While we were all looking at the southern border, House Republicans quietly introduced a bill to balance the budget. In order to do so, they plan to gut Medicare and repeal the Affordable Care Act for the zillionth time.
The House Republican budget, entitled “A Brighter American Future,” would remake Medicare by giving seniors the option of enrolling in private plans that compete with traditional Medicare, a system of competition designed to keep costs down but dismissed by critics as an effort to privatize the program. Along with other changes, the budget proposes to squeeze $537 billion out of Medicare over the next decade.
The budget would transform Medicaid, the federal-state health-care program for the poor, by limiting per capita payments or allowing states to turn it into a block-grant program — the same approach House Republicans took in their legislation that passed last year to repeal the Affordable Care Act (the repeal effort died in the Senate, but the GOP budget assumes the repeal takes place). It also proposes adding work requirements for certain adults enrolled in Medicaid. Changes to Medicaid and other health programs would account for $1.5 trillion in savings.
Social Security comes in for more modest cuts of $4 billion over the decade, which the budget projects could be reached by eliminating concurrent receipt of unemployment benefits and Social Security disability insurance.
So that we're clear, these craven assh*les in Congress just passed a HUGE tax scam that screws the poor and middle class. They set up a legal challenge to the ACA while gutting it by repealing the individual mandate. They have no problem spending billions and even trillions on a defense budget that by any reasonable standard is out of control. They can magically afford tent cities and detention centers so they can tear families apart too.
But God forbid we have health care. Oh hell, no. As far as they're concerned the sooner we die the better.
My response? The sooner they retire and get the hell out the better. Let's make it happen.
