Posted on 01/13/2025 6:05:07 PM PST by SeekAndFind
House Republicans are passing around a “menu” of more than $5 trillion in cuts they could use to bankroll President-elect Donald Trump’s top priorities this year, including tax cuts and border security.
The early list of potential spending offsets obtained by POLITICO includes changes to Medicare and ending Biden administration climate programs, along with slashing welfare and “reimagining” the Affordable Care Act.
Five people familiar with the document said those provisions are options to finance Republicans’ massive party-line reconciliation bill or other spending reform efforts, including those being spearheaded by the so-called Department of Government Efficiency.
The people, granted anonymity to discuss closed-door negotiations, said that the list originated from the House Budget Committee, chaired by Rep. Jodey Arrington (R-Texas). Republicans involved in the reconciliation plans have been generally targeting the listed programs for several months, but internal GOP fights over trillions of dollars in potential cuts are just beginning.
The overall savings add up to as much as $5.7 trillion over 10 years, though the list is highly ambitious and unlikely to all become law given narrow margins for Republicans in the House and Senate.
Cuts to Medicaid, the Affordable Care Act and the country’s largest anti-hunger program would spark massive opposition from Democrats and would also face some GOP resistance. House Speaker Mike Johnson can’t afford any Republican defections if he wants to pass a package on party lines.
Even proposed cuts to green energy tax credits, worth as much as $500 billion, could be tricky — as the document notes, they depend “on political viability.” Already 18 House Republicans — 14 of whom won reelection in November — warned Johnson against prematurely repealing some of the IRA’s energy tax credits, which are funding multiple manufacturing projects in GOP districts.
(Excerpt) Read more at politico.com ...
The people, granted anonymity to discuss closed-door negotiations, said that the list originated from the House Budget Committee, chaired by Rep. Jodey Arrington (R-Texas). Republicans involved in the reconciliation plans have been generally targeting the listed programs for several months, but internal GOP fights over trillions of dollars in potential cuts are just beginning.
The overall savings add up to as much as $5.7 trillion over 10 years, though the list is highly ambitious and unlikely to all become law given narrow margins for Republicans in the House and Senate. -Politico
The "document is not intended to serve as a proposal, but instead as a menu of potential spending reductions for members to consider," one GOP source told the outlet.
We need to stop paying medical bills for illegal aliens and their families. They need to go home for medical care.
I remember when Obamacare was passed it gave states an option to ‘expand Medicaid’ by making it easier to qualify. Although the feds would pay most of the cost, Texas smelled a rat and wouldn’t play ball, and took a fair bit of crap for it. Now we see that rat.
I’ll go further. Cut the federal governments involvement in healthcare, and watch health care prices plummet. Get the federal government out of the student loan business, and watch tuition prices plunge. See a trend?
Hundreds of billions to Ukraine….cuts to Medicare……
Great
Sorry to throw cold water on this, but if it needs 60 votes in the Senate to pass, it’s DOA. In fact, I can imagine a good deal of Republicans voting this down too.
Anonymous sources spouting the party narrative line
There should be no cuts to benefits for American citizens until there are deep cuts to government jobs. They must go off the dole first before we cut average people’s benefits! The republican party is trying to alienate black and brown voters to drive them out of the party.
a trillion here a trillion there pretty soon we’re talking about real money.
Hear! Hear!
Wow, shocking, I agree with you ..
Smile. Isn’t the Free Republic just the cat’s meow?
I can reimagine this easily. It could look like the Los Angeles fire hit a stack of government regulations and acts of congress as well as the administrative buildings created to scam off of the loot flowing through and the entities and organizations processing all the forms and paperwork. The power used to provide all the servers to collect and keep all the data could be eliminated and taken as a green tax credit.
And then let private market competition make the process efficient.
The US government can’t afford health care. In other Western Countries the health care costs are driving their huge deficits, too. I can understand maybe prescription drug coverage for people on Medicare, but we just don’t have the money or the willingness of the taxpayer to pay 20% of their income to provide cancer, cardiology and other expensive care to 100M people. We need to institute MAID for end of life choices.
If you look at the budget it is Medicare and health care that is driving us into unmanageable deficits & debt.
Social Security is affordable and when the funds drop down then the government can cut it 25% to afford it. We should also allow anyone collecting SS retirement to have a 2nd income to afford to live. We can work at home these days and the elderly can manage that.
IMHO.
Looks great, but unfortunately, it is NOT ENOUGH!
We need to save at least DOUBLE of this to get some budget sanity!
Medicaid, the healthcare for the poor, must be changed!
Obamacare and Dems made too many people eligible, and, there are mostly no co-payments.
As a result, people eligible, go to facilities with every little ailment. It not only cost huge amount of money, but also clogs the healthcare system.
We now have huge waiting lists and prices are up. Just try to visit emergency room in any hospital!
We need to return sanity to the healthcare system!
Sometimes... I just by chance checked in and low and behold a poster who usually has nothing but .itching about President Trump posts something I agree with ..
How many $$$$$$ does the FED put into Medicaid?
MAID??? How old are you? Prescription drug coverage is only necessary because we allow pharmaceutical companies to price gouge every medication less than 20 years old. Something needs to be done about THAT. We’re the only country in the world that allows pharmaceuticals to be anywhere near the prices they charge.
We could call a trillion a “kiloDirksen.”
People read more carefully.
This is proposing $5.7T cuts OVER TEN YEARS.
At 3% inflation The $6T spending of today is going to rise $180B each year. The proposal is to cut 570B each year.
Except there is $37T in debt and at 3.5% interest is $1.2T per year. So you think you’re cutting $570B/year, while you’re increasing spending on interest at least $1.2T/yr.
That’s not a cut, sports fans. That’s an increase.
I will GUARANTEE you they arrive at this with a presumed 0% interest on the debt for all 10 years (it’s 3.5% now). Imaginary bullshit numbers.
Everyone gets excited about $5.7T in spending cuts and probably will brag to voters about it and then whisper the “over 10 years part”.
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