The new softer side of Trump now cherishes Medicaid. Is everyone happy?
Trump Will Love and Cherish Medicaid
Everyone on the Left (and some on the Right) will be very pleased to learn Trump Pledges to Love and Cherish Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.
When asked about potential budget reductions on Friday, Trump said the administration would “love and cherish” Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, according to Politico. His mention of Medicaid was notable, as he has in the past omitted it when discussing the programs his administration wouldn’t touch.
Shares of Medicaid-focused insurers Molina Healthcare, Elevance Health, and Centene each rose more than 1.5% in response.
Concerns over Medicaid’s future intensified last week when the Trump administration implemented a freeze on grants and federal aid. While the freeze explicitly exempted Medicare and Social Security, it made no mention of Medicaid and some blamed that for a temporary outage to the program.
But Trump’s remarks on Friday suggest a potential buffer for Medicaid.
“We’re not going to do anything with that unless we can find some abuse or waste,” Trump said. “The people won’t be affected. It will only be more effective and better.”
The key phrase above is abuse and waste. Please kill it.
GOP Fight to Keep the Medicaid Funded
Many Republicans want to keep the Medicaid humming.
Yesterday, CNN reported GOP Fight Over Medicaid Cuts Stalls Trump Agenda in the House as Senate Forges Ahead.
As GOP hardliners spent the weekend pushing party leaders to cut deeper into Medicaid in an effort to advance Donald Trump’s tax and border agenda, swing-district Republicans have been warning the president directly that it would cost him control of the House.
“There are people who want to cut to the bone,” said one GOP lawmaker who has recently spoken to Trump to urge him not to accept major cuts to Medicaid and other benefit programs. “I’m willing to cut a lot. But if you cut the essential stuff that affects people every day, you will lose the majority in two years. I can guarantee it.”
Trump’s ability to pass his agenda through a narrowly divided Congress will depend on the outcome of a quickly escalating battle between ultra conservatives and swing-district members over spending cuts. Trump and his Capitol Hill counterparts, Senate Majority Leader John Thune and House Speaker Mike Johnson, are now working to decide how deeply to slash spending on popular — yet expensive — programs like Medicaid, and how much of a potential political firestorm they’re willing to withstand.
While Johnson and his leadership team had preferred to set the GOP’s spending cuts goal at around $1.5 trillion as a floor, many conservatives are dead set on at least $2 trillion in cuts, with some hoping for closer to $2.5 trillion, according to people familiar with the conversations.
The House Budget Committee has no plans to go forward with a markup of its measure this week, and a member of that panel, Republican Rep. Ralph Norman of South Carolina, described the delay in one word: “CUTS!!” Norman is among the members pushing for at least $2 trillion in cuts, and was clear that Medicaid needs to be on the table.
Because Trump has already said that Social Security and Medicare — the two costliest federal programs — are off limits, many conservatives are looking, instead, at Medicaid.
But the prospect of huge cuts to a program that insures millions of low-income Americans has rankled others in the party, including that GOP lawmaker who recently spoke to Trump. This lawmaker said there are at least a dozen lawmakers from purple, suburban districts across California, New York, Pennsylvania and New Jersey who would stand up to such cuts.
In the House, much of the debate is centered on how to save at least $2 trillion to help pay for Trump’s extended tax cuts. To achieve that level of savings, Republicans would have to drastically change how much the federal government contributes to states for Medicaid services.
At Least a Dozen Reps Oppose Cuts
At least a dozen Reps will not stand for Medicaid cuts.
This revelation warms your heart doesn’t it?
But it sure makes it had to get a good budget deal.
Spending Cuts or Hikes?
Just to keep the status quo of $2 trillion deficits as far as the eye can see, my lead chart shows Republicans need to cut $2 trillion out of $1 trillion.
Some of you may be skeptical, but not me. I can show you how to mathematically cut $2 trillion out of $1 trillion.
This may surprise you given my post Elon Musk Admits DOGE Can’t Find $2 Trillion In Budget Cuts
At the time, I stated “Anyone with an ounce of common sense knew that wasn’t possible. He won’t find $1 trillion either.”
I am pleased to report that I now stand corrected because ….
No such cuts are even necessary!
GOP Budget Framework
There is no need to cut Medicare or Medicaid because Trump’s $5.5 trillion tax cut package will generate $3 trillion in economic growth, and that will keep the budget deficit at a mere $2.5 trillion.
The Washington Post reports House GOP nears plan for Trump’s agenda — but may not have the votes.
GOP leadership earlier this week unveiled a plan to lawmakers that will cut $315 billion in spending over 10 years, but will add another $325 billion in spending on Trump’s national security and immigration crackdown, said the people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private briefings.
It’s not clear how the House’s blueprint accounts for some of Trump’s other campaign promises, including ending taxes on tips, overtime wages and Social Security benefits, which would add $3.6 trillion to the national debt over 10 years, according to the nonpartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget [CFRB].
Wait a second, what about Trump’s other campaign promises, including ending taxes on tips, overtime wages and Social Security benefits, which would add another $3.6 trillion to the national debt over 10 years?
Once again, some of you may be skeptical, but not me.
The CFRB worked out the math. This all works because the tax cuts will expand the economy by an amazing 14 percent.
How can anyone not believe that?
Somehow, the CFRB is skeptical, but not me. I am all in for 14 percent growth, even though it only breaks even with the amazing giveaways Trump has promised.
With this kind of amazing growth on deck, I call on all of you to Love and Cherish Medicare and Medicaid as much as Trump and the dozen purple-state Republican reps.
Trump isn’t serious about reducing the budget unless he cuts defense spending. The pentagon fails every audit and can’t account for half the money spent.
Medicare must be able to negotiate drug prices with pharmaceutical companies. Negotiation of pricing is capitalism 101.
Medicare advantage, aka privatized medicare, is rife with fraud.
Of course there all ripe with fraud. Which is why DOGE at least is bringing attention to this. Maybe enough people on the democrat side will say yeah we can save money cleaning this up.
Medicare Advantage is not a government insurance program so why bring that up? The Federal government has enough programs ripe with fraud, leave the private sector out of it.
He said the same thing about the 3 wives he cheated on
Not relevant. However, if the Epstein files are released, it’s going to be hell for your boy, Bill Clinton. Not relevant, either, BTW.
when there are no arguments go for character assassination
-some marxist
There is of course a HUGE contingent of 65 to 100 year olds who will be happy to read that there Medicare will stay intact.
What needs to happen is SLOW BUT SURE REFORMS to how Medicare Monies are SPENT.
A friend had a 2-minute Ambulance Ride (broke and dislocated shoulder) to the local Hosp and it came to $5,000.
That is greed. Another friend had a 42 min ride to a distant hosp and that cost came to $9700!
My California county’s ambulance service only charged a senior friend of mine only $3,000 for a ride of about 5 or 6 miles. The deductible was $300 and insurance covered the rest.
Partly a grift for local States, too. California’s Medi-Cal claws back any and all monies spent on healthcare after a senior dies. From their estate. They know, because to qualify you have to prove low income, list every single asset you have, including account numbers.
CA has had 50 years plus of unchecked illegals. I doubt they get a flyer in their State of California literature discussing “recovery plans.” A poor senior has to meet a Medicare deductible and a California deductible.
If the Fed cuts rate under the inflation rates: interest payments (889), other mandatory (1310), Medicaid (567), Medicare (839) and SS (1452) ==> will deflate. If the Trump/Vance gov transfer power to the states gov outlay might be cut by from $7T to $5T or $4T and US gov debt might be cut by $6T to $10T, while collecting more from taxes and tariffs. All they have to do say is: NO !! They have 10Y/12Y to do it.
Abuse in the medical field? I wonder if anyone could compel big pharma to lower script costs, you know, like they do in EVERY SINGLE advanced economy in the world except this one?
This all sounds like meaningless words to me. We’ve seen what promises to help the “other side” are worth with Trump.
Meaningless bullshit is how w rule these idiots. They’ll believe anything.
Also old enough to remember that Slick Willy, aka Bill Clinton, started the big push to deindustrialize by offshoring while expanding the economy through healthcare. The best way to expand healthcare is to manufacture an unhealthy populace.
This may sound naive, but wouldn’t the best way to reduce healthcare spending be to make the populace healthier by lifestyle and diet, as opposed to pharmaceuticals, bioweapons, synthetics in the food supply, coach potato syndrome etc. ad nauseum.
When Michelle Obama introduced that idea for school lunches, she was called snobbish and out of touch with common Americans. Now RFK Jr wants to do his MAHA dance, everyone on the right says yay healthy school lunch as if the solution wasn’t presented by a black liberal a decade before. They thank her by calling her “Big Mike” and those are all 100% facts.
If you let black people lead you, you will turn black yourself!
You are naive. In California, candy bars were exempted from state and local sales tax by a vote of the people in a referendum financed by candy bar manufacturers years ago, while vitamins are subject to the full tax.
They’re obese , sedentary, grease scarfers, and they like it that way.
Medicaid is administered by the states while being funded by a combination of state and federal funds. Cutting medicaid is going to hurt Republican states far more than democratic states. California and New York can fund their own. Alabama and Oklahoma, not so much.
Cal and NY use BORROWING to pay it all.
We’ll just tell them the liberals are being hurt more. Think they won’t believe it? Look at he absolute howlers they’re repeating in every thread.
I love the mentality challenged!
A Program does not have to be abolished to make it more efficient.
US Government has been run as one giant Pork Barrel.
Well the Pork Barrel is now meeting the Axe man. Pork Barrel is gonna lose in this encounter.
To live in denial that there is not huge Government spending waste is not a mentally healthy place to be.
Returning many functions back to States is one approach as it eliminates duplicating same Government efforts on at least Two levels. Federal and then State. Block Grants to States and let States figure out how that money gets allocated. This is what is destined for education amongst other agencies.
Key Federal Level agencies can also get a good scouring with a Brillo Pad and stop all the political based spending. This is also getting addressed by hiring and retaining people based upon merit. Having great people will also lower head counts as productivity would rise. The Days of running Federal Government as private Fiefdoms and make work programs have run out of Taxpayer runway.
The idea that people serve in Government is also novel at the Federal Level. Just as in Private economy when services are no longer needed you the employee get to move on.
It will surprise me greatly if Federal spending is unable to get reduced by at least 20% just by straightening out how it operates.
When a person is Fat to lose weight stop eating as much.
Federal government is in the Obese stage and it is headed towards a heart attack with ongoing runaway Deficit spending.
We have a grossly obese Female Friend. I am talking FAT hanging off of her EVERYWHERE. SHE CANNOT STOP EATING, no matter how many drugs, forced dieting, even Psych’s could do nothing. Of course, now she complains of PAIN EVERYWHERE.
She is morbidly marching towards and early death (more than Likely) and I have given up trying to suggest that she join our Athletic Club and do the SWIMMING WORKOUTS.
There are MILLIONS JUST LIKE HER. She is also on Medicaid and sucks off of the TEAT OF FREE MEDICAL CARE (and her fortunes are hidden in a Family Trust) – – so, she fakes POOR and gets away with it.
I lived in a mountain community in the 90’s (beautiful place with a Huge Volcanic Mountain over us) and we had no fewer than 4 different Neighborhood Husbands who were ALL COPS and FIREMEN on permanent disability.
One of them was George and he hand dug post holes but had told me that years before He retired from being a cop due to a back injury.
I concluded, with one of my two other best friends (Disabled Firemen) that ALL COPS and FIREMEN retired in their 50’s with full retirement bene’s, including MEDICAL CARE FOR LIFE, because they had ALL HURT THEIR BACKS.
ALL OF THEM GOLF, and NOT ONE EFFORT HAS BEEN MADE TO INVESTIGATE THE FIELDS (retireds) and find out how many of them are faking it.
I am here to tell you that ALL OF THEM ARE FAKING IT! ALL of them!
Making money readily available is surest way to create dependency.
That is how government operates. It ends up entrenching a Bureaucratic state very difficult to dislodge.
The end of road is here for current modus operandi.
Either it gets changed or Bankruptcy will change it for everyone.
How to ferret out legitimate claims, from partial claims warranted, to fake claims exposed. An impossible task.
Best way is to downsize scope of Government and return inner machinations back to the one on one way things are done in private economy.
People can learn to become adults again and deal with what Life throws at them as it has always been.
Return to Merit based system means growing up and being an Adult comes back into Vogue.
And you haven’t ratted her out because…? You can do it anonymously. If she were truly a friend, you’d suggest counseling, now swimming. Her head has to be fixed first.
Welcome to America.
Trump will transfer power to the states, but not in a radical way. Since the sixties the central gov expanded its power, took care of education, healthcare, food stamps, housing, fighting drugs and crime…so the dems will take over, in stepping stones, while the spineless reps evaporate in frog cooking. Biden/Kamala screwed up the dems 70Y plan. The constitution says: all the above is the business of the states. We the people expect that gov will take care of us in every aspects of our lives. We expect too much.
Abolish the Social Security Slush Fund and put the program under the general budget. It’s all funded by taxpayers anyways. But the slush fund just encourages even more government spending since it offers a parking space for more government debt and sells it to a captive market.
FDR specifically designed Social Security to at least appear to be self-financed and essentially universal. The purpose was to make it appear that it is NOT a welfare program. When the very wealthy inevitably demanded cuts to it, the general population would reject it because it is “my money”. FDR understood the politics perfectly and designed the system to be politically unbreakable. Social Security allows people to live without working, breaking a cardinal rule in capitalist moral philosophy. And by making it universal, everyone would consider it a “right”, not just a big government benefit (same reason Trump sent $1200 checks to everyone, not just those in need). But you’re right, the only way we are going to gut income for the elderly and keep the money for ourselves is to move it to the General Fund. That way we can call it what it is: welfare for the non-savers and widows.
I think one reason FDR succeeded was because recipients did not live real long after retirement. The wealthy would look at retirees as a very temporary burden on the economy.
Social Security was put under the General Fund by President Johnson in the the1960’s to make the Vietnam war look less costly.
Trump needs to turn Medicaid over to the states.
Nice idea, but crooked and corrupt states like California, already billions in debt, won’t comply. They use tax dollars for illegals. Every recent Proposition that passed to make things better here, like water storage, isn’t done and the money has been misappropriated. I truly hope the DOJ comes after our “leaders.”
What I like about Mish is his constant cheery optimistic outlook.
We should cut 100% of Medicaid.
Every rural medical facility would instantly close.
No problem. There are plenty of other medical facilities. The American taxpayers shouldn’t pay for free healthcare for other people. I have to pay almost $1,000 per month for my insurance with a $3,200 deductible. I’m pissed that $.01 of my my money has to pay for free health care for others. If you want health care then you should pay for it yourself.
It doesn’t matter what Trump says you can’t trust him. He changes his mind daily on a whole variety of programs. Wait till something concrete is done, then wait for that to change. Good Luck you are going to need it.
General Milley once said that the fight was not just to get in to talk to Trump. But to get in last. Because he didn’t really understand the complexities of any of the situations he was faced with, and everyone had different solutions, only the last one would stick.
In the next correction JP will cut rates and stay the course. Inflation will rise. The US gov will pay Negative dividends to ease the pain: ten years of (-)2%/Y [negative rates] x $36T gov debt = (-)$7T. Gravity with Germany will keep the long duration (US10Y, 30Y) down. Highly skilled workers and union workers will earn higher wages, above the inflation rates, but the elderly and the impaired transfer money ==> will deflate. The alpha, the zoomers and the millennials will benefit from a thriving economy, but the boomers will eat sh*t. It’s either the future of the US as a Superstate or the future of the boomers and the impaired.
He’s going to treat Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid the way he treated his 3 wives.
As Open the Books first reported in RealClearInvestigations, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services wasted $87 billion in improper payments, more than any other government entity. Medicare reimbursements to health providers had a 7.7% mistake rate this year, the worst since percentages were first reported in 2019.
Thanks for that, and the source is the government itself. It would be great if the administration adopted the measures needed to reduce this stuff. There’s hundreds of billions there. Anybody have an email address for the DOGE so they can be informed?
“Trump” in the title – over/under is 75 comments, one way or the other.
Now the Project Veritas and O’Keefe Tinder Dates with government workers and and contractors …
Just a taste…
Project Veritas revealed that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) deliberately gave away BILLIONS in funds prior to Trump taking office. “Now it’s how to get the money out as fast as possible before they [Trump Administration] come in … it’s like we’re on the Titanic and we’re throwing gold bars off the edge.” – Brent Efron, EPA Advisor.
Its just like bringing in the many immigrants before Trump. All planned and and carried Republican and Democrat Uniparty so they can dupe people into thinking there is change and that the Republicans are conservative and cleaning up the mess. The Republicans and Trump get their cut from all that wasted money.
What’s the $1.3 trillion in “other mandatory spending”? CIA? I’m guessing I have a different definition of mandatory.
The conspiracy theory Thursday side of me hopes that the 2024 election WASN’T about getting a Republican Party “outsider/insider” as president in order to blow it all up on “their” watch, necessitating running back into the loving arms of Team technocrat/neo-liberals, aka “Our Democracy”.
A fair number of folks who comment here seem to want to blow it all up. They might get their wish. And there are so many possibilities.
For example, let’s “speculate” that Musk’s Doge team inserted software updates into critical payment systems. Let’s further speculate that foreign hackers can make use of the unauthorized updates to find ways to crash the entire payments system.
It’s fun to speculate. If you like conspiracies.
What? Me worry?
Not about those cherished government programs.
Trump will make trillions in tariffs, pay off our deficit and debt, and make all those programs fully solvent.
Hopefully he will enact his trillions in tariffs soon and not back down again.
Follow the yellow brick road to the Golden Age!
That’s the spirit!
P.S. Might do wonders for some of your energy trades
Thanks! I lightened up on my Canadian energy stocks recently, as I expected Trump’s tariffs to cause a correction. Though I still hold some. Sitting on a fair bit of cash right now. Day trading and waiting patiently for the great opportunities Trump will provide. Just like last time.
Kennedy if allowed will get America healthy again. That means less healthcare costs if folks change their bad habits. But the only definite cutter of Government costs is if a deadly virus reappears and permanently takes out lots of us pensioners.
How old you to believe that a bureaucrat can effect health on hundreds of millions of people?
When Kennedy’s proposals threaten profits of big pharma we’ll see who prevails.
Careful what you wish for.
Some deadly viruses prefer the young and healthy (Spanish flu).
Be careful what you consume – Contrary to your conventional wisdom the actual scenario was more complex:
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/10/091002132346.htm
Aspirin’s fascinating history isn’t limited to coal tar-
https://americanbusinesshistory.org/the-tortuous-saga-of-the-first-wonder-drug-aspirin/
What’s another $4.5 trillion added to the debt ceiling and overall debt load?
https://www.investmentnews.com/tax/house-gop-takes-first-step-toward-tax-cuts-debt-limit-increase/259305
None of it will get paid back and Trump has already signaled that some of those treasury bonds don’t need to be paid back. Let me guess, countries that have been “ripping us off” won’t have their treasury bonds honored?
This presidency is quickly turning into a dumpster fire. We will be in recession come May and mass layoffs are still ahead.
Got SPY Puts? Every republican crashes the market, they just can’t help themselves.
Sad but true. Every Republican President since 1920 has had a recession begin on his watch. Though recently, someone here said that was intentional so they could win the next election. Lol! I don’t even have to make this stuff up. I just need to read some of the comments here.
Roosevelt had a recession in the middle of the Great Depression. Carter had a recession in 1980. The 2000-2002 stock crash started when Clinton was president, signalling the 2001 recession, which would have happened on Gore’s watch had he won.
Here Ron. Let me help you out: again. I’m not sure how many times I will have to post this, because you keep refusing to believe it. This is not something I made up. This is factual data; even if you don’t want to believe it.
Here are the 4 recessions since 1920 that began during Democrat presidents. So 3 of 8 Democrats had a recession.
• The Recession of 1937–38: Franklin D. Roosevelt
• The Recession of 1945: Franklin D. Roosevelt
• The Recession of 1949: Harry S. Truman
• The 1980 Recession: Jimmy Carter
There hasn’t been a recession under a Democrat for over 40 years now.
And here are the 14 recessions since 1920 that began during Republican Presidencies. So all 10 Republicans had a recession. Two of them had 2 recessions. And one of them had 3 recessions.
• The 1920-21 Recession: Warren G Harding
• The 1923–24 Recession: Warren G. Harding
• The 1926–27 Recession: Calvin Coolidge
• The Great Depression: Herbert Hoover
• The Recession of 1953: Dwight D. Eisenhower
• The Recession of 1958: Dwight D. Eisenhower
• The Recession of 1960–1961: Dwight D. Eisenhower
• The Recession of 1969–1970: Richard Nixon
• The Recession of 1973–75: Richard Nixon (Began in Nov. 1973, Ford took over in August of 1974)
• The 1981–82 Recession: Ronald Reagan
• Early 1990s recession in the United States: George H.W. Bush
• Early 2000s Recession: George W. Bush
• The Great Recession: George W. Bush (Began Dec. 2007, Obama took office Jan. 2009)
• The 2019-20 Recession: Donald Trump
You’re welcome.
The Uniparty have been steadily bankrupting this country under whatever red or blue president and congress there is. A recession, depression, or even worse is going to happen eventually no matter what president because of the outrageous debt theyve all piled up.
It’s interesting in that when you get into the details of cutting spending, the impacts do not nicely fit into red and blue state buckets. Even the SALT tax cap hits some red states rather harshly: Texas and certainly Florida to name just two. And the recent attempt (now on a judicial stay) to cap NIH indirect costs for grants at 15% has red and blue states up in arms. It may come as a surprise but red states have Medicaid recipients too. I actually want Trump to cut spending. But his spray and pray approach seems disorganized, disjointed and disheveled. SS can be fixed through a series of long term tweaks. Where is Congress in all of this? They seem asleep at the wheel.
Always looked at the SALT limits as immoral because Charging a tax on a tax is nonsense. Of course taxes, theft, and nonsense are what keeps us “free”. /sarc
I am just thinking here $7 trillion for the shower of corrupt poop called the US government. Given the lousy criminal quality of our political class, how long can we continue to laud and fete them when they do such an awful job.
If only there were some mechanism to get these guys out of their jobs. I heard rumors and whispers of something called voting but I’m not really sure.
The laugher curve predicts that the more you cut taxes, the more revenue you generate.
Why is it the laugher curve and not the Laffer curve?
Because the people who promoted it back in the 1980s and kept their taxes low throughout their lifetimes laughed all the way to the bank and are now 6 feet under and don’t have to worry about the $37 trillion in national debt those low taxes helped create.
I’m all for cutting taxes, but you have the cut the SPENDING as well.
The Laffer Curve is about maximizing government taxation. Simply put if taxes are at zero then zero revenues come and conversely 100% tax rate and once again zero revenue generation. The trick is to find the optimal level for tax collections. Currently today if Trump gets his tax decrease the Laffer Curve is moving way too close to the zero level thus LESS taxes will come into the treasury.
When Ronald Reagan (Congressional bill passage) dropped taxation tax revenues exploded to the upside but alas Congress had a field day in spending.
Bottom line the Laffer Curve is real politics is the problem.
Why assume revenue increase were caused by tax cuts? There is no evidence that is the fact. Other factors like the growth of IT and free trade caused the economy to boom, given the increases in business activity in those fields.
and cut everyone’s taxes!
There’s likely 36 trillion in water, fraud and kickbacks over the past 25 years.
Its already been established and you can believe it or not, but no one should trust this guy as far as you could throw him.
Once upon a time here’s what one MAN thought: “Should any political party attempt to abolish social security unemployment insurance and eliminate labor laws and farm programs you would not hear of that party again in our political history. There is a tiny splinter group of course that believes you can do these things. Among them are a few other Texas oil millionaires and an occasional politician or business man from other areas. Their number is negligible and they are stupid.”
Dwight D. Eisenhower
How much longer will brown people at minimum wage want to keep paying taxes into a program that chiefly benefits YT who they have been told all their lives is a racist responsible for all their problems?
Many “brown people” work for cash when the opportunity presents itself. And more than a few are making a lot more than minimum wage.