Saturday, April 5, 2025
Friday, April 4, 2025
GOP pass budget bill amendment aimed at protecting Medicaid, Medicare
Senate Republicans on Friday backed an amendment to their budget resolution aimed at protecting Medicare and Medicaid.
The amendment, which passed 51-48 and was proposed by Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska.), was the first brought forward as part of the vote-a-rama ahead of a final vote on the bill that will serve as a blueprint for President Trump’s domestic agenda, including extending his tax cuts.
The Sullivan amendment calls for actions related to Medicaid, specifically, that “may include strengthening and improving” the program “for the most vulnerable populations.”
Republicans have been accused of trying to use the budget resolution to gut entitlement programs, headlined by Medicaid, in order to fund the tax cut push and to potentially make them permanent.
The resolution instructs the House Energy and Commerce Committee to reduce the deficit by $880 billion, a target experts say can’t be met without slashing Medicaid.
Some Republicans have maintained that any cuts to the programs would be in the name of rooting out “waste, fraud and abuse,” rather than touching benefits themselves.
But moderate Republicans and those from states where a lot of constituents rely on Medicaid have been nervous.
Every Senate Republican save for two voted for the amendment. Sens. John Curtis (R-Utah) and Mike Lee (R-Utah) opposed it.
The amendment was the first in a marathon series of votes called a vote-a-rama, which is expected to last into the wee hours of Saturday morning.
While the Medicaid amendment was put forward by Republicans, the bulk of the proposals are expected to be from Democrats who want to put their GOP counterparts on the record on a series of difficult issues.
No amendments were adopted during vote-a-rama earlier this year on an initial Senate proposal.
https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/5233608-republicans-amendment-medicaid-medicare/
Rite Aid weighs repeat bankruptcy filing, WSJ reports
U.S. pharmacy chain Rite Aid (NYSE:US90274J5618=UBSS) is weighing a possible repeat bankruptcy after its recent financial restructuring failed to put the drugstore chain on a sustainable path, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday.
The company has also been pursuing a sale of some or all of its businesses as a potential alternative to a Chapter 11 filing, the WSJ report said, citing people familiar with the matter.
If a sale doesn’t materialize either inside or outside of bankruptcy, the pharmacy chain stands at risk of liquidating more of its footprint, the report added.
Rite Aid did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.
The Pennsylvania-based company emerged from Chapter 11 bankruptcy and successfully completed its financial restructuring last year, operating as a private company.
The pharmacy has used its bankruptcy to close hundreds of stores, sell its pharmacy benefit company Elixir and negotiate settlements with its lenders, drug distribution partner McKesson (NYSE:MCK) and other creditors.
Rite Aid filed for Chapter 11 in October 2023, after reporting $750 million in losses and $24 billion in revenue for the fiscal year ended March 2023. It operated 2,000 pharmacies at the time of its bankruptcy.
China retaliation on US farm goods hits soybeans, bolstering Brazil
China's retaliation on Friday against new U.S. tariffs is poised to accelerate Beijing's move towards alternative suppliers for agricultural goods including Brazil, a shift that began during the trade war of U.S. President Donald Trump's first term.
Beijing unveiled a slew of countermeasures, including additional duties of 34% on all U.S. goods, which are on top of the 10-15% tariffs placed on roughly $21 billion worth of agricultural trade in early March.
"This is going to cost the U.S. a lot of export business," Jack Scoville, vice president of the Chicago-based Price Futures Group, said. "We're pissing off everybody. That's the problem. Where are we going to turn if we've slapped everybody with tariffs?"
The most-active soybean contract on the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) settled down 34-1/2 cents to $9.77 a bushel, a 3.4% decline from Thursday and its lowest price on a continuous chart for 2025.
"It is like shutting down all U.S. agricultural imports. We are not sure if any imports will be viable with 34% duty," said a Singapore-based trader at an international trading company which sells grains and oilseeds to China.
A European grains trader said the European Union, which has also vowed to retaliate, was also likely to put tariffs on U.S. soybeans.
"It's all about soybeans. A major concern is if there is no agreement before the new crop for U.S. soy," the trader said.
"As a big picture conclusion, all this trade war is bearish U.S. ags and bullish other origin ags," the trader said.
The March levies have accelerated a pivot away from U.S. soybean imports and shifted demand to Brazil, where a bumper harvest puts it on track to deliver a record-breaking second-quarter import surge for China.
"Brazil will be by far the main beneficiary, the biggest supplier that can replace U.S. soybeans to China. But others could benefit too, including Argentina and Paraguay. On wheat, Australia and Argentina should benefit," said Carlos Mera, head of Agricultural Market Research at Rabobank.
Sol Arcidiacono, head of Latam grains sales at HedgePoint Global Markets, said the basis for South American soybeans will get stronger for the full year, despite seasonality and record crops as the trade war escalates.
She added that current geopolitics will likely drive an increase in acreage for soybeans, mainly in Brazil, where expansion had been slowing lately.
On Thursday, a day after Trump's tariffs announcement, Brazil port premiums reached a dollar per bushel over Chicago benchmark prices.
Trump unveiled a 10% baseline tariff on all imports from April 5 and higher duties on certain other countries including 34% on China, pushing the global trade war into overdrive.
China remains the largest market for U.S. agricultural products, but imports of U.S. farm goods dropped for the second consecutive year, falling to $29.25 billion in 2024 from $42.8 billion in 2022.
Also on Friday, China suspended import qualifications for sorghum from C&D (USA) Inc., which is Chinese-owned, citing phytosanitary problems. It suspended import qualifications of poultry meat and bone meal from American Proteins, Mountaire Farms of Delaware and Darling Ingredients.
Additionally, it suspended imports of poultry products from Mountaire Farms of Delaware and Coastal Processing.
Trump Team Proposes Ending Clean Energy Office, Cutting Billions
The US Energy Department is proposing to shut down its Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations and cut some $9 billion in awards for programs regarding carbon capture, direct air capture, solar and hydrogen, according to documents seen by Bloomberg.
Under the plan, which isn’t final, the $27 billion agency’s staff would be reduced to 35 employees, and about $10 billion in projects, including $3 billion for so-called hydrogen hubs, would be kept “as is” and transferred to other parts of the Energy Department.