Despite the catastrophic scope of the proposed cuts, the flagship nightly programs of ABC, CBS, and NBC ignored the Senate GOP's proposal and draconian Medicaid cuts. In fact, since June 16, when the Senate GOP revealed its proposal, the programs have failed to mention the bill at all.

Senate Republicans say they are looking for ways to safeguard rural hospitals from proposed cuts to a key Medicaid funding method, amid concerns from the powerful hospital lobby and others that the budget reconciliation bill could force many facilities to close.

The proposal would salvage some clean-energy tax credits and phase out others more slowly, making up some of the cost by imposing deeper cuts to Medicaid than the House-passed bill would.