Senate passes budget, setting up showdown with House over Trump agenda

Contributing sentiments towards policy:

49% : Senators voted along party lines, 51-48, to adopt an amendment sponsored by Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska) that they argued would strengthen and improve Medicaid "for the most vulnerable populations" and extend the life of the Federal Hospital Insurance Trust Fund.
40% : The budget debate revealed the biggest looming fight between Senate and House Republicans is over Medicaid. House Republicans have slated the program for tens of billions of dollars in cuts, something that several Republican senators have warned they would oppose in any final reconciliation bill.
35% : Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) co-sponsored an amendment with Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) to strip House-drafted language affecting Medicaid from the resolution.
32% : "My amendment says we'll strengthen Medicaid and Medicare so they're available for years to come," Sullivan told colleagues on the floor. Democrats claimed, however, the amendment opens the door to Medicaid cuts by failing to define who qualifies as members of the most vulnerable populations.
31% : Senate Budget Committee Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) sought to avoid a fight with the House by keeping its language directing the House Energy and Commerce Committee to reduce the deficit by $880 billion, a target that policy experts say would require making deep cuts to Medicaid, in the Senate budget resolution.
31% : One Republican senator said the Senate language has prompted grumbling among House Republicans that the instruction to the Senate Finance Committee sets too low of a deficit cap to accommodate all of Trump's tax priorities, such as exempting tipped wages and Social Security benefits from taxation.
16% : "The House instruction on $880 billion troubles me greatly because I believe that it would inevitably lead to significant cuts in Medicaid, which would be very harmful to people in Maine and to our rural hospitals and other health care providers," Collins said.
11% : "In voting for this bill, Senate Republicans sided with billionaires, against the middle class, in total obeisance to Donald Trump," he said.

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