
Healthcare Cuts 2.0: Will There Be A Second Budget Bill?
Washington continues with talk of a second budget reconciliation bill coming sometime later this year. The impetus comes from a few things. There is pressure within the two Republican caucuses to seriously deal with rising deficits and enact deeper spending cuts. The One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) cut healthcare by over $1 trillion. But due to new tax cuts and extensions, the deficit over the ten-year budget horizon goes up by $3.4 trillion, more if you include interest costs. The debt limit was actually increased by $5 trillion in the bill. And the U.S. government has just hit total debt of $37 trillion. The other issue is a political one. Conservative members of the GOP caucuses say they got explicit promises that they will have a shot at passing deeper healthcare cuts later this year. They indicate the commitments came from the president and their leaders in each chamber