Possible to reach the ambitious

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“I had a good talk with the president tonight. We talked for a fair bit, and we talked about the Medicaid issue, which was a big concern to me. … And he said, ‘I want to be crystal clear about this. The House will not cut Medicaid benefits under any circumstance. The Senate will not cut Medicaid benefits under any circumstance, and I will not sign a cut to Medicaid benefits,’” Hawley told reporters. “So that’s good, and I hope our leadership will take that cue.”

There is still widespread disagreement about whether it will be$880 billion in phone number library savings prescribed by the House-adopted budget for the House Energy and Commerce Committee without slashing Medicaid benefits, but Republicans continue to talk about other ways to cut costs within the health safety net program, like identifying waste, fraud and abuse in the system.

Collins and Murkowski also said they were paying close attention to how Medicaid is addressed in a final package.