18 GOP senators vote to raise taxes on the rich to pay for rural hospital fund

Eighteen Republican senators, including former Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.), voted to advance an amendment sponsored by Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) to raise taxes on ultra wealthy income earners to help rural hospitals facing steep Medicaid cuts.

The GOP senators voted for a motion to waive a budget point-of-order against Collins’s amendment to establish a new $39.6 percent tax bracket for individuals who earn more than $25 million in annual income and married couples who earn more than $50 million annually.