*HOUSE GOP PLAN Would Cut Medicare, Medicaid To Balance Budget
"House GOP Plan Would Cut Medicare, Medicaid To Balance Budget," Washington Post, June 19, 2018.
House Republicans released a proposal Tuesday that would balance the budget in nine years -- but only by making large cuts to entitlement programs, including Medicare, that President Trump vowed not to touch. The House Budget Committee is aiming to pass the blueprint this week, but that may be as far as it goes this midterm election year. It is not clear that GOP leaders will put the document on the House floor for a vote, and even if it were to pass the House, the budget would have little impact on actual spending levels.
Nonetheless the budget serves as an expression of Republicans' priorities at a time of rapidly rising deficits and debt. Although the nation's growing indebtedness has been exacerbated by the GOP's own policy decisions -- including the new tax law, which most analyses say will add at least $1 trillion to the debt -- Republicans on the Budget Committee said they felt a responsibility to put the nation on a sounder fiscal trajectory.
"The time is now for our Congress to step up and confront the biggest challenge to our society," said House Budget Chairman Steve Womack (R-Ark.). "There is not a bigger enemy on the domestic side than the debt and deficits."
The Republican budget confronts this enemy by taking a whack at entitlement spending. Lawmakers of both parties agree that spending that is not subject to Congresss annual appropriations process is becoming unsustainable. But Trump has largely taken it off the table by refusing to touch Medicare or Social Security, and Democrats have little interest in addressing it except as part of a larger deal including tax increases the sort of Grand Bargain that eluded President Barack Obama.
The House Republican budget, titled A Brighter American Future, would remake Medicare by giving seniors the option of enrolling in private plans that compete with traditional Medicare, a system of competition designed to keep costs down but dismissed by critics as an effort to privatize the program. Along with other changes, the budget proposes to squeeze $537 billion out of Medicare over the next decade. MORE...
Read more: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/house-gop-plan-would-cut-medicare-medicaid-to-balance-budget/ar-AAySglD?li=BBnb7Kz
House Budget Chairman Steve Womack (R-Ark)
Beartracks
(12,821 posts)... with the needs, desires, and values of most Americans. But they sure know how to market their brand, and their razzle-dazzle gets them sympathy and votes and blind allegiance. They get way more state and Federal legislative seats than they deserve, and way too much shielding by the media, as a result of their long con.n
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appalachiablue
(41,177 posts)Eyeball_Kid
(7,434 posts)This was entirely predictable. It was in the planning for decades.
appalachiablue
(41,177 posts)Medicaid, SSI, impose work requirements, cut education and training, consolidate student loan programs, and reduce Pell grants awards.
All for *A BRIGHTER AMERICAN FUTURE*
"And the budget proposes $230 billion in cuts from education and training programs, including consolidating student loan programs and reducing Pell Grant awards."
Crutchez_CuiBono
(7,725 posts)wine and dine each other, travel etc.
duforsure
(11,885 posts)Destroy Social Security.