Free Republic

Democrats were confronted earlier this year with a terrifying reality: a cap on out-of-pocket costs for patients to limit Medicare drug spending passed as part of Biden’s signature Inflation Reduction Act was set to spike premiums for millions of senior citizens just weeks before the 2024 presidential election. To avoid the political catastrophe of presiding over major premium increases in the middle of a closely contested election, the Biden-Harris administration used its authority to reroute appropriated funding to subsidize the premiums for seniors until after the election. The administration’s $5 billion budget gimmick kicked the proverbial can down the road,...

(The Center Square) – Medicare premiums and senior citizens' prescription drug costs have surged since passage of the $891 billion Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, according to data compiled by an advocate for seniors on the federal health care program. The legislation promised financial relief for millions of people with Medicare by expanding benefits, lowering drug costs, and strengthening Medicare for future seniors. Medicare Is for Seniors' "Misery Index," as the report is known, says prescription drug costs instead have risen nationally by 31%, leaving seniors with new expenses and fewer options. Those costs will rise again under the new...

Social Security and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) benefits for more than 72.5 million Americans will increase 2.5 percent in 2025. The 2.5 percent cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) will begin with benefits payable to nearly 68 million Social Security beneficiaries in January 2025. Increased payments to nearly 7.5 million SSI recipients will begin on December 31, 2024. (Note: some people receive both Social Security and SSI benefits)

The Social Security Administration (SSA) has officially announced the payment dates for the upcoming cost of living adjustment (COLA) increase in benefits. Beneficiaries will soon learn the exact percentage of the COLA, which the Senior Citizens League (TSCL) predicts will be between 2.73% and 3.2%. The Bureau of Labor Statistics analyzes inflation data annually to determine the necessary increase to ensure Americans can maintain their purchasing power... Analysts anticipate a decrease in the COLA for Social Security benefits in 2025 compared to previous years due to easing inflation. The SSA will announce the 2025 increase on October 10, with the...

Ask any budget expert in Washington to explain the ballooning deficit and debt, and Social Security and Medicare will be high on the list of causes. That’s wrong. The real driver, the elephant in the room, is means-tested social-welfare spending—Medicaid, food stamps, refundable tax credits, Supplemental Security Income, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, federal housing subsidies and almost 100 other programs whose eligibility is limited to those below an income threshold. True, Social Security and Medicare are a drain on general revenue and will become big fiscal problems if not reformed. But they aren’t the major source of our current...

Embattled Steward Health Care chief Ralph de la Torre said Wednesday that he will not comply with a subpoena to testify at a Senate hearing next week on the collapse of his hospital system, setting up a showdown with lawmakers who are threatening to hold him in contempt.De la Torre did not rule out appearing before Congress eventually, but said through an attorney it would be “wholly inappropriate” to testify before his company emerges from the complex bankruptcy proceedings that have followed for-profit Steward’s spectacular downfall. And that process took a substantial step forward Wednesday, as a federal judge overseeing...

a worrying majority of Democrat voters are completely ignorant of the political positions of Kamala Harris... voters who backed Joe Biden in the 2020 election ... ... A whopping 81 percent of those polled were totally clueless about Harris’ support for the elimination of private health insurance. ... Harris made a stand on the issue while sparring with other Democratic candidates leading up to the 2020 election, backing the single-payer system dubbed “Medicare for all” ... Most people polled are also unaware of Harris’ work as border czar under Biden. Harris and her mainstream media allies have worked hard to...

Former President Donald Trump laid out his economic policies and vision for the country at a rally in North Carolina on Wednesday, promising to keep intact the Affordable Care Act, Social Security and Medicare. In front of a crowd of thousands that began forming a day earlier, Trump maintained a positive attitude about the November election, which is in 83 days. “We are going to defeat Kamala Harris, we are going to win back the White House in a historic landslide, and we are going to take back our country,” Trump said. He added that his political movement is the...

'The program is in a death spiral,' former domestic policy adviser to former President Trump says In a move critics say is designed to shield the Biden-Harris administration from election fallout, the administration has leveraged taxpayer funds to mask upcoming increases in Medicare premiums. Under the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), which was intended to cap out-of-pocket drug costs for Medicare beneficiaries, insurers are poised to significantly hike monthly premiums, with average bids for Part D plans expected to triple by 2025. In response to potential voter backlash, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) rolled out a three-year "demonstration...

Possibly very true. Also possibly very true: The US might need to strike actual gold to afford it. Nevertheless, Donald Trump has emphasized his desire to find new places to cut taxes in order to generate real economic growth. Those ideas are also clearly aimed at finding inroads into traditional Democrat constituencies. A proposal to end taxes on tips has a lot of appeal for low-income servers, who are likely younger voters, and both are key demos for Kamala Harris and other Democrats. It didn't woo the culinary union leaders, but it might appeal to their members.His latest proposal clearly...

Former President Donald Trump announced his intention to eliminate taxes on Social Security checks if he regains the White House. This announcement comes as part of a larger strategy outlined by the Republican National Committee (RNC) in their 2024 GOP Platform released earlier this month, titled “Make America Great Again!” This comprehensive platform is inspired by the enduring vision of former President Donald Trump. “The Republican National Committee (RNC) Platform Committee adopted President Donald J. Trump’s 2024 Republican Party Platform with overwhelming support– a pro-American agenda that stands in stark contrast to the record of weakness, failure, and dishonesty created...

Like Bidenflation? How about hyperinflation?That's what's on tap with Kamala Harris's tax-bigger, spend-bigger agenda, which Axios outlined this morning:Vice President Kamala Harris has used her first days as Democrats' likely nominee for president to make it clear that she'll pursue big — and expensive — parts of Joe Biden's domestic agenda that never made it across the finish line.Why it matters: Harris is signaling that even as Democrats play defense on Biden's mixed economic record, she's eager to go on offense for the next four years.Her plans include pushing for nearly $2 trillion to establish universal pre-K education and improve...

In 2019, then-Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA), a Democrat presidential candidate, bragged that she had “always” supported the single-payer Medicare for All program. “I have always supported Medicare for All, I was very happy to sign onto Bernie [Sanders’] bill, and I give Bernie, frankly, a lot of credit for moving the conversation to where it is now,” Harris said in 2019 when running for the Democrat nomination for president. However, she said her version of Medicare for All, wherein Americans would still have the option to receive a private insurance plan, was similar to Medicare, where seniors can choose traditional...

The White House on Wednesday explained what President Biden meant when he misspoke and said “We finally beat Medicare” in last week’s presidential debate. “He meant to say he beat big pharma,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in a briefing when asked about the president’s words. “I mean, that’s what he meant to say.” The statement about Medicare by the president last Thursday night left some confused, and the president has faced an overall negative review of his performance in the debate against former President Trump. The debate, in which Biden spoke with a raspy voice and stumbled...

Seniors are expected to face $33 in out-of-pocket expenses each month after Medicare Advantage cuts. "Joe Biden has cut Medicare Advantage for the last two years. Did you know that? He’s cut your Medicare Advantage, which is a total betrayal of seniors. And just check, you’ll see it. He has cut you down for two years straight."

Trump Reacts To Biden's 'We Finally Beat Medicare' Gaffe At First Presidential Debate

Just when you think things couldn’t get worse on the fiscal front, Washington once again manages to exceed expectations. One couldn’t help but get that impression from the latest update to the nation’s (poor) budget situation.The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) recently released revised estimates of the nation’s budget and economic outlook over the coming years. While the prior version of the document, released in February, didn’t exactly show a fiscally responsible federal government, the intervening four months saw lawmakers digging taxpayers — that’s you and me — into an even deeper hole.More Spending by Congress and BidenOverall, CBO increased the...

Texas AG Ken Paxton and Montana AG Austin Knudsen have filed a joint lawsuit against the Biden administration over its rule to fund transgender procedures with taxpayer dollars under Medicaid and Medicare.

WASHINGTON — A former business associate of James Biden has agreed to plead guilty to conspiring to defraud Medicare of $51 million through a lab-testing company linked to the first brother. Keaton Langston, 39, admitted to using pharmacies, durable medical equipment companies and a laboratory in which he had a financial interest to bill for unnecessary tests and orders, the Justice Department disclosed last week in court filings. James Biden, 75, has not been accused of criminal wrongdoing and has sought to distance himself from Langston, whose father Joey Langston also was associated with the first brother. Keaton Langston founded...

Interest payments on the nation’s ballooning debt just eclipsed spending on defense and Medicare, worrying policy experts who have warned this threatens to undermine U.S. economic stability. In the first seven months of fiscal year 2024, which began in October, spending on net interest surged to $514 billion, surpassing spending on both national defense ($498 billion) and Medicare ($465 billion). In fact, interest costs have topped spending on veterans, education and transportation combined. Rising debt will continue to put upward pressure on interest rates," the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget (CRFB), a nonpartisan group that advocates for lowering the...