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As the Senate takes up the House-passed Big Beautiful Bill, the No. 1 hitch is a dispute between fiscal hawks and Medicaid doves — that is, senators who say it doesn’t cut enough federal

spending vs. those who claim it cuts “too much” from Medicaid. That latter crew includes a few Republicans — and pretty much _all_ Democrats, who keep talking about “millions losing their

health insurance” with literally deadly consequences. The hawks are a _lot_ closer to reality here: The GOP bill doesn’t actually even cut Medicaid, it just slightly slows its growth in

years to come, even though Medicaid spending has _exploded _since 2019. Per the Congressional Budget Office, federal outlays on the program have been positively soaring, from $409 billion in

2019 to $615 billion in 2023, and projected to hit $655 billion in 2025. That’s a _50% jump_ from 2019 to 2023, and 60% to 2025. MORE FROM POST EDITORIAL BOARD What happened? First, a spike

in emergency spending in the name of dealing with the pandemic, followed by the Biden crew’s quiet drive to expand Medicaid as much as it could in the direction of “universal health

coverage.” That last included giving Uncle Sam’s OK to complex state financial games to “qualify” for billions more in “free” federal funding. As a result, per the Centers for Medicare and

Medicaid, the federal share of _total _Medicaid spending rose from 63% in 2018 to 70% in 2022. That dropped a bit to 68% in 2023 as most states, after years of Washington-mandated

forbearance, finally started pruning their rolls of people who now make too much to qualify for what’s _supposed_ to be a program for the _poor_. Every time Democrats gain power in

Washington, they ratchet up Medicaid outlays; Republicans for decades have flinched from rolling it back, no matter how perverse it leaves the rules. For example, the feds still cover 90% of

the cost of Medicaid coverage for single men, vs. just 50% for families and women with kids in the house: The mismatch began as a “temporary” rule when ObamaCare passed, but somehow has

never ended. And it all adds up to far more than Uncle Sam can afford, and a major reason why yearly federal budget deficits are nearing $2 trillion — even though the feds keep collecting

ever more in taxes. Sooner or later, it’s got to stop — but the GOP budget bill only begins to rein in Medicaid’s growth with commonsense reforms like requiring able-bodied single men to

work just 80 hours _a month_ to still qualify. And _that_ rule wouldn’t even kick in for a couple of years — _none_ of the Republicans’ “savage cuts” do. Bottom line: The bill is already

plenty “dovish”; if the Senate bends it any more in their direction, it’ll break the bank all the sooner.