The Big Beautiful Bill needs its own thread.

[jon-nyc]

Might be what provides our political drama for the next few weeks.

[Mik]

I haven't read enough of it to see what the bones of contention are.

[jon-nyc]

House GOP has a half dozen or so folks that won’t support significant Medicaid cuts (eg Valdao in Bakersfield with 25% of his district on Medicaid, Lawler and Van Drew around here) and a half dozen or so folks that won’t vote for a bill that doesn’t have a lot of cuts (Roy, etc).

Johnson seems to have moved toward the moderates on this one over the last few weeks, not least because he knows the senate will take the cuts out and so guys like Valadao and Lawler would be taking performative votes that could haunt them in 26.

[jon-nyc]

It’s worth remembering that the GOP has a smaller majority in the house than any majority party since 1932.

[Mik]

Medicaid already pays providers pretty much nothing. Not sure where they could cut. All they could do without a revolution is to change the nature of the program to block grants, which I think are already part of it. We're never going to get out of the hole without cuts AND tax increases.

[jon-nyc]

US gets its debt downgraded.

https://www.reuters.com/markets/us/moodys-downgrades-us-aa1-rating-2025-05-16/