'Embarrassment of a Human Being': Hawley Unveils Bill to Repeal Medicaid Cuts He Just Voted For

U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley faced ridicule and condemnation on Tuesday after introducing legislation that would repeal a major Medicaid cut included in the recently enacted Trump-GOP budget law—which the Republican senator from Missouri voted for just two weeks ago.

Hawley's new bill specifically targets the section of the Republican law that restricts states' use of healthcare provider taxes to help fund their Medicaid programs. Experts warned that the change will force states to enact devastating cuts to their Medicaid programs and strip benefits from millions.

The Republican senator's bill, which is unlikely to pass, would also boost a rural hospital fund that critics have slammed as a mere Band-Aid that will do little to mitigate the harms of the GOP law's unprecedented Medicaid cuts.

"Now is the time to prevent any future cuts to Medicaid from going into effect," Hawley declared Tuesday. "I want to see Medicaid reductions stopped and rural hospitals fully funded permanently."

Hawley warned against cutting Medicaid in the lead-up to final passage of the GOP budget package, writing in The New York Times in May that "if Congress cuts funding for Medicaid benefits, Missouri workers and their children will lose their healthcare."

But Hawley ultimately joined 49 of his Senate GOP colleagues in voting for the final bill, which—according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office—would cut Medicaid by more than $1 trillion over the next decade and kick around 17 million people off their health insurance.

"If he didn't want to see cuts, he could have voted against cuts. Everything this guy ever does is fake posturing."

If Hawley had voted no on the budget legislation and every other senator kept their vote the same, the measure would not have passed the upper chamber.

"First, Josh Hawley talked about not wanting to cut Medicaid. Then, when the billionaires needed his vote, he voted to cut Medicaid," wrote Rep. Greg Casar (D-Texas), chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus. "Now that the Medicaid cuts are passed, he's back to talking about not wanting to cut Medicaid. He's full of shit."

Jonathan Cohn, political director of Progressive Mass, also responded derisively to Hawley's bill, calling the senator "an embarrassment of a human being."

"If he didn't want to see cuts, he could have voted against cuts," Cohn wrote on social media. "Everything this guy ever does is fake posturing."

In addition to the provider tax provision, the Republican law includes draconian work reporting mandates for many Medicaid recipients and would require some low-income program enrollees to pay more for care—an effective cut to benefits.

"We confronted Josh Hawley in person at the Capitol days before Trump's 'Big Beautiful Bill' and we told him to vote against it. He decided to vote for it anyway," the Debt Collective wrote Tuesday. "Now it looks like he wants a do-over because his constituents will suffer big time. Shameful."