Trump warns dissenters in the GOP to drop objections to SALT and Medicaid

President Trump turned the screws on holdout Republicans, warning they would pay a steep political price if they stood in the way of the multitrillion-dollar tax and spending agenda that party leaders want to quickly pass through the narrowly divided chamber. 

In a closed door meeting with the House GOP conference, President Trump urged fiscal conservatives to give up efforts to expand Medicaid cuts, and urged a number of moderates to drop their drive for further blue-state tax relief.

According to some reports, in the closed door meeting, Trump said “Don’t f— around with Medicaid.” Movement on the tax bill has been hampered by a small number of Trump’s fellow Republicans in the House of Representatives, including a group that wants cuts to the massive Medicaid health-care coverage program, which covers primarily low-income people.

Those Republicans also want work requirements added to the eligibility requirements for Medicaid. Critics say work requirements would create a bureaucratic nightmare, forcing the government to try to verify and track the employment status and job searching efforts of tens of millions of people.

Other lawmakers who have been stumbling blocks to passing the bill include Republicans from New York and California who want even higher increases to a proposed hike in the deduction for state and local taxes, and others who want cuts to the federal deficit from the bill.

“Let it go,” Trump told members of the so-called SALT Caucus, according to three lawmakers who were in the meeting, NBC News reported. Speaker of the House Mike Johnson said Tuesday afternoon that he’s “very confident” he can flip the GOP holdouts votes.

President Trump has made it a priority of his to prevent cuts to Medicaid, a more economically populist position than traditional Republican Presidents of the past.