Republicans can’t meet their own budget target without cutting Medicare or Medicaid, budget office says
Washington – Republicans in the House of Representatives cannot meet Their budget The official budget goalkeeper confirmed on Wednesday that the goal necessary to pass President Donald Trump’s legislative agenda without making major discounts on medical care or medical aid.
Republicans in the House of Representatives adopted a budget plan last week that opens the door to pass Trump’s policy priorities on immigration, energy and taxes. It guides the Energy and Trade Committee in the House of Representatives to reduce spending under its competence by $ 880 billion.
The Congress Budget Office, a non -partisan research tank in the company, said that when Medicare is allocated, total funding under the committee’s jurisdiction is $ 8.8 trillion over 10 years, said Congress Budget Office, a non -party research tank in the company. Medicaid represents $ 8.2 trillion of it, or 93 %.
When Medicare and Medicaid are excluded, the committee oversees a total of $ 581 billion in spending – much lower than the $ 880 billion goal. the A letter determining the numbers It was a response to inquiries by actors Frank Balon, Dean. Member of the Budget Committee.
That the Republicans leave a deep dilemma. The budget decision, which was adopted by the thinnest margins in the divided house in a narrow manner, was the exact product of negotiations between the hard -line participants who demand discounts in acute spending and the lawyers of the Republican Party who say they say they are You don’t want to reduce financing For health programs depend on their voters.
Reviewing the goal means annoying one of these factions and perhaps risk to support the main votes to pass the final budget settlement bill that develops Trump’s agenda.
Democrats have made the Mudaikid protection the focus of their attack on the agenda of the Republican Party, accusing Trump of trying to reduce the health care of the working class to pay the costs of the tax cuts of the wealthy. Representative Al Green was the tide of Texas I took outside the house room During Trump’s speech to Congress on Tuesday night after he interrupted him over, repeated and shouted, “You don’t have an authorization to cut medical aid!”
“This message from the Central Bank of Oman confirms what we were saying all the time: mathematics do not work without devastating debt discounts,” Balloon said on Wednesday in a statement. “Republicans know that they are a lie, and the fact is that they have no problem taking care of health than millions of Americans so that the rich can become richer and pay less taxes than they already do.”
Trump recently said in an interview with Fox News, “Medicare, Medicaid – None of these things will be touched.”
Medicare provides health care for the elderly. Medicaid extends health care coverage of low -income people and disabled.
But Republicans in the House of Representatives differ with Trump and put medical aid on the cutting block. Speaker Mike Johnson, R. La, said.
Johnson told reporters last week: “Medicaid is a big problem because it contains a lot of fraud, waste and abuse.” “I think this is $ 50 billion annually in a fraud process alone in Medicaid. These are the precious taxpayers dollars. Everyone is committed to maintaining the advantages of medical care for those who need it desperately, deserve it and qualify for it. What we are talking about is the removal of fraud, waste and abuse of use.”
Request to reserve this number, Johnson’s office Categorize One of the Medicare and Medicaid service centers that the “incorrect payment rate” under Medicaid is $ 50.3 billion. But the report made it clear that the mistakes were often the product of fraud.
“Of the 2023 dedicated improper payments, it was 82 % due to insufficient documents,” CMS wrote in the 2023 report. “These payments usually include positions in which the state or the provider is absent from an administrative step and does not necessarily indicate fraud or abuse.”
Trump MEDICAID did not mention During his speech to a joint session of Congress on Tuesday.
