That didn’t take long. After a few months of celebrating Donald Trump’s astonishing political comeback by offering the president near-unanimous support, Republicans are going squishy.
The Trump agenda is hanging by a thread. Congress, which up to now has done very little to help the White House solve our border crisis, codify DOGE spending cuts or rebalance our justice system, now has to act. They have to pass a “big beautiful” bill to extend the tax reductions in the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act while incorporating some of the campaign promises the president made, like eliminating taxes on tips.
This is no time for weak knees; failing to extend the tax cuts could throw the economy into recession and clobber Republicans in the midterms.
Unhappily, some GOP legislators have been wilting over cutting Medicaid, while others torpedoed President Trump’s pick for U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia. It looks like a dip in Trump’s approval rating and uncertainty about the success of his economic program are causing palpitations throughout the caucus.
We hoped for more. After all, Republicans would likely not be in charge of the House or Senate but for Trump’s extraordinary win. Surely that should earn him more than 100 days’ support.
At the top of Trump’s agenda is the reconciliation bill, into which Congress will jam as many of the president’s campaign promises as possible. Under the rules governing reconciliation measures, reductions in revenues for not taxing overtime, for instance, must be paid for. One solution is cutting Medicaid, a program that has spiraled out of control and is ripe for a serious overhaul.
Total Medicaid spending has exploded, reaching nearly $900 billion in 2023, nearly double the total a decade earlier, despite a marked downturn in the U.S. poverty rate. But it is not only the sum of Medicaid spending that is the problem — it is also where the money is going.
The Wall Street Journal recently published an op-ed on Medicaid in which the authors describe the nation’s third-largest entitlement program as “fundamentally broken.” They write, “Because of ObamaCare, the federal government pays $9 for every $1 of state spending on able-bodied working-age adults, compared with roughly $1.33 for pregnant women and disabled children.” These figures reveal a profound distortion of the original purpose of Medicaid — to help the most vulnerable. They also show that states have an unhealthy incentive to sign up as many able-bodied recipients as possible.
Medicaid enrollment, the authors claim, is a “political machine” that studies have shown to boost voter turnout, “especially in Democratic areas.” When people enroll in programs like Medicaid, they are automatically linked to voter registration and get-out-the-vote nonprofits. This is why Democrats are screaming about possible Medicaid cuts — the program helps them snag voters.
Some Republicans are scared to drain the honey pot, worried it will cost them votes in districts home to large numbers of recipients. The clear solution is to reform the program — and in particular to reestablish work requirements for able-bodied adults without small children. Polling shows that 73 percent of likely voters approve restoring that requirement.
Elsewhere, Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) announced recently that he would not vote to confirm Ed Martin as the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia. Tillis cited Martin’s defense of defendants charged in the 2021 attack on the Capitol for his decision. His announcement, sufficient to block the nomination on the Senate Judiciary Committee, forced the White House to withdraw Martin’s nomination and quickly select a replacement.
Martin was a controversial pick, but Tillis should be reminded that in the U.S., everyone — no matter how heinous their crimes — deserves a proper defense and a fair trial. The fact that Martin represented people who entered the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, is not disqualifying.
Many people believe that the Capitol riot defendants were railroaded by a Department of Justice more concerned with political theater and retribution than with justice. In response to the riots, the FBI engaged in what has been described as “the biggest criminal inquiry in the Justice Department’s 153-year history.” In all, the agency charged 1,575 people, the majority for the simple crime of trespassing.
Many Republicans consider the hunting down and charging of Jan. 6 participants another example of a two-tiered system of justice that emerged under former President Joe Biden. He frequently portrayed Republicans as a danger to the country. The ongoing prosecution of the rioters at that time helped make his case.
But when repeat violent criminals are routinely released back onto the streets in our country thanks to lenient “justice reform” measures, the treatment of the Jan. 6 crowd seems extreme.
Consequently, many Republicans welcomed Trump’s clemency for Jan. 6 participants. Indeed, a Rasmussen poll from late last year found that 49 percent of all likely U.S. voters would approve of Trump pardoning many of those charged with federal crimes for participating in the Jan. 6, while 46 percent would disapprove.
Tillis may believe that his state’s support for Trump is softening. Perhaps he feels the need to signal independence, or he has qualms about some of Martin’s far-right views. But D.C. is a dangerous place — a tough U.S. Attorney might have been just the thing for it.
Tillis is up for reelection next year and is considered vulnerable. He should note that whereas he won his seat with less than 49 percent of the vote in 2020, Trump won 51 percent in North Carolina vote last year. Bucking the president may not pay off.
Trump is on a mission, targeting dozens of tough problems faced by our country. He has shown enormous courage under fire, literally and figuratively, taking shots from would-be assassins and also from the hostile press.
The least Republicans in Congress can do is show some spine and push the agenda forward. If they cannot make a case for the votes they need to take, maybe they should step aside.
Liz Peek is a former partner of major bracket Wall Street firm Wertheim and Company.
