WASHINGTON — Speaker Mike Johnson has dropped one of the most aggressive options the GOP was considering to cut Medicaid costs to help pay for President Donald Trump’s domestic agenda, bowing to pressure from politically vulnerable Republicans and underscoring the deep party divisions imperiling the plan.

Leaving his office Tuesday night after meeting with a group of more moderate members, Johnson told reporters that House Republicans had ruled out lowering the amount the federal government pays states to care for working-age adults who became eligible for the program through the Affordable Care Act’s Medicaid expansion.

Johnson also suggested he was leaning against another way of reducing spending on Medicaid, by changing the way the federal government pays states — currently by providing a percentage of beneficiaries’ medical bills — to a flat fee per person.

The retreat was an acknowledgment that many House Republicans viewed the ideas as politically toxic.

— The New York Times