Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) delivered a sharp warning on Sunday, declaring that the Senate’s version of President Trump’s sweeping spending bill would violate a core promise Trump made not to cut Medicaid benefits for Americans.
Tillis, who voted against the bill during a critical procedural vote Saturday night and later announced he would not seek reelection, took to the Senate floor to explain his opposition. He made clear he would not support the legislation unless significant changes were made to prevent what he described as harmful and avoidable cuts to Medicaid.
“What do I tell 663,000 people in two years or three years, when President Trump breaks his promise by pushing them off of Medicaid because the funding’s not there anymore, guys?” Tillis said during his remarks. “I think the people in the White House advising the president are not telling him that the effect of this bill is to break a promise.”
Tillis focused particularly on the bill’s changes to the Medicaid provider tax—a mechanism states use to fund their share of Medicaid costs. He said he had brought multiple estimates and analyses to White House policy experts, who ultimately conceded that his concerns were valid but dismissed them, saying states like North Carolina would “just have to make it work.”
Directing his message to President Trump, Tillis said the advisors surrounding the president are failing to provide the full picture of how the proposed legislation would impact Medicaid recipients.
“Now Republicans are about to make a mistake on health care and betray a promise,” he said. “It is inescapable that this bill in its current form will betray the very promise that Donald J. Trump made in the Oval Office or in the Cabinet Room, when I was there—where he said, we can go after waste, fraud, and abuse on any programs.”
Tillis pointedly criticized the administration’s healthcare team, saying the problem wasn’t Trump himself, but the people advising him. “Now, those amateurs that are advising him — not Dr. Oz, I’m talking about White House health care experts — refuse to tell him that those instructions, that were to eliminate waste, fraud and abuse, all of a sudden eliminate a government program that’s called the provider tax,” he said.
Tillis’ remarks reflect growing tensions among Senate Republicans over the direction of Trump’s domestic agenda, especially when it comes to healthcare policy and promises made to working-class and low-income Americans who rely on safety net programs like Medicaid.
