Two months after Donald Trump, Republican attack dogs, including Elon Musk and his followers in DodgeIt is still occupied by chewing in many parts of the federal government. But the Trump administration continues the promise that it will protect three major entitlement programs representing nearly half of all federal spending. “The Trump administration will not cut social security, medical care or medical aid,” the White House wrote in a statement two weeks ago. “President Trump said himself (over and over again).”
Of course, Trump says many things that are not related to reality. During the presidential campaign for the past year, he insisted that it has nothing to do with the project 2025-The Heritage Corporation plan is nine hundred pages to reshape the federal government, which describes Medicare and Medicaid as “the main motives of our 31 trillion dollars.” Lu and here, one of the authors of this report, Russell Fior, is now the director of the Administration and Budget Office, where, according to the White House, “is responsible for overseeing the implementation of the president’s policy, administration and organization through the executive branch.”
The alliance of extremist conservative activists such as Vogue, who have long have entitlements to them, with Ayn Randian Tech Bros like Elon Musk, who are enthusiastic “efficiency”, may be the distinctive feature of Trump 2.0. The 2025 project contains a number of proposals to reform medicare and medicaid, but it remains largely far from social security, which was considered for the third years of American policy. Musk has shown less reservations. In an interview with The PodCaster Joe Rogan, the social security described as “the largest Ponzi scheme ever.” In online posts and appearance on Fox Business, he also claimed that there are more than twenty million people one hundred or older in the social security database, and suggested that this be evidence of widespread fraud. (Trump repeated these allegations in a letter to Congress.)
It seems clear that Musk, Trump and other republics have decided that the novel “Waste, fraud and abuse” provides them with a more effective way to fill support for discounts in traditional arguments about the growing deficit and debt. After Musk and Trump made their allegations regarding the dead social security recipient, the Chargé d’Affairs of the Social Security Administration, Liland Dodik, had to issue a press statement that shows that the data they were martyred came from people with social security numbers “who have no history of death associated with their record” but “they may not receive benefits.” In other words, Musk and Trump were publishing misleading information.
Dudek was upgraded when his predecessor resigned, in mid -February, after clashes with Dodge Employees who were trying to access information about social security recipient. Although Dudek has corrected some musk errors, it has also embraced Dodge Cost reduction agenda. Since his assumption, the Social Security Administration has announced plans to reduce its operating power by about twelve percent. It closes dozens of local field offices, even while changing their bases so that social security claims who cannot confirm their online identities are obligated to appear in person. (To date, people can confirm their identities over the phone.)
With new developments in practice every day, it is difficult to keep up with everything related to merit programs. The main thing to remember is that there are two distinct but related stories. One is the continuous campaign by Musk and Dodge Dancing on social security management and other government departments. Another story, which has received much lower media coverage, plays in Capitol Hill, where Republicans are looking for spending discounts to extend the feedback -rich tax cuts they approved during the first Trump administration. All indicators indicate that they are preparing to target merits that serve the poor, especially medical assistance and food assistance.
The two stories intersect because any permanent savings can be applied by Musk and his colleagues to future budgets. Also, if Dodge The original fraud and waste did not reveal on a large scale, Republicans in Capitol Hill can exploit this to build public support to reduce them. To date, however, Dodge The investigators have appeared largely empty -handed, while the scene of the richest man in the world leads an attack on programs that serve some of the poorest and most weak Americans has disturbed some of the elected Republicans. “This does not help the president,” said Senator Lisa Morakovsky, from Alaska, last week, referring to the role of Musk. I also recorded concerns about the closure of social security services offices and the elimination of employees who answer call lines, and they warn, “I can tell you that it will not pass well.”
Meanwhile, economists and other retirees are the number of budget decision -making in the House of Representatives in the end of last month, which was approved by Trump, saying that he “is implementing the full American agenda.” To provide a space for four trillion and a half dollars in ten years, the decision guides many home committees to find nearly trillion dollars in discounts in programs that are subject to penetration. This number includes eight hundred and eighty billion dollars from the Energy and Trade Committee, which oversees Medicare and Medicaid, and two hundred and thirty dollars from the Agriculture Committee, which runs the supplementary nutritional assistance program (pop), Previously known as Stamp Food. She left another five hundred billion dollars in unlimited discounts.
Some Republicans denied that they flee from Medicaid and pop For large discounts, but the simple account undermines this claim. According to the non -party congress budget office, Medicare and Medicaid constitute more than ninety -seven percent of the spending supervised by the Energy and Trade Committee. Medicare cut, which is partially funded by the contributions of salaries from American working American, is political. However, “If you don’t touch Medicare, mathematics do not work without deep discount male. In theory, the Agriculture Committee has a little more deadline for cutting other programs aside popBut, in practice, the food aid program appears to be its main sign.
Medicaid, created in 1965 alongside Medicare, is managed by the states, but the federal government bears about seventy percent of its cost. Once it is a relatively small program for the elderly and the poor, it is now a pivotal component of the country’s comprehensive safety network. Under the 2010 affordable care law, it was expanded to make it within the reach of Americans of all ages with income of one hundred and thirty -eight percent of the poverty line. By October of last year, joining Medicaid increased by about 72.1 million, which means that about one in five Americans depend on the program.
At the local level, nineteen states have chosen with Republican rulers participating in Medicaid’s expansion. It is a big matter for the states: in this case, the federal government picks up ninety percent of the cost. However, at the national level, the Republican Party remained committed to reducing the program. In the 2025 project and other places, Republican policy analysts and legislators have proposed multiple ways to do so, including imposing strict work requirements on registrants, formation of spending on the basis of each location, and paying more costs to the states. Republicans claimed that the reforms of this type would not prevent qualified registrants from receiving the health care they need. But this argument does not stand for inspection.
