Senate leader Thune says won't overrule chamber's parliamentarian on GOP Medicaid cuts

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said Thursday that he will not overrule the Senate parliamentarian on GOP Medicaid cuts in the budget reconciliation bill.

Senate parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough rejected Republicans' plan to cap the states' use of healthcare provider taxes to collect more federal Medicaid funding, per a Democratic summary of the parliamentarian's ruling. 

The provision would have generated hundreds of billions of dollars in savings to offset the cost of making President Trump's 2017 tax cuts permanent.

Senate Republicans' options to bypass the parliamentarian's rulings include having a simple-majority floor vote to establish a new precedent, which would expand the scope of what is eligible under reconciliation, or attempting to rewrite the cap in a way that meets the parliamentarian's approval.

“No. That would not be a good outcome for getting a bill done,” Thune told reporters at the Capitol regarding overruling MacDonough, The Hill news outlet reported.

Thune said that Republican leaders knew “it was going to be an interesting conversation” with the Senate parliamentarian about the provision, but he believes there are actions that senators can take to find similar savings.

“These are … short-term setbacks,” Thune said. “Speed bumps, if you will. We’re focused on the goal.”

“We were obviously trying to get as much in terms of savings as we could. We pushed hard to try and achieve that,” he also said.

“There are things that we can do,” Thune said. “There are other ways of getting to that same outcome.”

Regarding his plan to hold a vote on Friday to begin consideration on the floor, Thune said, “We’ll see,” noting ongoing discussions with the parliamentarian. “We’ll see how it all lands.”