‘The big, beautiful bill’ will ‘refocus Medicaid dollars,’ WA rep. claims

House Republicans lifted President Donald Trump’s $4.5 trillion tax breaks and spending cuts bill to final passage Thursday, overcoming multiple setbacks to approve his signature second-term policy package before a self-imposed Fourth of July deadline.

Washington state representative Jim Walsh (R-Aberdeen) joined “Seattle’s Morning News” just before the House sent the bill to the president’s desk to explain why this “big, beautiful bill” is necessary.

“I want to know your pitch to our KIRO Newsradio listeners, because we do have a mix of Republicans, Democrats, and Independents all hanging on your every word right now,” KIRO host Charlie Harger said.

“Look, this is a controversial bill, and let’s frame it the right way,” Walsh said. “What we ought to be doing in Congress … is doing normal budgets, like what we do in Olympia. You can like them. You can dislike them, but a regular budget allows for the right debate on these issues of what we spend our tax money on.

“We haven’t done a proper federal budget in like two decades, and this is what we get for doing all these Band-Aid fixes on our federal government spending,” Walsh continued.

The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Review said the bill would pile nearly $3.3 trillion onto the nation’s debt load from 2025 to 2034, a nearly $1 trillion increase over the House-passed version of the bill. The analysis also found that 11.8 million Americans would become uninsured by 2034 if the bill were to be signed by President Trump.

“I’m old enough to remember when the Republicans were the party of fiscal responsibility,” Harger said. “All about balanced budgets, but here we are adding $3.3 trillion to the deficit. How can we justify that?”

“Well, it’s tough. We need to pass this kind of bill to keep things going on this revolving, temporary basis, because this is where we are. We’ve agreed to do this years ago, and we’re stuck now in this place,” Walsh responded. “What we need is leadership at the top, and the president has indicated he wants to go this way. This gets us back to conventional budget negotiations in D.C., and that’s the long-term play. This is a short-term step on the way to getting proper budgets written.”

Cuts toward Medicaid frighten Democratic reps, voters

Tax breaks, spending cuts, and new funding for national defense and deportations are among the top concerns for Republicans, according to The Associated Press, while Democrats worry the bill’s reductions to Medicaid will leave millions without care.

“What’s the truth about the Medicaid cuts that are in this proposal? Right now, in this country, we have a diluted Medicaid program,” Walsh said. “The program uses federal dollars that flow through the state governments. So every state has its own version of Medicaid. In our state, we call ours Apple Health. We’ve had a series of decisions made in how we run Apple Health that has diluted the benefit.”

Walsh said Medicaid’s initial purpose in Washington was to provide basic health insurance for people who are disabled, for people who are really down and out and not able to work and find their own health insurance, and a small sliver of older people.

“What the big beautiful bill is trying to do is refocus Medicaid dollars to get those reimbursement numbers back up closer to what the cost of providing the services is for a rural hospital,” Walsh said.

Listen to the full conversation here.

Contributing: The Associated Press

Listen to “Seattle’s Morning News” with Charlie Harger and Manda Factor weekday mornings from 5-9 a.m. on KIRO Newsradio. Subscribe to the podcast here.