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Ten years later, the US continues its course to add $20 trillion to its national debt, with American taxpayers setting a total of more than $56 trillion. Every year, we spend on red, but our debt interest continues to accumulate by 2051, which will become the largest line item in the federal budget. Simply put, we are on a conflict course with a complete financial crisis. Congress has only a handful of opportunities left to return. Lawmakers must reform Medicaid to prevent the US dollar from falling completely apart and to give the American people the opportunity they deserve. Reduce boundaries regarding fraud.
The urgency of our country's debt crisis has been lost for many, but reducing waste, fraud and abuse has been a priority in President Donald Trump's administration from day one. The government's Office of Efficiency (DOGE) and Elon Musk have already discovered billions of dollars in waste. From excessive Politico Pro subscriptions to Democrat pet projects overseas, taxpayers have been completely taken away.
But even if Doge meets the quota for reductions and a futile federal grant freeze has not been dragged by lawsuits, these savings won't hurt the surface of what it takes to save America from the looming debt crisis.
Senator Elon Musk's Huddle with Gop: Doge Head Touts Save $4 million per day
This is it for lawmakers who claim to reduce waste, fraud and abuse and provide Trump's historic mission. What you do over the next two years will not come close to the importance of implementing the $880 billion needed to save for programs under the jurisdiction of the House Energy Committee.
Congress must face the threat posed by the ever-growing budget. (Fox News Digital)
We're not asking you to cut Medicaid, we're just going back in time and turning back the explosive expansion that has put it on an unsustainable course over the past few years.
Over the past five years, federal Medicaid spending has skyrocketed from $490 billion in 2019 to $618 billion in 2024, a 51% increase. Despite being 60 years old, a third of Medicaid's growth occurred in the same five years. And over the next decade, the Congressional Budget Office predicts Medicaid will cost more than $1 trillion a year, comparable to the size of Saudi Arabia's current economy.
When Obamacare introduced an entirely new class of adults in Medicaid, the program exploded and the federal government took on the majority of the fees. Under President Joe Biden, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) withdrew 13 exemptions due to Medicaid work requirements, once again dramatically expanding the program, bringing taxpayers to billions of dollars.
Medicaid was never intended to be this vast.
Medicaid was intended to support vulnerable groups, including people with disabilities, pregnant women, children and people in poverty. Of course, healthy and capable adults are now the largest subgroup of Medicaid today.
Nationally, Medicaid has an estimated 24.6 million healthy adults working with Medicaid, of which 60% report no income earned. Coupled with the unsolved expansion of the Biden administration's food stamp, the federal government has effectively discouraged a significant portion of healthy Americans from seeking employment entirely.
The “safety net” becomes a full-scale trap of poverty, leaving Americans in an endless cycle of dependence, diverting resources from those who truly need help. In some states, the higher the provider rate for extended registrants, the more explicit financial incentives that health care providers can discriminate against traditional registrants. Single mothers, young children and disabled people are pushed aside in favor of healthy adults without dependents.
Medicaid is a large part of the federal budget, and if it isn't cut, we'll see citizen debt rise to over $50 trillion. (istock)
Medicaid was meant to be a temporary bridge, not a final destination. Do you want to help your members? Give them the right incentive structure to grow and thrive. Put them on the path to financial stability.
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We have an obligation to protect taxpayers and to ensure Medicaid doesn't let us go bankrupt. Cut the waste. Cut off the fraud. Reduce abuse.
Work requirements alone in the Clinton era can save around $120 billion over a decade and bring more workers back into our economy. Site neutrality can save you over $471 billion. Normalizing the federal reimbursement rate for a larger population under Medicaid would save nearly $600 billion. With Biden's advice, you could also remove Medicaid provider taxes, call fraud and save taxpayers $612 billion over a decade.
Medicaid was intended to support vulnerable groups, including people with disabilities, pregnant women, children and people in poverty. Of course, healthy and capable adults are now the largest subgroup of Medicaid today.
Even as lawmakers are hesitating these changes, many of these measures will still be gradual. Needless to say, you can save hundreds of billions of additional people who can save by cracking down on inappropriate payments that have reached over 25% in recent audits.
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We need to bring rhetoric back to reality. Medicaid reform is not the end of the qualification program. They are the necessary steps towards a true solution to deal with our country's debt crisis and ensuring the economic future for the coming generation. By implementing targeted reforms, lawmakers can implement President Trump's change duties.
The contracts to help save the country are on the table. Take that.
Republican Chip Roy represents Texas' 21st Congressional District in the US House of Representatives. He is a former Texas aide.
For more information about rep, click here. Chip Roy
Rep. Andy Harris, a Republican, represents Maryland's First Congressional District.
For more information about rep, click here. Andy Harris
