GOP Must Cut Medicaid or Medicare to Achieve Budget Goals: CBO

By Mary Helen Gillespie

Republicans in Congress cannot reach their goal of cutting at least $1.5 trillion in spending over the next 10 years for President Donald Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” on taxes and immigration unless they cut Medicaid or Medicare benefits, lawmakers’ nonpartisan bookkeeper reported March 5.

Trump and the GOP are seeking to extend provisions of the president’s 2017 tax cut law — which would cost nearly $5 trillion — while also pushing hundreds of billions of dollars in new spending on border security, mass deportation campaigns and national defense investments.

To do all that without sending the national debt soaring, Republicans are looking for spending cuts to pay for the new spending and lower tax rates. But Trump has said the GOP shouldn’t cut benefits for Social Security, Medicare or Medicaid. Those are the three largest social safety net programs, which together accounted for roughly $3.2 trillion of the country’s $6.75 trillion of total spending in the 2024 fiscal year.

More than 60 million Americans rely on each program for medical coverage, retirement security, survivor benefits and unemployment caused by disability. Cutting benefits in any of them could be politically toxic.

But the Congressional Budget Office March 5 said eliminating fraud and adding new work requirements will probably fall well short of the GOP’s budget goals, according to the programs’ financial reports and nonpartisan projections. That has provoked anxiety among some lawmakers who represent large numbers of people who rely on Medicaid that cuts to the program that are on the horizon.

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