WASHINGTON – Missouri U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley is warning fellow Republicans that efforts to cut Medicaid could backfire, turning against working-class voters and threatening the party’s long-term political future.

In an opinion piece published Monday by the New York Times, Hawley argues that GOP is facing an identity crisis, caught between the interests of corporate donors and the needs of working-class families who helped elect President Donald Trump.

Hawley contends that protecting social insurance programs, including Medicaid, is not only essential for low-income families, but also central to maintaining the GOP’s credibility with voters it claims to represent.

Turning away from those priorities, Hawley suggests, would leave Republican serving only a narrow corporate elite.

“Our voters not only want us to protect the social insurance they need to get by; they also want us to fight for a better life — for a better economy with the kinds of jobs and wages that allow working people to get married and start families, to buy homes and have a stake in their towns and neighborhoods,” said Hawley wrote in the New York Times.

“That’s the promise of American life. If Republicans want to be a working-class party — if we want to be a majority party — we must ignore calls to cut Medicaid and start delivering on America’s promise for America’s working people.”

According to the Associated Press, House Republicans unveiled a sweeping legislative package that pairs roughly $4.9 trillion in tax breaks with deep spending cuts, including an estimated $880 billion from Medicaid over the next decade. Supporters argue the plan is a key step toward delivering on longstanding Trump campaign promises of lower taxes and smaller government.

Hawley argues the proposal is “both morally wrong and politically suicidal.” He claims, as a representative of Missouri, he cannot support policies that would jeopardize the health car of the state’s working-class families.

“Many of our rural hospitals and health providers depend on the funding from these programs to keep their doors open,” said Hawley.

“All of which means this: If Congress cuts funding for Medicaid benefits, Missouri workers and their children will lose their health care. And hospitals will close. It’s that simple. And that pattern will replicate in states across the country.”

House Speaker Mike Johnson has set a Memorial Day target deadline to pass a combined combined tax-and-cuts package, according to the Associated Press. Public hearings over the legislation are underway as of Tuesday, but its final fate, especially in the Senate, remains uncertain.