Republican Senators walk Medicaid tightrope in budget negotiations – National & International News – MON 2Jun2025

 

Republican Senators walk Medicaid tightrope in budget negotiations.

Attempted murder, hate crimes charges for man accused of Molotov attack on Israel hostage rally.

 

Senators walk Medicaid tightrope in budget negotiations 

At a town hall last week, Iowa’s Republican Senator Joni Ernst drew loud jeers with her response to a concerned constituent fearful that people could die if proposed cuts to Medicaid in the Republicans’ federal budget bill go through. Ernst replied scornfully, “Well, we are all going to die. So, for heaven’s sakes. For heaven’s sakes folks”. 

It’s not clear how many Republican senators, now faced with shaping the budget bill passed by the House, are gauging public reaction and the potential fallout if Medicaid cuts go through. 

The current language in the bill instructs the committee overseeing Medicaid to make $880 billion in cuts over the next 10 years. Proposed changes to achieve this include:

• Work requirements for childless able-bodied Medicaid recipients between the ages of 19 and 64. 
• Requiring $35 co-pays per service from beneficiaries earning anything above the federal poverty level (about $32, 000 a year for a family of four).
• Penalizing states that provide state health coverage to undocumented immigrants.
• More frequent eligibility checks, from once yearly to twice yearly.
• Barring states from increasing taxes on health care providers that states use to fund their Medicaid contributions.

Who is likely to lose coverage?

Currently, about 70 million Americans rely on Medicaid. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimates that by 2034, about 10.3 million people will lose their Medicaid coverage under this plan. 

Analysts predict that one of the main drivers of coverage loss will be increased and more frequent reporting requirements. People on Medicaid often are unaware when their coverage has lapsed until they turn up for a doctor’s appointment. This is particularly likely to happen to people who change addresses often. In such situations, even qualified recipients will struggle with increased reporting requirements.

Adult college and trade school students who are not on their parents’ insurance will also struggle to meet the work requirements. However, many of those likely to lose coverage are people who are working- especially those whose work is seasonally dependent, those working in the gig economy, and self-employed and contract workers whose hours may be unpredictable. 

“MAGAs on Medicaid”

Months ago, former Trump advisor Steve Bannon pointed out that “a lot of MAGA is on Medicaid. If you don’t think so, you are dead wrong. You can’t just take a meat axe to it”. Previous surveys and focus groups have supported Bannon’s intuition. Republican voters have not responded favorably to suggestions around cutting Medicaid benefits. They especially do not favor cutting Medicaid to pay for massive tax cuts, as they see these tax cuts largely benefiting the wealthy.

Unlike Joni Ernst, some Republican senators are worried that severe cuts to Medicaid could fracture the working class MAGA base in the 2026 midterms and 2028 presidential vote. For example, Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri has said that “slashing health insurance for the working poor” is both “morally wrong and politically suicidal”.

In the Senate, Republicans can only afford three defections when trying to pass a bill along party lines. So far, three Republicans have voiced concerns about Medicaid cuts. However, there are many more senators that are more concerned with cutting the federal budget further, not satisfied with the $1.5 trillion in cuts proposed by the House.

 

Attempted murder, hate crimes charges for man accused of Molotov attack on Israel hostage rally 

On Sunday, a group of about 20 demonstrators had assembled in a park in Boulder, CO, in support of Israeli hostages in Gaza. Police say that Mohamed Sabry Soliman, a 45-year-old Egyptian national, launched Molotov cocktails at the group. Earlier reports indicated that the suspect had used some sort of makeshift flamethrower, but this does not appear to be the case. As he attacked the rally goers, Soliman reportedly yelled “free Palestine”.

Current reports indicate 12 injuries among the demonstrators, up from 8 yesterday. Those injured ranged in age from 52 to 88 and their injuries ranged from minor to severe. Six received treatment in hospitals and two currently remained hospitalized.

Soliman has been in the US since 2022 on a visa that expired in 2023 according to reports. Police believe that he acted alone. Although Soliman was reportedly planning this attack for about a year, he was not previously on the radar of any law enforcement or intelligence agency. He has been charged with 16 counts of attempted murder as well as a federal hate crime charge for this act of terrorism.

Antisemitism or Anti-zionism?

Police say Soliman told them that his attack was driven by a desire to “kill all Zionist people”, referring to those who support the political project of a Jewish ethnostate in Israel. While the news coverage has described his horrific attack as being antisemitic in nature, by Soliman’s own account, he did not attack the group based on their ethnic or religious identity. Not all Jews are Zionists, and not all Zionists are Jews. Rather, Soliman targeted the group based on their political beliefs, or at least what he perceived to be their political beliefs.

One of the rally’s participants, Lynn Segal, who is of Jewish descent, has supported the Palestinian cause for 40 years. In fact, she was concerned police might assume she was associated with the attacker because she was wearing a pro-Palestine T-shirt at the time.

Pro-Palestinian groups have condemned Soliman’s attack and said that his actions are not representative of the movement. Pro-Palestine activists – including Jewish-led organizations like Jewish Voice for Peace, If Not Now, and Not in Our Name- have often pointed out the dangers of conflating Zionism with Judaism. 

A sizeable and growing minority of Jews are anti-Zionist, meaning they do not support the existence of the state of Israel or its actions against the Palestinians. Nevertheless, pro-Israel groups continue to conflate Jewish identity with support for the state of Israel. The US government, private institutions, and even the media also consistently fail to make this distinction. Pro-Palestinian and anti-Zionist Jewish groups say that the perception Israel represents all Jews actually fuels antisemitism and makes Jews more vulnerable to being targeted due to public anger at Israel’s oppression of Palestinians.