Current Events > Trump proposes $15 billion spending cuts, targets children's health program

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https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-fiscal-republicans/trump-proposes-15-billion-spending-cuts-targets-childrens-health-program-idUSKBN1I829L

U.S. President Donald Trump will request a package of $15 billion in spending cuts from Congress on Tuesday, including some $7 billion from the Childrens Health Insurance Program championed by Democrats, senior administration officials said on Monday.

The proposal comes as the White House and conservative Republicans in the U.S. Congress were edging away from a threat to pick a new budget fight with Democrats after Republicans initially floated some $60 billion in cuts a few weeks ago.

Senior administration officials said the initial package of proposed cuts was targeted at federal funds that were sitting unspent. It would not affect a two-year budget deal agreed in February.

More rescission packages, including a large one that would address cuts Trump wants from that deal, would be forthcoming, one senior administration official said.

The proposed cut to the CHIP program drew a rebuke from U.S. Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer.

It appears that sabotaging our health care system to the detriment of middle-class families wasnt enough for President Trump and Republicans; now theyre going after health care dollars that millions of children rely on, especially during outbreaks of the flu and other deadly illnesses, he said in a statement after an initial report about the CHIP proposal.

The senior administration official, speaking to reporters on a conference call, said the cuts would not hurt the program. Of the total amount, $5 billion came from an account from which the money is not authorized to be spent under the law, he said.

The administration is also proposing $4.3 billion in cuts from an advanced technology vehicle loan program, which the official said had not made a loan since 2011.

The pullback from a larger figure comes after Republican Party elders, including Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, warned against cuts that would unravel the two-year budget deal enacted with the help of Democrats in February.

The senior official said the package was never intended to be $60 billion.

Even the reduced cuts could antagonize Democrats, whose votes will be needed in months ahead to help pass bills to keep the government running in the fiscal year starting on Oct. 1.

The conservative group Americans for Prosperity, backed by the billionaire industrialist Koch Brothers, floated spending cut proposals on Monday totaling about $45 billion. Most reductions were aimed at non-defense spending, including nearly $1.5 billion in child nutrition programs, $700 million in student grants and $2.2 billion in international disaster aid. Such spending programs are typically defended by Democrats.

Washington was consumed for much of 2017 by fiscal infighting that pitted conservative Republicans against moderates in their own party and Democrats, with the federal deficit and national debt soaring in the background.

Congressional elections also loom in November, as Republicans battle to maintain control of both the House of Representatives and Senate.

Democrats in the House and Senate were withholding judgment on Trumps scaled-back cuts, pending more details.

Some lawmakers worried that some of the targeted unspent money was still needed, such as funds earmarked for fortifying U.S. coastlines against hurricanes. That money was enacted after Hurricane Sandy in 2012.

In an op-ed published by the Washington Examiner newspaper, House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy wrote of giving the bloated federal budget a much-needed spring cleaning.

McCarthy is hoping to replace House Speaker Paul Ryan next year. To do that, McCarthy would need the support of conservative House Republicans, who spoke last month of taking an aggressive approach to budget rescissions.

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with McConnell saying "go fuck yourself" this seems set to go nowhere at all
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yeah fuck kids

assholes.
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antfair posted...

Senior administration officials said the initial package of proposed cuts was targeted at federal funds that were sitting unspent.

antfair posted...

The administration is also proposing $4.3 billion in cuts from an advanced technology vehicle loan program, which the official said had not made a loan since 2011

So like.... is ALL of this money that no one is using at all? If that's the case then go ahead.
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_BlueMonk posted...

yeah fuck kids

assholes.

I am pretty sure Trump has done this
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I agree with this.

Kids need to pull up em bootstraps
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Pro life?
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WrkHrdPlayHrdr posted...

So like.... is ALL of this money that no one is using at all? If that's the case then go ahead.

it's safe to assume when trump admin officials say words, they are lying.

more broadly, though, 'unused' funds in programs like CHIP become the last line of defense against total expiration when congress next "forgets" to reactivate it, providing a time buffer against brinkmanship. the money would be spent eventually, it's not like it's burned into ash.
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He should grow a mustache to twirl tbh
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Damn, I really thought those tax cuts would pay for themselves this time around.

MedzXVIII posted...

Pro life?

no they only care about abortion. and even then between all the "nuke the middle east/china/Mexico" comments I've seen on fox new websites...

I am not certain they are serious about that either.
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Darkman124 posted...

WrkHrdPlayHrdr posted...

So like.... is ALL of this money that no one is using at all? If that's the case then go ahead.

it's safe to assume when trump admin officials say words, they are lying.

more broadly, though, 'unused' funds in programs like CHIP become the last line of defense against total expiration when congress next "forgets" to reactivate it, providing a time buffer against brinkmanship. the money would be spent eventually, it's not like it's burned into ash.

I'll have to look into this, but thanks for the explanation.
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It was wasteful/infficient program anyways. Why should we keep a program that's managed poorly? The useless bureaucrats had many years to get their shit together. They didn't. Now it's time for Trump to take action.
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Dumb liberal wit aside, we don't need these bloated programs. Trump is streamlining things.
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DifferentialEquation posted...

Why should we keep a program that's managed poorly?

instead of burning it to the ground we could, like, try to fix it maybe?
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These poor kids won't get healthcare now.

They will go to the doctor and get refused service. This is unreal.
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Proposes cutting bloat that is stated to not effect the program anyway.

Liberals: "TRUMP IS A CHILD MURDERER!"
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_BlueMonk posted...

yeah fuck kids

assholes.

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DifferentialEquation posted...

It was wasteful/infficient program anyways. Why should we keep a program that's managed poorly? The useless bureaucrats had many years to get their shit together. They didn't. Now it's time for Trump to take action.

The entire White House is managed poorly.

Should we just get rid of this administration?
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Darkman124 posted...

the money would be spent eventually, it's not like it's burned into ash.

it mostly goes to HHS, historically

https://ccf.georgetown.edu/2018/05/08/7-billion-in-chip-cuts/

The other five billion dollars in cuts are more complicated to explain. Essentially, when Congress specifies annual CHIP allotments, they leave a little wiggle room in case state spending is higher than expected. This is another part of Congressional commitment to making sure CHIP is fully funded, even though it is a block grant. Over time, this results in some CHIP funds that are authorized but not expended, resulting in budget authority that exceeds outlays. Congress is aware of this, and over the last several years, they have come to bipartisan agreements about how to reallocate this budget authority to allow for investments in other programs that serve children. Rescinding these funds is unlikely to impact states CHIP programs immediately, but it violates that bipartisan agreement in Congress to manage these funds in ways that continue to help low income children and families.
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These 'leftover' funds were one of the things the GOP wanted to cut during the CHIP fight last year that partially caused the hold up in reauthorization also btw
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interesting, i didn't know that

always appreciate your insight into this subject, learned something today. makes a little more sense why they're trying to cut it in advance, then.
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Patchwork posted...

DifferentialEquation posted...

It was wasteful/infficient program anyways. Why should we keep a program that's managed poorly? The useless bureaucrats had many years to get their shit together. They didn't. Now it's time for Trump to take action.

The entire White House is managed poorly.

Should we just get rid of this administration?

Trump runs like a well oiled machine. I'd be happy with just giving Trump supreme authority to decide everything.
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It's always amusing to see who has no idea what's going on in these topics.

HypnoCoosh posted...

These poor kids won't get healthcare now.

They will go to the doctor and get refused service. This is unreal.

Like this guy.
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Myself and more specifically my younger brother were on SCHIP then eventually him with CHIP due to coming from a poor working class background. So of course rich Republicans are fine shitting on the working class citizens and Trump voters have zero issue acting as if the poor don't matter. Suburban Trump voters are totally pathetic tbh
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Why not just cut money from the bloated military budget?
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LightningAce11 posted...

Why not just cut money from the bloated military budget?

The military provides a valuable service . The kids on CHIP are not providing any benefit to taxpayers.
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DifferentialEquation posted...

LightningAce11 posted...

Why not just cut money from the bloated military budget?

The military provides a valuable service . The kids on CHIP are not providing any benefit to taxpayers.

You're not providing any benefit to anyone either, so should all your money be taken away?
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DifferentialEquation posted...

LightningAce11 posted...

Why not just cut money from the bloated military budget?

The military provides a valuable service . The kids on CHIP are not providing any benefit to taxpayers.

I benefited from CHIP and now I pay more in taxes than you make in a year, fam
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based
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top kek
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WrkHrdPlayHrdr posted...

So like.... is ALL of this money that no one is using at all? If that's the case then go ahead.

it means its not being used right now. its meant for those programs.
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LightningAce11 posted...

DifferentialEquation posted...

LightningAce11 posted...

Why not just cut money from the bloated military budget?

The military provides a valuable service . The kids on CHIP are not providing any benefit to taxpayers.

You're not providing any benefit to anyone either, so should all your money be taken away?

How is that comparible? This is giving money back to tax payers who shouldn't have had it taken away in the first place. And obviously I'm providing some benefit to someone, or else I wouldn't be making any money at all.
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it's ok guys trump is gonna cancel this program but he's going to negotiate an even BETTER one
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iamintents posted...

WrkHrdPlayHrdr posted...

So like.... is ALL of this money that no one is using at all? If that's the case then go ahead.

it means its not being used right now. its meant for those programs.

right

CHIP is a block grant program, and one of the knocks on block grant programs (as opposed to open ended ones like Medicaid) is that they are not responsive to changes on the ground in real time. Medicaid financing keeps coming regardless of how much you spend, but that is not true for CHIP. CHIP only has the dollars you appropriate for it and authorize it to spend.

But health care spending can fluctuate wildly for various reasons, especially on the state level. For instance, if there is an outbreak of malaria or the bird flu or major natural disasters, etc., then you will probably end up spending more on health care than you normally would otherwise. So we give CHIP extra funds in order to ensure that if those things occur, kids will still be able to get health coverage

We always appropriate way more funds for this than we need to because both the GOP and Democrats are rightly terrified of the constituency CHIP has, and it isn't that expensive, and you can just re-appropriate the money later.
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