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Newsweek
6 days ago
- Business
- Newsweek
How Republicans Can Prove They're Serious About the National Debt
The Republican Party's unified control of Congress and the White House is on borrowed time. Facing a $37 trillion national debt, the elected officials the grassroots sent to Washington with a mandate to cut spending are waffling over whether to eliminate $9.4 billion, which is to say 0.00025 percent of the debt. If the GOP cannot deliver on such low-hanging fruit, it will have squandered a rare opportunity and handed a win to big-government liberals. Lawmakers face two options: Pass the Rescissions Act now or abandon your principles and watch as your voters abandon you. Congress adopted rescissions under the 1974 Impoundment Control Act as a reminder that the legislative branch's power of the purse is not simply to empty the purses of hardworking Americans. It allows the president to propose canceling previously appropriated, unobligated funds, subject to congressional approval within 45 days. The current package targets $8.3 billion in foreign aid—think environmentalist initiatives in Africa—and $1.1 billion for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which funds NPR and PBS—think taxpayer-funded propaganda. These are programs many Americans recognize as nonessential, yet they persist because of bureaucratic inertia and political timidity. At a time when every man, woman, and child in America is on the hook for $108,000 to pay off the national debt, the rescissions package would be the equivalent of knocking $27 off the price tag. It is a paltry sum, which means it is even more vital to pass without amendment. WASHINGTON, DC - JULY 1: Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) (2nd-L), accompanied by Sen. John Barrasso (R-WY) (L), Sen. Mike Crapo (R-ID) (2nd-R), and Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) (R), speaks to reporters off the... WASHINGTON, DC - JULY 1: Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) (2nd-L), accompanied by Sen. John Barrasso (R-WY) (L), Sen. Mike Crapo (R-ID) (2nd-R), and Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) (R), speaks to reporters off the Senate floor after the Senate passes President Donald Trump's so-called "One, Big, Beautiful Bill," Act at the U.S. Capitol Building on July 1, 2025 in Washington, DC. MoreThe House vote was razor-thin at 214-212, and the Senate, where a simple majority can pass the package, must act now to avoid expiration. Every defection risks derailing this effort and emboldening liberals to obstruct future reforms. Some Senate Republicans already appear to be wavering. Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) must set a clear red line for his colleagues, reminding them that voters deserve the benefit of the doubt over entrenched D.C. insiders. The Rescissions Act isn't about slashing essential services; it's about prioritizing taxpayer dollars over bureaucratic sacred cows. The national debt is an existential threat. The CBO estimates that net interest payments are projected to hit $1 trillion next year, crowding out investments in defense, infrastructure, and tax relief. Every dollar spent on questionable programs—say, for example, the $10 million set aside for "gender programs" in Pakistan that somehow found its way into the domestic COVID relief bill—is a dollar stolen from future generations. The Rescissions Act, though modest at 0.5 percent of discretionary spending, is a critical signal to voters and the market. If Republicans can't rally behind it, they risk surrendering credibility as the party of fiscal sanity. It is time for Congress to reassert its role as the legislature rather than outsource its responsibilities to the executive branch. Elon Musk and DOGE did an admirable job from the White House in flagging $162 billion in improper payments in 2024 alone. Rescissions are the constitutional path to codify these savings, shielding the administration from legal challenges while reasserting Congress' fiscal responsibility. If Republican senators refuse to govern out of concern for their constituents, perhaps they will do so for the sake of their own political survival. Unified government is a rare thing in America—only 15 times since 1900 has one party held the White House, Senate, and House at once. History shows voters punish complacency when lawmakers ignore the mandate that sent them to Washington. In 2018, a $15 billion rescissions package passed the House but died in the Senate, undone by GOP senators prioritizing pet projects. Voters let them have it in the midterms that followed. Democrats clearly have the midterms in mind as they unify behind Democratic Senate leader Chuck Schumer (N.Y.). Schumer has threatened to shut down the government if the Senate passes these modest cuts. Rather than run scared, Republicans would do well to remember his predecessor, the late Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.). In July 2013, Reid threatened the nuclear option if the GOP did not confirm several of President Barack Obama's radical labor nominees; Republicans capitulated. Reid rewarded that display of cowardice by deploying the nuclear option a few months later. Schumer, no doubt, has similar plans. If he senses wavering from a majority that is more committed to the status quo than its own principles, he will have all the more reason to shut down the government and obstruct future budget reforms. Republicans should make liberals justify their own spendthrift ways, rather than playing defense. The Rescissions Act is a test of whether the GOP can follow the mandate that voters gave them in 2024. Pass the package, unapologetically, and make Schumer and company defend the status quo of borrowing 40 cents on the dollar to pay for liberal pet projects. The choice is clear for Senate Republicans as the July 18 deadline approaches: cut now or pay dearly later. Erick Erickson is host of the nationally syndicated Erick Erickson Show and a member of the Americans for Prosperity Advisory Council. The views expressed in this article are the writer's own.
Yahoo
13-07-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Senate Republican: ‘America is safer with Pam Bondi as attorney general'
Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) on Sunday said he has confidence in Attorney General Pam Bondi despite reports that she is feuding with FBI Director Kash Patel and Deputy FBI Director Dan Bongino over her handling of the case related to disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein. 'I do,' Barrasso said, when asked in an interview on NBC News's 'Meet the Press' whether he has confidence in Bondi. 'We ran to make this country safer and more prosperous. Pam Bondi and her team are getting hardened criminals off the streets,' he continued. 'America is safer with Pam Bondi as attorney general.' Barrasso said, 'I do,' when moderator Kristen Welker followed up to ask if he has confidence in Patel. The interview comes after President Trump reiterated his confidence in Bondi on Saturday amid fierce backlash from segments of his base over her handling of the Epstein files. The Justice Department released a memo on Monday concluding there was no evidence Epstein kept a 'client list,' nor that the convicted sex offender sought to blackmail powerful figures implicated in his crimes. The memo also found no evidence suggesting foul play involved in Epstein's death, which had previously been ruled a suicide. Those revelations contradict conspiracy theories pushed by several right-wing media personalities and internet influencers; many of whom fumed Monday over the memo and alleged a cover-up was taking place. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
NBC News
13-07-2025
- Politics
- NBC News
Sen. John Barrasso says Medicaid has become ‘a magnet' for waste, fraud and abuse
In an exclusive interview with Meet the Press, Senate Majority Whip John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) defends the Medicaid cuts in President Trump's new tax and spending law amid growing 13, 2025
Forbes
02-07-2025
- Health
- Forbes
InnovationRx: Millions Would Lose Health Insurance Under Republican Budget Bill
In this week's edition of InnovationRx, we look at the millions who would lose health insurance under the Republican bill, a startup that built a hospital in India to test its AI software, the impact of the vaccine panel changes, and more. To get it in your inbox, subscribe here . Mehmet Oz, administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, joined by Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., the GOP whip, and Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D. The Associated Press T he Republican domestic policy bill, which cleared the Senate this week and could be voted on in the House as early as today, will have a drastic impact on Americans' health and that of the country's healthcare system if it goes into effect. According to a report from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, released on Saturday night, 11.8 million more Americans would become uninsured by 2034 under the Republican bill. Federal spending on Medicaid would be slashed by more than $1 trillion over that period, and total federal spending on Medicaid, Medicare and Obamacare would drop by more than $1.1 trillion. The scale of the proposed cuts to Medicaid is unprecedented in the program's 50-year history. They largely come from two key provisions: tight work requirements for those who receive health coverage and new restrictions on a strategy used by some states to finance Medicaid. The cuts could have a devastating impact both on those left without insurance and the hospitals that serve them. Medicaid, jointly funded by the federal government and the states, provides health coverage to more than 71.2 million disabled and low-income Americans. The proposed cuts to Medicaid could be particularly rough for those who are nearing retirement and can't find work, particularly blue-collar workers who are no longer physically able to perform their former jobs. As AARP executive vice president and chief advocacy and engagement officer Nancy LeaMond wrote in a letter to Senate leaders on Sunday: 'This creates a steep coverage cliff for those in their 50s and early 60s – particularly for those nearing retirement or working part-time – who may be left with no affordable coverage option at all.' These cuts would also ripple out through hospitals and other healthcare providers. Particularly in rural areas, hospitals and healthcare providers rely on Medicaid patients to stay financially in the black. Although the pending bill includes $25 billion to support rural health systems, an analysis from the National Rural Health Association found that this covers less than half of the revenue hospitals would lose from Medicaid cuts–a gap that increases significantly once clinics, doctors' offices and other healthcare services are taken into account. 'Medicaid is a substantial source of federal funds in rural communities across the country. The proposed changes to Medicaid will result in significant coverage losses, reduce access to care for rural patients, and threaten the viability of rural facilities,' the group's CEO Alan Morgan said in a statement. 'It's very clear that Medicaid cuts will result in rural hospital closures resulting in loss of access to care for those living in rural America.' This Startup Built A Hospital In India To Test Its AI Software Pi Health founders Geoff Kim (left) and Bobby Reddy Maria Ponce As longtime cancer doctors with regulatory experience, Pi Health cofounders Geoff Kim and Bobby Reddy knew that completing clinical trials took far too long. There was the painfully slow process of signing up patients and after that a grueling slog through vast swamps of data to prepare voluminous regulatory filings–something that few hospitals and clinics can handle. The pair knew their startup's best chance of success meant doing an end run around all that. So they did something audacious and unprecedented: they built their own cancer hospital in India. Clinical trials are an enormous bottleneck in drug development, and Kim and Reddy thought the AI-enabled software they'd been building at Pi Health could help do them faster and cheaper by expanding the pool of potentially eligible patients. But the majority of clinical trials today are done in top-notch academic medical centers, and first they needed to prove that their AI-enabled software could help overseas hospitals and smaller community cancer centers handle the documentation required to get through regulatory approval. So they found a site in Hyderabad, a major technology and pharmaceutical center in southern India, and built a 30-bed, state-of-the-art cancer hospital. Pi Health Cancer Hospital opened in September 2023, and began running clinical trials last year. It's participated in eight so far, including one that helped lead to a drug for head, neck and lung cancer being approved in India just seven months after the first Indian patient was enrolled in the study. That's less than half the time such a process would typically take and a major validation point for the software, one that Kim and Reddy believe will help them attract more customers. 'We are trying to do everything in our power to make this a much more efficient process,' Kim, the company's CEO, told Forbes. 'There are all these new and exciting ways to attack cancer. If we can do [the clinical trials] faster and cheaper and get therapies out to patients, we want to do it now because there are people waiting right now.' Read more here. BIOTECH AND PHARMA Newark-Calif.-based biotech Protagonist Therapeutics, which develops peptide-based drugs, announced its new obesity treatment candidate, called PN-477, on Monday. The new drug would target GLP-1 receptors, like current obesity drugs, and two other receptors that could both limit potential gastrointestinal issues and induce the body to burn more calories at rest. The mechanism of action is similar to Lilly's triple-agonist Retatrutide, which is currently in clinical trials, but Protagonist CEO Dinesh Patel told Forbes that his company is working on an oral version. Patel expects to begin clinical trials in 2026. Plus : How the kings of CBD at Charlotte's Web hope to treat autism, PTSD and depression with pharmaceuticals derived from cannabis and psilocybin. PUBLIC HEALTH AND HOSPITALS Last week, the CDC's new Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices met for the first time since HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. purged the previous 17 members of the panel, replacing them with seven handpicked members, some of whom have spread misinformation about vaccines. The vaccine committee voted 5-2 to recommend Merck's new prophylactic antibody for infants with RSV. But it also voted 5-1 against recommending the preservative thimerosal, despite there being no evidence of it causing harm. Questions from the panel, especially during presentations on COVID-19, raise questions about future votes. Paul Offit, director of the Vaccine Education Center at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, told Forbes in a video interview that some of the questions and statements made during the meeting indicated 'some of the committee members didn't understand how these studies were done' to demonstrate the safety and effectiveness of vaccines. "I think the ACIP just took a giant step backward,' he said. 'And I think for the most part the medical and scientific community is going to do their best to ignore them because I think at this point they can only do harm.' Plus : The Supreme Court upheld the Affordable Care Act's preventive care mandate, which includes routine immunizations and cancer screenings. WHAT WE'RE READING Generic cancer drugs failed quality tests, putting cancer patients in more than 100 countries at risk of ineffective treatments and potentially fatal side effects, according to an investigation by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism. Research on what wildfire smoke does to the human body is in its infancy – but the signs are pretty bad. Many of the more than 1,000 medical devices deemed 'breakthrough' by the FDA since 2016 are backed by patchy evidence. Disposable e-cigarettes that may look like travel shampoo bottles and smell like bubble gum are vastly more toxic than older e-cigarettes, according to a recent study from the University of California, Davis. After Texas banned abortion, more women nearly bled to death during miscarriage. The ProPublica data analysis of hospital discharge data from Texas, the largest state to ban abortion, adds to growing evidence that abortion bans have made first-trimester miscarriage far more dangerous. AbbVie agreed to acquire Capstan Therapeutics, which is developing CAR-T therapies for cancer and autoimmune disorders, in a deal worth up to $2.1 billion. Startup Sama Fertility raised $43 million in seed funding led by VC firm SNR to launch a hybrid in-person, virtual IVF program. MORE FROM FORBES Forbes How This Chicago Private Equity Firm Scored The Biggest Exit Of 2025 By Hank Tucker Forbes Red States–And AI–Are Big Losers From Trump's Clean Energy Massacre By Christopher Helman Forbes The Top 10 Richest People In The World (July 2025) By Forbes Wealth Team
CTV News
29-06-2025
- Business
- CTV News
Republican senate tax bill would add $3.3 trillion to the U.S. debt load, CBO says
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., joined at left by Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., the GOP whip, speaks to reporters following closed-door party meetings at the Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, June 17, 2025. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite) WASHINGTON — The changes made to U.S. President Donald Trump's big tax bill in the Senate would pile trillions onto the nation's debt load while resulting in even steeper losses in health care coverage, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said in a new analysis, adding to the challenges for Republicans as they try to muscle the bill to passage. The CBO estimates the Senate bill would increase the deficit by nearly $3.3 trillion from 2025 to 2034, a nearly $1 trillion increase over the House-passed bill, which CBO has projected would add $2.4 to the debt over a decade. The analysis also found that 11.8 million more Americans would become uninsured by 2034 if the bill became law, an increase over the scoring for the House-passed version of the bill, which predicts 10.9 million more people would be without health coverage. The stark numbers are yet another obstacle for Republican leaders as they labor to pass Trump's bill by his self-imposed July 4th deadline. Even before the CBO's estimate, Republicans were at odds over the contours of the legislation, with some resisting the cost-saving proposals to reduce spending on Medicaid and food aid programs even as other Republicans say those proposals don't go far enough. Republicans are slashing the programs as a way to help cover the cost of extending some $3.8 trillion in Trump tax breaks put in place during his first term. The push-pull was on vivid display Saturday night as a routine procedural vote to take up the legislation in the Senate was held open for hours as Vice President JD Vance and Republican leaders met with several holdouts. The bill ultimately advanced in a 51-49 vote, but the path ahead is fraught, with voting on amendments still to come. Still, many Republicans are disputing the CBO estimates and the reliability of the office's work. To hoist the bill to passage, they are using a different budget baseline that assumes the Trump tax cuts expiring in December have already been extended, essentially making them cost-free in the budget. The CBO on Saturday released a separate analysis of the GOP's preferred approach that found the Senate bill would reduce deficits by about $500 billion. Democrats and economists decry the GOP's approach as 'magic math' that obscures the true costs of the GOP tax breaks. In addition, Democrats note that under the traditional scoring system, the Republican bill bill would violate the Senate's 'Byrd Rule' that forbids the legislation from increasing deficits after 10 years. In a Sunday letter to Oregon Sen. Jeff Merkley, the top Democrat on the Senate Budget Committee, CBO Director Phillip Swagel said the office estimates that the Finance Committee's portion of the bill, also known as Title VII, 'increases the deficits in years after 2034' under traditional scoring. Fatima Hussein, The Associated Press
