Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) signaled victory in his war against Medicaid reform this week, posting on social media, “Just had a great talk with President Trump about the Big, Beautiful Bill. He said again, NO MEDICAID BENEFIT CUTS.” 

Hawley’s crusade against “taking healthcare away from working families to give tax breaks to the ultra-rich” is straight out of Sen. Bernie Sanders‘s (I-VT) class-warfare playbook and will lead to similarly disastrous results. His characterization of reformers within the Republican Party as “a noisy contingent of corporatist Republicans — call it the party’s Wall Street wing” set on “corporate giveaways, preferences for capital and deep cuts to social insurance” is similarly cheap and divisive. Hawley avoids substance because his policy position is indefensible.