EXCLUSIVE: Dems to force votes on Medicaid as it becomes sore point in Senate budget fight

FIRST ON FOX: Democrats are planning to make Republicans in the Senate go on the record on Medicaid during Thursday evening’s “Vote-a-Rama” as potential cuts to the program become a sore point in budget discussions, especially for Republicans in states that rely on it. 

Sen. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis., who just won re-election in a state that also swung for President Donald Trump, is introducing several amendments to the Senate GOP’s budget resolution, all aimed at preserving Medicaid, her office shared with Fox News Digital exclusively. 

Among her tranche of amendments will be several to protect Medicaid access and funding for senior citizens, children, people suffering from drug addiction, Americans in rural areas and pregnant women. 

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Democrats are planning to make Republicans take uncomfortable amendment votes. (Getty Images)

“Americans want us to lower the cost of their health care, not rip it away from new moms, seniors in long-term care, and poor kids,” Baldwin told Fox News Digital in an exclusive statement. “Republicans have claimed they would protect Medicaid – despite their budget telling us otherwise – but tonight, they will have the chance to put their money where their mouth is: Will they prevent Medicaid from being cut, or will they put it on the chopping block to fund their billionaire tax break?”

Her amendments are expected to get votes after others that are teed up by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Democrats. The first amendment of the evening, according to a Senate Democratic source, will be aimed at stopping Republicans from renewing the tax cuts in the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA), which is a priority for Trump. 

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Schumer and Democrats will line up numerous amendment votes. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

If passed, the amendment would bar “handouts” to millionaires or billionaires in new tax legislation. Specifically, it would stop a reconciliation bill from providing a tax cut to people earning more than $1,000,000,000 per year.

Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., recently sounded off on potential Medicaid cuts. “I don’t like the idea of massive Medicaid cuts. We should have no Medicare cuts of any kind,” he said in an interview with the Huffington Post. 

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Hawley pushed back on potential Medicaid and Medicare cuts. (Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)

Such cuts could prove unpopular in Republican states with significant Medicaid coverage, such as Louisiana, Arkansas, Kentucky and West Virginia, which each reported more than 25% of their populations covered by either Medicaid or Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) as of last year, per KFF. 

After Senate Republicans cleared a procedural vote on their budget last week, it triggered a 50-hour debate clock that will end on Thursday evening. Then, a marathon of votes, known as a “Vote-a-Rama,” will begin. 

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Medicaid cuts would significantly affect some red states.  (iStock)

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Senators are able to introduce an unlimited number of amendments, of which many are expected to get votes on the Senate floor. The process will force Republicans to take a large number of potentially uncomfortable votes teed up by their Democratic counterparts. 

Going forward with the marathon of votes appears to be a calculated risk for Senate Republicans after Trump endorsed the House GOP’s budget resolution on Truth Social over theirs. However, Vice President JD Vance gave GOP senators a green light on Wednesday to continue with their budget despite this, a source told Fox News Digital.