GOP Rep. Andy Harris of Maryland raises concerns with Trump tax bill: 'The swamp is real'

Carson Swick, Baltimore Sun on May 14, 2025

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U.S. Rep. Andy Harris, the Maryland Republican who chairs the House Freedom Caucus, is not fully on board with President Donald Trump’s tax bill.

In an X post Tuesday night, Harris said the multitrillion-dollar effort — which House Republicans have sought to pay for by cutting Medicaid, food stamps and green energy programs — does little to “stop, waste, fraud, and abuse in Medicaid.” He called the bill a “joke” and wrote “the swamp is real,” a clear reference to Trump’s original campaign promise to “drain the swamp” of Washington, D.C., insiders.

Harris specifically objected to the fact that the bill’s employment requirement for able-bodied adults to receive Medicaid does not start until 2029, meaning Trump’s successor could lead an effort to repeal it. The congressman also dislikes a provision that would allow states to waive this requirement for reasons of “hardship,” which he thinks states will abuse.

“The federal government should NOT pay states more for able-bodied, working-age adults on Medicaid than it pays states for children, pregnant women, seniors, and people with disabilities on Medicaid,” Harris wrote.

Harris not alone on the right

Besides Harris, other conservative hardliners have their doubts about “The One, Big, Beautiful Bill,” which Trump has touted online as “GREAT” and said Republicans have “no alternative” but to pass it. In what is expected to be a party-line vote, Republicans in the House and Senate can afford to lose the support of just two and three members, respectively.

Rep. Paul Gosar, an Arizona Republican, said the needed reforms “fall short” and expressed his desire to see more spending cuts to root out government waste.

“As it currently stands, I’m afraid that not nearly enough is being done to garner the support to pass the big, beautiful bill,” Gosar posted on X Tuesday.

Conservative senators like Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson want to see trillions in further cuts to make the government return to pre-pandemic spending levels.

“I think there’s enough of us that would say, ‘No, that’s not adequate,’” Johnson told Politico of the current proposed cuts, calling the bill “the Titanic” because he believes it’s “going down” in the Senate.

More moderate members of the House Republican Conference, especially those from competitive districts, are carefully weighing the potential impact that voting to cut Medicaid could have on their political futures.

They are also concerned with working out a deal to increase the cap on state and local tax deductions, commonly known as SALT. A proposal to increase the cap from $10,000 to $30,000 while phasing it out for people earning at least $200,000 annually was debated Tuesday night, but Republicans in high-tax districts argue this would not do enough to address tax burdens faced by their constituents.

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