Republicans’ ‘Charlie Brown’ budget problem

Remember the great Peanuts cartoon that pulled off every time Charlie Brown went kicking a football? Think of Republicans in Congress as Charlie Brown and Medicaid as football.

For 40 years, Republicans have tried to cut Medicaid, the federal health care program for the poor. They can get a temporary win, but they just pull back that football.

they are working on it again.

As House Republicans seek to launch a politically impossible promise to balance the budget within a decade, Medicaid is their number one target.

That’s because political pressure, especially from Donald Trump, has pushed them off the table on big-ticket items like Social Security, Medicare, and defense spending. But I don’t want to provoke the wrath of older people who tend to vote more Republican.

The chatter within the Republican Party is about tax cuts rather than revenue increases.

The Congressional Budget Office estimates that if large rights, defenses and taxes were to fall off the agenda, any other national program would need to be cut by 86% to achieve a balanced budget over the decade. I’m here.

The most attractive target is Medicaid, which they see as a burgeoning benefit for the poor.of over $600 billion The program, which states have launched with similar amounts, provides health insurance to low-income Americans, people with disabilities, and some seniors.

Efforts to enact deep cuts on Medicaid failed when the Gingrich Republicans took over the House in 1995 and then again in 2017 under Trump and the Republican Congress. It was the main reason why I couldn’t kill.

Russell Vogt, who was Trump’s OMB director, has become a leading figure in House Republican budget cuts.he has Proposed Significant spending cuts over the next decade, including nearly $2 trillion in Medicaid cuts, notably huge cuts in Obamacare and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) (known as food stamps).

The proposed reduction to Medicaid is based on the idea that most recipients are shiftless frustrated.ignoring the fact that 42 percent All births in the United States covered by Medicaid.that’s all 60 percent of nursing home residents are covered by Medicaid.

Medicare doesn’t cover more than 100 days of care.

Vought says half of the $2 trillion in Medicaid savings job requirementsWomen who are about to give birth, elderly people in nursing homes, and people with disabilities probably won’t be charged. But under the Republican administration and Congress, the job requirement was tried five years ago. Arkansas tried.Studies reveal key effects was to kick 18,000 Arkansas out of Medicaidfew additional jobs.

a Congressional Budget Office Report While labor requirements may be effective in some programs, Medicaid notes that “there is little impact on employment.”

There is no small amount of hypocrisy in these budget cut plans. Many of these right-wingers are self-proclaimed populists, but here they are saying, “The people are no good.”Opinion polls consistently High level of support for MedicaidUnder Obamacare, states have the option to expand benefits. Every time it goes directly to voters in very conservative states like Idaho, Utah, Missouri and Oklahoma, it runs.

As for dismantling the Affordable Health Care Act, Ezekiel Emanuel, one of the bill’s authors and a professor of medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, said it was “too woven into the system.”

Republicans also argue that veterans’ benefits are out of hand in the push for a balanced budget.but million or more Veterans’ families benefit from food stamps.

Vought and some of his congressional supporters view the national debt as an existential threat. Then there was the Trump era when the national debt skyrocketed. almost $8 trillionVought was head of the budget for three of those years. With Democrats in the White House now, they are born-again deficit hawks.

At the same time, House Republicans are keeping Medicare off the agenda, but they are warning. In this case, correctly, the Medicare hospital trust fund will be bankrupt by 2028. President Biden acknowledged it and proposed an amendment.Wealthy Americans.

Some House Republicans have spoken out on proposals ranging from raising the eligibility age to partially privatizing Medicare. For now, it’s just fodder for think tank forums.

Republicans, however, need to budget. Originally, it was scheduled to be released in March. Now they’re talking about his April…or maybe May. Apparently, it takes time to evoke enough blue smoke and mirrors.

Al Hunt is the former Editor-in-Chief of Bloomberg News. Previously, he was a reporter, bureau chief and editor in Washington for The Wall Street Journal. For nearly a quarter of a century, he wrote columns on politics for The Wall Street Journal, The International New York Times, and The Bloomberg View.he hosts political war room with James Carville. follow him on twitter @Alhant DC.