Current Events > Republicans are coming to cut Medicare

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https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/6/13/15788396/house-republicans-trump-promise-medicare

President Donald Trump made the American people a promise over and over again: His administration would not touch Social Security and Medicare funding.

Then Trump’s budget proposal to Congress included cuts to Social Security Disability Insurance. Now, congressional Republicans, who have begun debating the actual budget, are putting Medicare on the table too — a major break from Trump, and yet another indication of how little the president dictates conversation on Capitol Hill.

Republican Rep. Tom Cole of Oklahoma, who sits on the House Budget Committee and is the chair of the Appropriations subcommittee that manages health spending, said this week that Republicans aren’t going to let what the president campaigned on affect what they have been working toward for years. Trump’s promise to leave Medicare and Social Security as is and balance the budget is a “fantasy,” he said.

“We have been talking about Medicare and Medicaid reform all the way through,” Cole told Vox Monday. “I’m not asking the president to abandon his principles. He is the president of the United States. He doesn’t have to sign something. But we shouldn’t abandon ours either.”

Cole continued:

Just because they have a political construct that they ran on — with all due respect, if you are not willing to tackle Social Security, Medicaid, and Medicare, you are not ever getting a balanced budget, and to pretend otherwise is a fantasy.

I would hope we could craft a more serious proposal than that and the best way to do that is sticking with some of the things we have the votes to do. People have cast those votes [on Medicare] before. I wouldn’t give up any of the places where we have been aggressive in the past.

Cole is hinting at what will inevitably be a difficult road ahead for Republicans on budget negotiations, which almost always pass on party lines. Last year, Republicans failed to pass a real budget, and this year party remains just as divided. There are defense hawks, budget hawks, and spending appropriators who are used to bipartisan negotiations, all of which have different priorities.

This year, the stakes are even higher: If Republicans can’t agree to a budget resolution, they can’t move to tax reform — at least not in the way they would like. It’s becoming increasingly clear that they aren’t going to let Trump’s campaign promises be yet another limitation.

In what would undoubtedly be a major break from Trump’s campaign promises, the House’s budget proposal is expected to include some changes to Medicare, which House Speaker Paul Ryan has long championed, according to the New York Times.

When you elect an idiot to be president, you empower the worst elements of Washington to control policy, because they actually know what they're doing. Congratulations on electing Paul Ryan, Trump cucks. Now watch as he fucks your wife.
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Grandpa shouldn't have voted for Trump I guess. :u
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Ugh

Good thing I've got retirement accounts.
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This is pretty biased. Trump promised not to cut SSI, but he promised to do so partially by cracking down on the "disability racket," so it was clear from his statements that disability could/would be cut.

What Rep. Cole said is true, too. Without cuts to entitlements or increases in funding for those programs (probably increases in the payroll tax) you're not going to balance the budget.

Personally, I think it's totally justified to modify Medicare. It's a very balkanized and outdated program, for one, and people are living much longer now than when it was first implemented for another.

But yeah Trump said he wouldn't touch it. He said that about Medicaid, too.
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The people this hits hardest ironically are the deep red states who put him in the white house in the first place
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Balrog0 posted...

and people are living much longer now than when it was first implemented for another.

... you realize that this is because of medicare right? what do you think will happen once they cut it back?
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AugustAdoulin posted...

... you realize that this is because of medicare right? what do you think will happen once they cut it back?

it depends on how you change medicare

I don't think the increase in life expectancy is primarily driven by access to medicare, although I'm sure medicare factors in

I think medicare is a pretty inefficient program and that most of the positive health outcomes we see for the elderly are either because of medicaid or because of ESI or medigap policies.
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M_Live posted...

Don't older people usually vote Republican?

The modern Republican Party depends on an uninformed voter base so they can line their pockets while defrauding their constituents.

FursonaNonGrata posted...

M_Live posted...

Don't older people usually vote Republican?

The modern Republican Party depends on an uninformed voter base so they can line their pockets while defrauding their constituents.

.....so yes.
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keep your gubermint hands off my medicare
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FursonaNonGrata posted...

M_Live posted...

Don't older people usually vote Republican?

The modern Republican Party depends on an uninformed voter base so they can line their pockets while defrauding their constituents.

Pretty much this. They rely on people being ignorant enough to unknowingly vote against their own self interests.
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hey we gotta get rich people a bigger tax cut somehow!
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#ButTrumpSaid

Gamer99z posted...

FursonaNonGrata posted...

M_Live posted...

Don't older people usually vote Republican?

The modern Republican Party depends on an uninformed voter base so they can line their pockets while defrauding their constituents.

Pretty much this. They rely on people being ignorant enough to unknowingly vote against their own self interests.

Which is why they are dead-set on cutting education. They really need stupid supporters.
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Uh huh they have been after medicare since its creation.
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ultimate reaver posted...

The people this hits hardest ironically are the deep red states who put him in the white house in the first place

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My mother in law votes Trump. She couldnt carr less if he committed treason, yet touch that medicare and the gloves come off.
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