Trump Is Using A Dirty Trick To Cut Billions In Aid To The Poor
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
The Center For Budget and Policy Priorities explained , “A proposal the Trump Administration is considering to use a lower inflation measure to calculate annual adjustments to the federal poverty line[1] ultimately would cut billions of dollars from federal health programs and cause millions of people to lose their eligibility for, or receive less help from, these programs. Many such programs use the poverty line to determine eligibility and benefits, and the cuts to these programs — and the numbers of people losing assistance altogether or receiving less help — would increase with each passing year.”
The number of people who would lose eligibility and benefits would compound each so that after ten years:
– More than 250,000 seniors and people with disabilities would lose their eligibility for, or receive less help from, Medicare’s Part D Low-Income Subsidy Program, meaning that they would pay higher premiums for drug coverage and more out of pocket for their prescription drugs. Meanwhile, more than 150,000 seniors and people with disabilities would lose help paying for Medicare premiums, meaning that they would have to pay premiums of over $1,500 per year to maintain Medicare physician coverage.
– More than 300,000 children would lose comprehensive coverage through Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), as would some pregnant women. In addition, more than 250,000 adults who gained Medicaid coverage from the Affordable Care Act’s (ACA) expansion would lose it.
– More than 150,000 consumers who buy coverage through the ACA marketplaces would lose eligibility for or qualify for reduced cost-sharing assistance, increasing their deductibles by hundreds or even thousands of dollars. And tens of thousands would lose eligibility for premium tax credits altogether.
Trump will harm millions by making their poverty vanish on paper
Medicaid covers 83% of poor children, 48% of children with special needs, and 45% of mon-elderly adults with disabilities. Medicaid also covers 19% Medicare recipients, and 62% of nursing home residents. This is just one of the populations that Trump is trying to harm by redefining their poverty as no longer poor.
Trump can’t change the eligibility requirements for aid programs, so he is redefining poverty so that poor adults and children no longer meet the criteria for assistance. It is an abuse of power that will allow Trump to claim that he “ended poverty” while hurting millions of poor people.
The good news is that all of Trump’s actions can be reversed before they do too much long-term harm, but only if a Democratic president is elected in 2020.
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The president's budget is supposed to be a visionary statement of the president's priorities, unencumbered by the messy realities of negotiating with Congress. It has no binding legal power, but it sets the stage for debate in Congress.
So what's Trump's vision for the country?
Apparently, Trump's America is a place where the poor – even children – can go hungry and homeless while the rich get richer, and billions of tax dollars freely flow to Pentagon contractors.
Trump's plans for ending or cutting government programs have something to hurt almost everyone – from cuts to rural business services, to federal student aid , the Global Climate Change initiative that seeks to help countries both adapt to and prevent climate change, and workplace health and safety.
But not everyone is harmed equally by this budget. The president's budget disproportionately targets the poor.
Cartoons on President Donald Trump
It calls for major cuts to food stamps, Job Corps education and job-training programs for low-income youths, and housing rental assistance. And it would completely eliminate heating assistance for low-income Americans, legal aid for domestic violence victims and people facing foreclosure, and Community Development Block Grants that fund everything from affordable homeownership and homeless services to infrastructure and small business loans in impoverished communities.
Since nearly one in five American children live in poverty , the budget cuts also target children.
Some studies have shown that nearly half of children will rely on food stamps for at least a short time before they turn 20. Even active-duty military families are sometimes forced to rely on the program.
This isn't popular.
In a January poll by the Pew Research Center , a majority of Americans agreed they want poverty to be a top priority for the president and Congress. In a 2017 Pew Research poll , nearly 2 out of 3 Republicans and 19 out of 20 Democrats did not support cuts to assistance to the needy. It turns out most of us, regardless of our political leanings, feel good about helping the less fortunate.
The budget also goes back on some Trump's core campaign promises : It proposes a series of cuts to Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security, which Trump once made a big point of saying he was the only Republican committed to protecting.
The worst cuts are to Medicaid. The proposal would severely limit Medicaid spending , ultimately restricting how much health care the program could provide. It also makes targeted cuts to Medicare and to the Social Security Disability Insurance program .
Don't Be Deficit Dupes
The one government function the president wants to fully fund is the Pentagon.
Under the president's budget, the Pentagon will be flush with money, reaching an astounding budget of $726 billion in today's dollars in 2023. Half of the current Pentagon budget goes to private contractors like Lockheed Martin, which soaked up $43 billion in federal tax dollars in 2016 and paid its CEO $19 million .
Meanwhile, the proposal does away with an effort to allow military leaders to close unneeded military bases, a move that could save $2 billion per year. That's roughly the same amount that the administration wants to cut from the Environmental Protection Agency, which would face a $2.8 billion, or 33 percent, cut .
The Economic Case for Immigration
Trump's choices for this budget fly in the face of decency, compassion and even his own campaign promises. Combined with the inequality-boosting effects of the recent tax plan , this budget is a perfect storm for lower- and middle-income Americans.
Though symbolic, this budget should remove any doubt that Trump was ever a populist. And worse, it will give Congress cover for picking up on some of the budget's more dystopian policy ideas.
Budgets show our values as a nation. Are we a nation that believes in human dignity and basic necessities like food, shelter, and medicine for all people? The answer in Trump's budget is a resounding "who cares."
Donald Trump said this week that the stunning report that his White House pushed the military to keep the USS John S. McCain “out of sight” during his trip to Japan was “fake news” or “an exaggeration.”
But on late Friday, the Navy itself pushed back and completely shattered Trump’s damage control attempt to label yet another unpleasant story as fake news.
In a statement to CNN , chief of Navy information, Rear Adm. Charlie Brown, said, “A request was made to the U.S. Navy to minimize the visibility of USS John S. McCain, however, all ships remained in their normal configuration during the President’s visit.”
More proof that the military sees this commander-in-chief as a petty child
On two fronts, the controversy surrounding the USS John S. McCain shows that Donald Trump is seen by his own military and staff as a petty child.
First, the fact that the White House made this request at all shows that they view the president as an unstable toddler.
Instead of seeing Trump as a commander-in-chief who could set aside politics on the world stage, White House staff genuinely believed the mere sight of a Navy warship named for the father and grandfather of a political opponent would send the president into a tantrum that would blow up his entire trip to Japan.
On the second front, the Navy’s statement suggests that, yes, they received a request from the White House to keep the USS John S. McCain out of sight during Trump’s visit to Japan – but they refused to fulfill it.
In short, the initial White House request shows just how childish and unstable they believe their boss is, and the fact that Navy apparently just ignored it indicates just how little they seem to respect this commander-in-chief.