No Cuts To Medicare Enacted Yet
As a presidential candidate, Donald Trump pledged that he wouldn’t cut Medicare, the federal health-care program that mainly serves Americans 65 and older.
So far, nothing has been enacted on Trump’s watch that cuts Medicare benefits, said Erin A. Taylor, a policy researcher at the RAND Corp. “To my knowledge there has been no actual policy enacted yet during the Trump administration that would cut Medicare funding in such a way as to have significant impact on beneficiaries,” she said.
However, Trump did offer a number of ideas for overhauling pieces of Medicare in his fiscal year 2019 budget proposal. Some, Taylor said, could leave Medicare beneficiaries better off, while some might not it is hard to say at this time whether the gains for beneficiaries would outweigh the losses.
Over 10 years, Trump’s 2019 budget proposal says it would cut Medicare spending by a cumulative $236 billion, including by reductions in “waste” and “fraud” and by changing the way drugs are priced and paid for in the program.
The largest cuts, Taylor said, would come from reducing Medicare’s payments for uncompensated care in hospitals and from changing payments for graduate medical education. But “the effects of these changes may trickle down to beneficiaries in terms of changes in sites of service or effects on incentives on the parts of hospitals to provide care, but those effects may not be negative,” Taylor said.
I Am Free: Alice Marie Johnson Thanks Trump For Commuting Her Sentence At The Rnc
Johnson had been in federal lockup for more than 21 years after being found guilty in connection to a drug trafficking conspiracy, and she would likely have died behind bars without the presidents clemency. She was one of the thousands of Americans serving life sentences for nonviolent offenses, according to a 2013 report by the American Civil Liberties Union, the vast majority of whom are there on drug crimes.
Since her sentence was commuted by Trump in June 2018, she has consistently thanked Kardashian West and the president for her release and Trump has also used her story as he advocates from criminal justice reform. In her speech on Thursday, she did explicitly not urge Americans to re-elect the president, but praised and thanked him for his actions on criminal justice.
I pray that you will not just hear this message, but that you will be inspired by my story and your compassion will lead you to take action for those who are forgotten. Thats what our president, Donald Trump did for me, she said. And for that, I will be forever grateful. God bless you. God bless President Trump, and God bless America.
The Republican National Convention aired a video on Monday decrying U.S. protests and citing potential chaos in the streets if Joe Biden is elected president.
The Trump campaign and the RNC did not immediately respond to NBC News requests for comment.
Making It Harder For States To Finance Their Medicaid Programs
The Trump Administration proposed a rule in November 2019 that would make it harder for states to pay for their share of Medicaid costs. If finalized, the rule could require many states to change how they finance their Medicaid programs eliminating some financing options that have long been available to states. These changes would dramatically affect state budgets and could lead to significant cuts to benefits, coverage, and provider payments.
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Trump Speech Missing Several Of His Favorite Talking Points
Shannon Pettypiece
While President Trump launched attack after attack on Joe Biden, he left out a number of his favorite topics of criticism in his acceptance speech.
He made no mention of mail-in voting, which he has alleged, without evidence, will lead to widespread voter fraud and could prevent the country from ever knowing the result of the election. There is no evidence that mail-in voting is at risk for fraud.
Trump also avoided bringing up Bidens son Hunter, a line of attack his campaign believed at one point would be central to their takedown of Biden. He also made no mention of Bidens running mate Kamala Harris, who his campaign has struggled to find an effective way to criticize.
With protests raging outside the White House gates and in Wisconsin over racial injustice, Trump made only a passing mention of race and there was no mention of racism.
Sen Tom Cotton: ‘joe Biden Would Return Us To A Weak Dangerous Past’
Five months later, he told NBC News Meet the Press that hed privately told Obama after that meeting had ended to, Follow your instincts, Mr. President and that Biden had wanted him to take one more day to do one more test to see if he was there.
He further leaned into that version in a 2015 interview, saying that I thought he should go, but follow his own instincts. Biden then contradicted his initial claims, saying, imagine if I had said in front of everyone, ‘Don’t go,’ or ‘Go,’ and his decision was a different decision. It undercuts that relationship.
Meanwhile, Hillary Clinton, in her 2014 book Hard Choices, wrote that Biden remained skeptical about the raid, while Gates in his 2014 book, wrote that he and Biden were both skeptics.
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Trump Issued An Executive Order To Undermine Traditional Medicare And Expand Private Sector Control Over The Medicare Advantage Program
¶ Executive Order Promoted Private Medicare Advantage Plans At Expense Of Traditional Medicare
Trump Executive Order Called For Promoting Private Medicare Advantage Plans. According to Vox, âTrump signed an executive order on October 3 to âprotect and improveâ Medicare with a series of somewhat vague proposals that are aimed at expanding a more market-based approach to Medicare. There are some provisions in this executive order that are largely uncontroversial, like improving network adequacy, expanding access to tele-health, or reducing the time between drugs being approved by the FDA and their being covered by Medicare. But the Trump administrationâs explicit intent to promote Medicare Advantage, a program that allows Medicare enrollees to opt into private qualified plans, could have major implications for the current Medicare system. The order is a bit of a âRorschach test,â said Kaiser Family Foundation Medicare expert Tricia Neuman, one with many possibly interpretations.â
¶ Executive Order Drove Up Costs For Traditional Medicare
¶ The Executive Order Laid the Groundwork To Privatize Medicare
¶ Changes Proposed In Trumpâs Medicare Executive Order May Have Led To Higher Costs For Seniors
¶ The Executive Order Failed To Address High Out Of Pocket Costs And Medicare Advantage Network Navigation
¶ Trumpâs Executive Order May Leave Patients Liable To Pay More And Be Exposed To Surprise Billing
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Fact Check: Cotton Claims Biden ‘sent Pallets Of Cash To The Ayatollahs’ Needs Context
This claim, from Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., refers to a $400 million payment the Obama administration made to Iran in January 2016 on the same day Iran released several American prisoners and implemented the nuclear deal.
That sum was actually part of a $1.7 billion settlement to Iran for a decades-long legal dispute that was before an international tribunal in The Hague, the State Department said at the time. The agency characterized the timing of the payment and the release of the American prisoners as coincidental.
A Wall Street Journal report at the time characterized the payment to Iran as a “secretly organized” airlift of euros, Swiss francs and other currencies given to Tehran. Cotton has been a vocal critic of the payment for years, calling even in 2016 that it “ransom to the ayatollahs for U.S. hostages.
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Hillary Clinton Says Trump Plans To Get Rid Of Social Security And Medicare
Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said President Donald Trumps executive actions on Saturday signaled his intention to dismantle Social Security and Medicare if hes re-elected.
During an MSNBC interview with AM Joy host Zerlina Maxwell, Clinton described Trumps actions as a stunt.
Clinton said Trump hinted at ending the financial contributions that Americans make to fund crucial government programs like Social Security and Medicare.
RESOCIAL SECURITYTHREATFormer Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said President Donald Trump’s executive actions Saturday made it very clear he intends on going after Social Security and Medicare if he’s re-elected.
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Hes bypassing Congress, trying to spend money he has no authority to direct, and its also meant to be a big diversion from the hard work Congress should be engaged in to provide the relief tens of millions of Americans need, Clinton said.
She warned that if Americans were unlucky enough to have Trump as president again, he would hurt not only the elderly, but all Americans, including the younger generation that will one day have to rely on programs like Social Security and Medicare.
PolitiFact
The 2016 Democratic presidential nominee expressed hope that Republicans can find their patriotism and conscience while trying to reach an agreement regarding a realistic stimulus relief package.
No Service Cuts But The Trust Fund Took A Hit
Protecting Medicare was was one of Trumps earliest campaign pledges. Save Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security without cuts. Have to do it, he said in his presidential campaign announcement speech.
So far, the promise of Medicare remains in force. There have been no cuts in services or a change in the governments responsibility to fund the program.
That said, Medicares resources to pay for those services has shrunk, and both Trump and House Republicans have proposed ways to trim Medicare spending over the next decade.
On the resources side, a side effect of the Republican 2017 Tax Cut and Jobs Act was a loss of tax dollars flowing into Medicares Hospital Insurance Trust Fund. Thats the main pot of Medicare money, and the Medicare Trustees forecast in their 2018 report that the fund would run out of money in 2026. A year earlier, they said it would last until 2029.
On Trumps watch, it lost three years of solvency.
In a presentation at the American Enterprise Institute, a market-oriented think tank, the chief actuary at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, Paul Spitalnic, said two of the lost years were due to lower than expected wage growth.
But the other lost year came from the Republican tax cuts.
The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 decreased individual tax rates and as a result, there is somewhat less income coming into the trust fund, Spitalnic said. That does have an effect of making depletion of the trust fund a year earlier.
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Trump Mocks Biden Giving Blue
Donald Trump won a round of laughs from his audience when he said Joe Biden, for nearly five decades, took the donations of blue-collar workers, gave them hugs and even kisses, and told them he felt their pain and then he flew back to Washington and voted to ship their jobs to China and many other distant lands.
He took an extended pause after saying kisses, which was met with a round of laughs.
The reference was likely to accusations of inappropriate touching leveled against Biden throughout the years. Trump, meanwhile, has been accused by more than a dozen women of varying levels of misconduct.
Fact Check: Trump Hammers Biden On Nafta Support Which He Said Killed Jobs He’s Right
President Trump used part of his speech Thursday night to hammer Joe Biden on his support of catastrophic trade deals he said bled U.S. jobs to other countries.
Biden voted for the NAFTA disaster, the single worst trade deal ever enacted he supported China’s entry into the World Trade Organization, one of the greatest economic disasters of all time. After those Biden calamities, the United States lost 1 in 4 manufacturing jobs, Trump said.
This claim is true, although trade was not the only reason that U.S. companies shed these jobs.
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Undocumented Immigrants Without Health Care Were Some Of The Essential Workers Felled By Covid
Republicans repeated their campaign talking point Thursday night that Democrats want to give health care to immigrants without legal status on Thursday night. But the pandemic has shown some of the consequences of high uninsured rates among people without legal status in the U.S.
Early in the pandemic, meat plants slowed their production and Americans feared meat shortages as workers became ill. Some died.
There are an estimated 10.5 million undocumented immigrants in the U.S. The rates of uninsured for health care are high for the population. Not all plant workers are undocumented but the agricultural industry and others are known to rely on undocumented workers and immigrants with legal status.
Undocumented workers are not eligible for health care coverage under the Affordable Care Act, Medicaid or Medicare and most do not have health care coverage through their employers, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation.
Many forgo health care to avoid exposing their undocumented status or affecting future chances for citizenship. Some states provide health coverage with state funding regardless of status, but others deny health care even to pregnant women.
Some immigrants get health care through non-profit community clinics, but the clinics usually only provide preventive and primary care. Often undocumented immigrants will only seek care when the situation is dire at more costly emergency rooms.
Future Of Medicare Funding Uncertain Under Trump Presidency
President Donald Trumps vow to save Medicare from budget cuts is facing a snag as the 2018 budget makes its way through Congress.
The promise, along with maintaining current funding levels for other entitlement programs, was one of Trumps earliest campaign pledges. Save Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security without cuts. Have to do it, he said in his presidential announcement speech.
The 2018 White House budget proposal released in May left Medicare benefits largely untouched compared with Medicaid, which would see a more than $600 billion decrease over 10 years compared to current spending levels. Still, Medicare spending would decrease by more than $50 billion in the next decade compared with current levels.
Though the proposed budget doesnt spell out large direct cuts to Medicare, cuts to other programs would indirectly affect the senior health insurance program. For instance, the budget included eliminating the State Health Insurance Assistance Program, which provides Medicare beneficiaries with counseling and assistance to navigate the health care system.
However, those cuts wont necessarily happen because the White House budget proposal is more of a wish list that the president gives to Congress, where both the House of Representatives and the Senate must create and agree on a final budget to be signed by the president.
Lipschutz said the upcoming deadline could pressure Republicans to hastily pass legislation on health care.
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Trumps Plan To Privatize Medicare
Last week, President Donald Trump signed an executive order titled Protecting and Improving Medicare for Our Nations Seniors. The order is the latest example of how Trump says one thing while doing another. Rather than strengthening Medicare, Trump envisions turning large swaths of the 54-year-old program for the elderly over to the private sector while directing the federal government to dismantle safeguards on seniors health care access, shift costs onto beneficiaries, and limit seniors choice of providers.
Among other things, the executive order lays out a path to:
- Shift the Medicare program toward private plans
- Expand private contracting between beneficiaries and providers, putting seniors at risk for higher costs and surprise medical bills
- Further restrict seniors choice of providers in Medicare Advantage
- Expand Medicare Medical Savings Accounts as a tax shelter for the wealthy
Rnc Plays Video Of Younger Voters Denouncing Liberalism
A video of unidentified younger voters played at the Republican National Convention on Thursday.
The video featured the voters denouncing liberalism, with some of them saying they had once believed in some of the tenets of the ideology but now support Trump instead.
Its another example of Trump reaching out to disaffected progressive voters, some of whom voted for him in 2016.
“The last time we had a lot of Bernie Sanders supporters,” Trump said earlier this year. “I think if they take it away from him like they did the last time, I really believe you’re going to have a very riotous time in the Democrat Party.”
Sen. Bernie Sanders has implored his supporters not to turn against the Democratic party despite his losing the nomination.
At last week’s Democratic convention, Sanders said, “My friends, I say to you, to everyone who supported other candidates in this primary, and to those who may have voted for Donald Trump in the last election: The future of our democracy is at stake. The future of our economy is at stake. The future of our planet is at stake.”
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Trump White House Claim The Tax Relief Will Not Impact Social Security
On Sunday, as he boarded Marine One, Trump told reporters that the executive order deferring payroll taxes for some Americans will “have zero impact on Social Security.”
“We protect Social Security,” he added, according to Fox News.
An official from the White House told USA TODAY on Tuesday that the Social Security Trust Fund is not at risk, since payment deferral is only temporary, and at present, must be paid back early in 2021. The official confirmed, though, that the president called on Congress to make the deferral permanent, thereby eliminating the tax.
Garrett Watson, a senior policy analyst at the Tax Foundation, an independent tax policy think tank, told USA TODAY that eliminating the tax is not the same as eliminating Social Security.
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“Strictly speaking, Social Security could be funded using general fund revenue or alternative revenue source, so terminating a tax and terminating a program are distinct things,” he wrote in an email.
“However, it would be reasonable to ask what would happen with the program absent an alternative plan to fund it,” Watson added.
On Wednesday, Trump suggested an alternate source for the first time the general fund of government revenues per Fox Business.
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