AJC: Georgia Republicans back Trump tax bill despite deep cuts to programs

After the U.S. Senate passed Donald Trump’s harmful budget bill, the Republicans running for, and considering running for, Senate were quick to remind Georgians that they wholeheartedly support a disastrous bill that would rip away affordable health care from 750,000 Georgians, strip rural hospitals of $540 million in critical funding, and put clean energy jobs and manufacturing on the chopping block.

Since the bill was first moving through the House, Republicans like Rep. Buddy Carter, Commissioner John King, and Rep. Mike Collins were vocal about their support for the bill, despite the damage that it would bring to Georgia and recent reporting that “no state may have more to lose than Georgia from such cuts in Trump’s ‘Big Beautiful Bill.’”

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Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Georgia Republicans back Trump tax bill despite deep cuts to programs

• U.S. Senate Republicans navigated sharp internal rifts to narrowly pass a massive tax and spending package that implements much of President Donald Trump’s domestic agenda.
  
• But Georgia Republicans aren’t nearly as divided over the high-stakes legislation.
  
• Mainstream conservatives and MAGA politicians alike in Georgia have quickly united behind the bill […]
  
• To finance a portion of the bill’s cost, the legislation slashes $1 trillion from Medicaid and cuts the federal food stamp program.
  
• Roughly 310,000 Georgians could lose insurance under the bill, according to a forecast by the health research nonprofit KFF.
  
• [Sen. Jon] Ossoff dubbed it a “catastrophe.
  
• “It guts the Medicaid program and puts nursing homes and hospitals at risk,” Ossoff said shortly after the vote. “It will drive up health insurance premiums for working- and middle-class families in Georgia.”
  
• Ossoff said the bill also “takes a hatchet to the fast-growing industry that is driving Georgia’s economic development,” a reference to Georgia’s investment in electric vehicles, which has been jolted by federal green energy incentives slated for elimination as part of the bill passed by the Senate on Tuesday.
  
• Some national Republicans have echoed those concerns, citing steep health care cuts and a projection from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office that the bill would add at least $3.3 trillion to an already bulging national deficit over the next decade.
  
• But Georgia Republicans have rallied behind the measure […]
  
• The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reached out to all leading GOP contenders for Senate and governor.
  
• All but two affirmed their support. Former football coach Derek Dooley, who is considering a Senate bid, and Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, a potential candidate for Senate or governor, both didn’t comment.
  
• The legislation puts Georgia Republicans in a politically risky position […]
  
• All nine members of Georgia’s House GOP delegation have signaled their support […]