freebeacon.com House Democrats from red states railed against leadership for including a provision in President Joe Biden’s social spending bill that cuts funding for low-income hospitals—then they voted for it.
Twenty House Democrats penned a November letter to Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.) and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.) expressing concern over the policy, which pulls billions of dollars in federal funding from hospitals that serve underprivileged patients in states that have not expanded Medicaid. While those Democrats criticized the provision as a “misguided penalty that puts our most vulnerable constituents at risk,” all 20—including swing-district Reps. Stephanie Murphy (Fla.) and Colin Allred (Texas)—went on to vote for Biden’s bill just two weeks later.
Senate Republicans are now highlighting the proposed cuts as the upper chamber weighs Biden’s $2 trillion spending package. In a December op-ed, for example, Sens. Rick Scott (R., Fla.) and Ted Cruz (R., Texas) called on their Democratic colleagues to “fight like hell” and stop the “vindictive payment cuts.” Should Schumer move forward with the provision, it could hand Republicans a line of attack in the 2022 midterms. Sen. Raphael Warnock (D., Ga.) has already stressed the need to get Biden’s bill “across the finish line,” even as his hospitals face slashes in funding….
