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U.S. Rep. Dan Meuser, R-Dallas, introduced a bill in the House of Representatives which he called the "Payment Information Act," and said it is designed to combat fraud and overpayments in Federal agencies. The lack of specific information about this fraud and overpayment suggests it is a solution looking for a problem.
Our unelected money saver Elon Musk claims to have found $55 billion in waste and $236 billion in overpayments within Federal agencies but provides no specific examples. A New York Times analysis finds Musk's assessment is marred by math errors "incorrect assumptions [and] outdated data."
Now comes the House of Representative's all-inclusive budget bill which promises to extend the tax cuts that primarily advantage wealthy individuals and corporations as well as increase funding for the military, immigration enforcement and all policies dear to Republican hearts. These expenditures will cost $4.5 trillion over 10 years, unidentified spending cuts will only produce $560 billion over the same ten years. This leaves around $2 trillion in cuts during this period. Obviously, there is going to have to be a lot of cuts coming from the areas where most Federal spending occurs, i.e. entitlement programs like Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.
Social Security cuts and Medicare cuts will affect us all, but the poorest among us are the ones who will be most affected by cuts in Medicaid. Medicaid has been described as the "largest health insurance program in operation." It benefits 70 million people in this country. Currently the Federal Government supplies and average of 70% of the cost of Medicaid with the states providing the other 30%. In some states, the Federal part is 90%. Many states will be unable to make up the difference if the government's part goes below these rates, and the poorest states will have the most difficulty continuing coverage.
Republicans in Congress claim that the savings required by these reductions would come from eliminating "waste and fraud" in the system, not by reducing benefits for those who need them. But even conservative think tanks say the bulk of Federal expenditures come from the three major entitlement programs. So even if Musk has found $291 billion in combined waste and overpayments, this will come no where near paying for the proposed budget expenditures. They will have to come from the three entitlement programs.
Although President Trump has promised on many occasions not to touch Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, he has said nothing about the Republican budget which will clearly necessitate cuts in these programs. So the end result of continuing huge tax cuts for the wealthy will be retirement and health insecurity for the majority of Americans.
ELLEN A. BLAIS
Mansfield
Submitted by Virtual Newsroom