle.”
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