Murkowski casts decisive vote on federal budget bill despite admitting it’s ‘not good enough’
- Mark Sabbatini
- Jul 1
- 5 min read
Updated: Jul 1
Alaska Republican hit with "bribe" accusations over bill that slashes Medicaid and other assistance to help fund tax cuts primarily benefitting the wealthy
U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) is at the center of a firestorm of criticism about the federal budget bill passed Tuesday by the Senate after she cast the decisive 50th vote in favor despite stating afterward "it’s not good enough" and is hoping the U.S. House fixes its faults.
The bill is being assailed by analysts as possibly the biggest transfer of funds from the poor to the rich in U.S. history, via means such as slashing Medicaid and other social safety net programs to partially pay for tax cuts that will primarily benefit the wealthy.
"The ‘big, beautiful bill’ finances largesse for the rich with austerity for the poor," wrote Annie Lowrey in an economic policy analysis for The Atlantic. "It will kill tens of thousands of Americans and impoverish millions more to grant million-dollar tax cuts to Trump and other billionaires. It will gut the Affordable Care Act to enrich corporations that move jobs overseas. And it will do nothing to solve the cost-of-living crisis that propelled (President Donald) Trump into office.”
The budget bill targets more than $1 trillion in social spending such as Medicaid and food stamps, will cause 11.8 million more Americans to become uninsured, and adds at least $3.3 trillion to the nation’s debt over the next 10 years due largely to the tax cuts, according to the Congressional Budget Office.
It passed the Senate after an all-night floor session, with Vice President JD Vance providing the tie-breaking 51st vote, but its passage in the Republican-led House is not assured.
“Since we took office in January, Republicans have been laser-focused on achieving the bill before us today," Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-South Dakota) said in a prepared statement. "And now we’re here, passing legislation that will permanently extend tax relief for hard-working Americans."
Murkowski, seen as one of a few critical swing votes, cast her decisive yes in exchange for Alaska-specific additions to the bill — including more tax deductions for whaling captains’ expenses — that some fellow lawmakers referred to as "kickbacks" and "payoffs."
In a prepared statement after the bill passed, Murkowski said "this was one of the hardest votes I have taken during my time in the Senate."
"My goal throughout the reconciliation process has been to make a bad bill better for Alaska, and in many ways, we have done that," she said. "In addition to extending pro-growth tax cuts, a larger child tax credit, and no tax on tips or overtime, we made a historic investment and modernization of the Coast Guard; enhanced our border security and national defense; funded aviation safety, including AWOS/VWOS systems that will save lives; and provided tax-exempt status for the Community Development Quota Program to help western Alaska communities establish a sustainable economy, among other provisions."
However, Murkowski sought to address critics by noting "this has been an awful process — a frantic rush to meet an artificial deadline that has tested every limit of this institution."
"While we have worked to improve the present bill for Alaska, it is not good enough for the rest of our nation—and we all know it," she said. "My sincere hope is that this is not the final product. This bill needs more work across chambers and is not ready for the President’s desk. We need to work together to get this right."
Criticism of the bill and Murkowski’s vote in particular — since fellow Alaska Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan was considered a solid supporter of the Trump-backed bill — was expressed by a multitude of Alaska organzations and officials.
The Senate’s version of the bill will result in nearly 40,000 Alaskans losing healthcare coverage and insurance premiums nearly doubling for nearly 30,000 more residents, according to a statement by Protect Our Care Alaska, a nonprofit coalition of healthcare activists. Similar figures were cited in a joint statement by Alaska House Labor and Commerce Committee Co-Chairs Carolyn Hall and Zack Fields, both Anchorage Democrats.
"Increases in uncompensated care will put hospitals, especially those in smaller communities, at serious risk of shutting down as a loss of Medicaid dollars makes it impossible for them to meet payroll," they wrote.
Also opposing the bill was the Central Council of the Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska in a statement published on its website Monday.
"(The bill) includes provisions that would dismantle environmental programs, impose harmful and limiting work requirements on Medicaid and SNAP recipients in rural areas, and weaken public health coverage across Alaska — where nearly 40% of residents rely on Medicaid," the statement notes. "The SENR proposal further exacerbates threats to rural and tribal communities by mandating oil and gas lease sales in culturally sensitive areas, taxing renewable energy projects that many of our communities desperately need, and authorizing the privatization of public lands for development without tribal consultation."
Supporters of the Medicaid changes — including Sullivan and U.S. Rep. Nick Begich III (R-Alaska) — have stated they are seeking to ensure the fiscal sustainability of Medicaid for those most in need by imposing work requirements (generally 80 hours a month) for able-bodied people.
Murkowski, in her prepared statement, said she worked with Senate leaders during the long hours of debate to minimize some of the adverse impacts for Alaska for Medicaid and Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits.
"We have helped our communities through a $50 billion rural health fund," she said. "This will mean hundreds of millions of dollars for Alaska hospitals, community health centers, and other providers."
"In the SNAP program, we have added tribal exemptions for work requirements, delayed cost-share penalties to help Alaska get benefits to the people who need them, and included work requirement waivers that align with our Medicaid policies. We also secured commitments from the Secretary of Agriculture to provide additional flexibilities to Alaska for SNAP."
But the deal reached on SNAP benefits drew sharp criticism from Democratic senators, according to The New York Times. The newspaper reported a two-year exemption is being given to states with the highest rates of either overpaying or underpaying SNAP benefits, effectively shielding Alaska and 10 other states that have made frequent mistakes from having to pay higher costs.
“A state that’s doing a good job — they’re going to have to get these cuts,” Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, the ranking Democrat on the Agriculture Committee that oversees the SNAP program, told the Times. She said the message of the provision is “raise your error rates — get them up to 10, 20, 30, 40 percent! Make a whole bunch of mistakes when it comes to SNAP, because then you’ll get more money.”
The House has already passed a different version of a budget bill for the federal fiscal year that starts Oct. 1. Lawmakers in that chamber must now decide whether to accept the Senate’s version or begin the process of working together on a compromise bill to send to Trump.
"It remains unclear whether changes made by the chamber will be accepted by the House of Representatives, which approved an initial draft of the legislation last month by a single vote," the UK newspaper The Guardian reported Tuesday. "While Republicans control both houses of Congress, factionalism in the lower chamber is particularly intense, with rightwing fiscal hardliners demanding deep spending cuts, moderates wary of dismantling safety-net programs and Republicans from Democratic-led states expected to make a stand on a contentious tax provision. Any one of these groups could potentially derail the bill’s passage through a chamber where the GOP can lose no more than three votes."
• Contact Mark Sabbatini at editor@juneauindependent.com or (907) 957-2306.
