In the Capitol building, while the Senate continues to discuss and dissect President Donald Trump‘s “one, big beautiful bill,” CNN’s Manu Raju interviewed conservative U.S. Senator Josh Hawley (R-MO), who has been critical of the proposed Medicaid cuts in the bill.
The cuts in the bill that passed the House of Representatives in May by a single vote were already poised to affect Hawley’s constituents, particularly those in rural areas. Hawley said the Senate plan, which he says “completely departs” from the House framework on Medicaid, would lead to closures of rural hospitals.
[Note: Of the 6.2 million people in the state of Missouri, approximately 1.27 million are currently enrolled in Medicaid. About 32% of Medicaid enrollees live in a rural area, or about 406,400.]
Hawley says the Senate’s plan as it stands now would lead to “closures” of rural hospitals.
“So it’s like we’re defunding rural hospitals in order to pay for extensions of the Green New Deal. I don’t get it at all,” he said. pic.twitter.com/OwsfApGlSJ
— Manu Raju (@mkraju) June 19, 2025
As seen below, Hawley told Raju that when he spoke to President Trump about his concerns with the Senate’s actions on the bill, Hawley said of Trump: “He said ‘well, that’s very surprising.’ He said, ‘I’m very surprised that they made all these changes to the degree that they did.’ I said, ‘I am too.’”
Josh Hawley, who has been sharply critical of Medicaid cuts and its impacts on rural hospitals in Trump’s big bill, says the president told him “that’s very surprising” when he explained to him that the Senate GOP’s plan cuts deeper into it. pic.twitter.com/Vv380btD9U
— Manu Raju (@mkraju) June 19, 2025
Hawley said “Just two weeks ago he told Republicans ‘Don’t touch anything else on Medicaid. Take the House framework, tweak it if you need to but do not do anything else.’” Hawley added: “The Senate framework departs from his framework big time.”
Hawley said, “So it’s like we’re defunding rural hospitals in order to pay for extensions of the Green New Deal. I don’t get it at all.” That assertion stirred many to object in the comments, with some refuting Hawley’s suggestion that it’s Green New Deal programs that benefit from the Medicaid cuts. As one commenter wrote: “Medicaid is being cut to pay for tax cuts for billionaires, plain and simple.”