As Republicans work feverishly to complete the omnibus bill package this week, the Senate parliamentarian has delivered a devastating blow to the party. According to the official, a Medicaid provider tax change, which is key to President Trump’s tax reduction and spending bill, does not follow the chamber’s procedural rules.

Republican leaders are now faced with tough choices because the parliamentarian's advice is rarely ignored by the chamber. The Republican Party's main agenda item, namely the billions of dollars in tax cuts proposed by Trump, will not materialize without significant changes to Medicaid and other programs, as Fox News reported.

The parliamentarian, who is responsible for interpreting the Senate's complex rules, has also given a thumbs down to many GOP proposals that would have barred illegal immigrants from receiving health insurance.

On Thursday, Republicans rushed to reply, with some demanding the parliamentarian's removal from office or even challenging her appointment, a capacity in which she has served since 2012. Leaders in the Republican Party ignored those opinions and set out to change the bill's proposals

Democrat Response

Democrats, who oppose the proposal as a tax grab for the affluent at the price of American safety net programs, predicted the procedural rulings would destroy the GOP package.

Top Senate Finance Committee Democrat Ron Wyden called the Republican proposals $250 billion less for Medicaid, saying it's “massive Medicaid cuts that hurt kids, seniors, Americans with disabilities and working families.”

Trump wants legislative action to happen soon.

Despite a setback, Senate Republicans aim to pass the package and send it back to the House for a second vote before Trump's Fourth of July deadline.

From The White House

Trump welcomed House Speaker Mike Johnson and other Republican lawmakers to the White House's East Room, where they were joined by those that the administration claims will reap the benefits of the bill, including truck drivers, firefighters, tipped workers, ranchers, and others.

“We don’t want to have grandstanders,” Trump said speaking about GOP holdouts.

The upcoming bundle of tax cuts, expenditure reductions, and increased funding to implement Trump's mass deportation plans includes "hundreds of things," according to Trump. “It's so good.”

The major package, which is currently undergoing Senate revisions after passing the House, contains $3.8 trillion in tax cuts that were authorized during Trump's first term but would expire in December, leading to a tax increase unless Congress takes action.

Possible Compensation

Slashing food stamps and health care programs and putting new taxes on immigrants are two of the Republican Party's revenue-neutral strategies to offset costs.

Even before the Medicaid reforms, which some senators argued were excessive and would have left millions uninsured, GOP leaders were struggling to gain support.

The House-passed version would have resulted in more than 10.9 million additional people possibly being cut from the program, according to the respected Congressional Budget Office. Republicans in the Senate had proposed even greater cutbacks.