DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk Palus Politicus Trump Proposes $4.8 Trillion Budget, With Cuts to Safety Nets

Trump Proposes $4.8 Trillion Budget, With Cuts to Safety Nets

White House would boost funds for defense and veterans, and aims to reduce deficits over a decade in part through curbs on Medicare and Medicaid

https://www.wsj.com/articles/trump-proposes-4-8-trillion-budget-with-cuts-to-safety-nets-11581356145

Anyone got a sub to WSJ? I told y'all he was coming after Social Security and Medicare. smh

Trump has given us a path to a balanced budget -- it's pro-worker, pro-family and pro-growth

The president’s budget would put the federal ledger in the black in just 15 years. It includes $4.6 trillion in deficit savings over the next 10 years.

To achieve fiscal responsibility, President Trump is recommending deep cuts to bloated bureaucracies in D.C. and discontinuing programs that are no longer needed or should be handled by state governments.

Well that's the propaganda version. But what is he stealing this time? And he's promising more tax cuts? GMAB. The poor lose the rich win with this guy, period.

The president has set down his marker for his stance on fiscal responsibility. This is a quantum leap in the right direction. And better yet—it’s a far cry from the radical proposals made by left-wing Democrats like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren.

Stealing? .... ...

0 + 0 = 0 ...

Don’t be afraid ... u got this .... just focus ...

You keep working with single digits. That limits your ability to look at things on a larger scale.

Honest question bro. Just where and how are these cuts supposed to be. NOBODY posted a single word about that from either side. They both want to worry about the headlines. But just in plain english how does this effect most folks?

But is it pro people who have worked 60/70/80 hours a week for all of our lives like me. Right now it looks like he want's to bend me over and break it off in my backside. Just like he did with his so called tax cuts.

So he's trying to kneecap future presidents to make himself look better already. What does the budget look like while he's still in office?

Trump's budget is pro-Trump. That's the only thing I can guarantee.

EDITORS' PICK|46,729 views|Feb 10, 2020,9:20 pm
What Seniors Need To Know About Trump’s 2021 Federal Budget
Elena Botella
Elena BotellaContributor
Retirement
I write about banking, finance, and consumer issues.
An elderly woman on a couch
Trump's proposed budget reduces Medicare spending by 7% over the next ten years, among other cuts to ... [+] GETTY
Today, President Donald Trump and the White House Office of Management and Budget released a proposed 2021 budget. Trump’s budget includes cuts to key senior programs like Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security Disability Insurance. While the proposed budget would slash funding for many programs that seniors rely on, other important areas for seniors, like veterans’ healthcare, would get a boost.

Seniors should think of the proposed budget as President Trump’s “wish list”: not all of his proposals will take effect. Most, but not all, of his proposals would require the cooperation of the Democratic-controlled House of Representatives and the Republican-controlled Senate.

Here are the line items from Trump’s 2021 budget that would have the greatest impact on seniors.

The Budget Would Reduce Medicare Spending


Today In: Retirement

President Trump’s budget would reduce Medicare spending by a total of $756 billion between 2021 and 2030, a decrease of 7%.

Part of this reduction in spending comes from initiatives that the White House says are intended to reduce Medicare fraud. For example, they’ve proposed requiring patients and doctors to ask for prior authorization from Medicare before certain procedures could be performed. And the budget hopes to lower Medicare spending through changes that would encourage more seniors to see nurse practitioners or physician’s assistants as their primary care providers.

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Other proposals would cut down on reimbursement rates to healthcare providers, reducing how much doctors, hospitals, and hospices are paid for providing healthcare. Cutting Medicare reimbursement rates is a controversial strategy; in the past, it’s received both support and criticism from Democrats and Republican alike. Some say cutting reimbursement rates saves taxpayers money by cutting into medical industry profits. And the Trump administration’s budgets highlights specific instances where they believe reimbursement rates for doctors are excessive: for example, they cite the fact that doctor’s offices owned by hospitals are often paid more for performing the same procedures than independent physicians.

But cutting reimbursement rates also means that some seniors could lose access to their favorite doctors. Dan Adcock, director of government relations at the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare, said of the cuts to Medicare, he was most worried about the lower reimbursement rates. When reimbursement rates decrease, "you start to affect access, because doctors decide they can't make a decent living," said Adcock.

“There are areas of wasteful spending in the Medicare program,” says Eliot Fishman, the senior director of health policy at Families USA, a nonpartisan organization that advocates on behalf of patients. But he added there are also major gaps in Medicare. For example, seniors struggle to afford dental care and face high out-of-pocket costs on their prescription drugs. “The Trump administration is violating an explicit commitment he made throughout his campaign not to cut Medicare,” Fishman said. Even if some cuts are justified, Fishman said that given Trump’s campaign promises, the savings should be used within the Medicare system to make healthcare less expensive for seniors.

The Budget Takes Aim At Social Security Disability Insurance

Trump’s proposed budget contains a number of changes to Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI). SSDI is a federal program that protects workers who develop a life-changing disability after having paid into the fund by earning “work credits.”

As I’ve written previously, disabilities often emerge during middle age or late-in-life, after decades of (and sometimes as a direct result of) hard work. As a result, SSDI is especially important for seniors nearing the full retirement age of 67. According to data from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, Americans between the ages of 60 and 66 are 14 times as likely to currently be on the SSDI rolls as Americans between the ages of 30 and 34.

Trump’s budget calls for a $75 billion decrease to spending on the two federal disability programs, SSDI and SSI, over the next ten years. $10 billion of this reduction comes from reducing the amount of retroactive benefits someone can receive after they’ve been found to be disabled.

As Kathleen Romig of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities points out, when workers first experience a disabling injury or illness that forces them from their job, they often hope their condition will improve, allowing them to get back to work. In these cases, they may wait until their savings are fully depleted or until they’ve lost hope of recovery to apply for SSDI. Today, a worker can wait for up to a year after the start of her disability and still receive retroactive benefits for the whole period where she was unable to work; under Trump’s proposal, she could only wait six months.

But Trump also promises to make other cuts to SSDI without explaining where he’ll find the money. 60% of the spending reduction from federal disability programs — $47 billion over the next ten years — come from a proposal that the Office of Management and Budget says is to “test new approaches to labor force participation.” As Romig explains, the White House is hoping that by spending $100 million per year over the next five years on experimenting, they’ll come up with a “magical policy” that reduces the number of people on disability programs by 5%. “But they don’t explain how they’ll do it,” said Romig.

In looking for such substantial cuts to our disability programs, the White House “appears to be working off a mistaken assumption about who receives Social Security Disability Insurance,” said Adcock. “The vast majority will never be able to return to work,” he said, because their conditions are so severe. The Social Security Administration itself admits that the federal government “defines disability so strictly, Social Security disability beneficiaries are among the most severely impaired in the country [...] Among those who start receiving disability benefits at the age of 55, 1-in-6 men and 1-in-8 women die within five years of the onset of their disabilities.”

More than giving us a specific roadmap of what changes to expect to Social Security Disability Insurance, this budget gives us a clearer picture of the magnitude of cuts the Trump administration would like to make.

Less Money May Be Available for Nursing Homes, Long-Term Care, and Other Senior Health Costs Covered by Medicaid

This budget builds on other proposals President Trump has made to reduce Medicaid spending, the primary program in the United States that helps low-income seniors cover their long-term care expenses. Long-term care expenses are not covered by Medicare, but Medicaid kicks in once seniors have depleted most of their assets, by paying for a nursing home or in-home care.

The budget reduces Medicaid spending over the next ten years by 16%. It calls for “Medicaid reform [that] will restore balance, flexibility, integrity, and accountability to the State-Federal partnership.” Although the budget lacks some specifics with respect to Medicaid spending, this language appears to be alluding to Trump’s previous proposals that would transform Medicaid from an “entitlement” program to a “block grant” program. Today, states have the ability to set the eligibility criteria for Medicaid, within certain limits, and the federal government reimburses the states for a percentage of their spending, subject to various rules. Under a block grant proposal, states would receive less funding, but state governments would have more choice on what to spend it on. But “flexibility” sometimes just means it’s up to states to decide what’s on the chopping block: states could raise copays, reduce program eligibility, or make other changes, including making cuts to long-term care coverage.

The budget would also force states to take away Medicaid and food stamps from adults who don’t meet work requirements. This can cause a particular hardship for Americans in their early 60s who often have to cut back on work due to debilitating health conditions, or who have a harder time finding work after a layoff, but don’t yet qualify for Medicare. Although these work proposals contain exceptions for people with disabilities, it can take anywhere from 30 days to two years to receive a government finding of disability, particularly because more than a third of people who are eventually approved for federal disability insurance aren’t approved until after an appeal.

Trump Wants To Tackle High Prescription Drug Prices

Many seniors struggle with the high cost of prescription drugs. In September 2019, Financial Times reported Americans are crossing the border to Canada in Insulin4All “caravans” to purchase insulin at one-tenth of the cost they’d pay in the United States. According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Americans often pay at least twice as much for brand-name prescription drugs as our counterparts pay in other developed countries.

President Trump’s budget calls on Congress to enact “comprehensive drug pricing reform,” saying that it would reduce the federal deficit by $135 billion over the next ten years. This estimate includes the savings to programs like Medicaid and Medicare if the federal government can pay less for prescription drugs, although seniors themselves might also pay lower out-of-pocket costs for their medicine if Congress and the White House can align on a proposal.

Cutting prescription drug prices is tremendously popular with voters across the political spectrum. A 2018 survey by the Kaiser Family Foundation found that 71% of registered voters said they would favor a candidate that supported lowering drug costs.

Congress has been considering multiple proposals to lower prescription drug costs. The Senate Finance Committee approved a bipartisan bill called the Prescription Drug Pricing Reduction Act (PDPRA) in July 2019, and Adcock pointed out that the dollar savings on prescription drugs outlined in Trump’s budget align closely with the savings that would be created by the PDPRA. Although Trump has previously expressed some support for the PDPRA on Twitter, Adcock says that Trump should make a stronger endorsement of either the Senate bill or the House’s proposal if he’d like it to reach his desk. “Unless [Trump] really gets on board,” said Adcock, “it’s not going to happen.”

Cuts to Meals on Wheels, Utilities Assistance, Senior Jobs Programs, and Attorneys for Seniors

Like previous budgets proposed by Trump, his 2021 budget recommends the elimination of several federal grant programs, including the Community Development Block Grant, which is used to partially fund Meals on Wheels. And the budget proposes the elimination of the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, which helps low-income people, especially seniors, keep their heat on in the winter.

The budget would also eliminate funding for the Senior Community Service Employment Program, which helps seniors who can’t afford to live on Social Security alone find part-time work.

And like previous Trump budgets, the 2021 proposal would eliminate funding for the Legal Services Corporation. Legal Services funding is used to provide attorneys for low-income seniors facing civil legal issues, including foreclosure, eviction, elder abuse, and estate planning. Other than private donations, LSC funding is the main source of civil legal assistance for seniors.

Veterans’ Issues Are a Bright Spot

Trump’s proposed budget recommends a double-digit increase in spending for the Department of Veterans Affairs. $90 billion is allocated in new spending to expand veterans’ access to healthcare, helping to address long-recognized funding gaps. And the budget recommends expanding a stipend program for the caregivers of veterans with disabilities. The budget reflects a 2019 statement by President Trump in which he said, “My administration is committed to taking care of every warrior that returns home as a veteran.”

Broken Promises to Protect Seniors

Kevin Prindiville, the executive director of Justice in Aging said, “This budget demonstrates the lack of commitment to the safety, security and needs of older adults in our community.”

Instead of prioritizing senior issues, the proposed budget recommends shelling out serious cash on new space expeditions to Mars, increases to military spending, and maintaining expensive tax breaks for corporations.

“President Trump has repeatedly promised to protect Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security. His budget is further proof that those claims are, at best, bold-faced lies,” said Senator Bob Casey (D-PA), Ranking Member of the Special Committee on Aging. “Older Americans should take note.

GM,

I posted an article post above on older folks and cuts. It hits the elderly and poor pretty hard. Many other domestic programs cut.

President Trump’s proposed $4.8 trillion federal budget for fiscal year 2021 elicited sharp criticism from Catholic humanitarian and health care groups this week. The president’s proposal, released on Monday, extends the tax cuts he signed in 2017 for a decade, increases spending on defense and veterans’ affairs, cuts foreign aid and makes significant cuts to safety net programs, including Medicaid and programs created by the Affordable Care Act.

In response to the proposed $1 trillion in cuts to health care spending, the Catholic Health Association announced it was “deeply disappointed” in the budget. “CHA believes that our nation’s spending priorities should reflect our moral commitment to assisting the least among us,” said the group in a statement released on Feb. 10. “For millions of Americans, who rely on Medicaid and other health care programs, as well as housing and nutrition programs that promote healthier lives, cuts to these programs will have devastating consequences.

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Catholic Health Association: “For millions of Americans...cuts to these programs will have devastating consequences."
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“While we do commend the Administration’s proposal to expand the mental health services available under Medicaid, that effort would only be negated by the budget’s cuts and other harmful program requirements.”

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In announcing the proposed budget at the White House, Mr. Trump denied slashing health care. “We’re not decreasing Medicaid but we’re doing a lot of things that are very good, including [addressing] waste and fraud,” he said.

On the education front, the proposed budget gives states greater discretion in their use of education funding while cutting funds and reducing staff at the federal Department of Education. The administration has further reiterated its goal to end the existing student loan forgiveness program and create a new program where 12.5 percent (instead of the current 10 percent) of borrowers’ income will pay for loan debts. The budget also plans to shutter the National Endowment for the Humanities, which was created in 1965.

The budget also plans to shutter the National Endowment for the Humanities, which was created in 1965.
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“As NEH awaits Congressional action on the President’s proposed budget, the agency is continuing normal operations and will announce our latest round of FY 2020 awards this spring,” wrote endowment chairman Jon Parrish Peede in a statement.

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Following a standoff between the White House and Congress over $5.7 billion in spending for a U.S.-Mexico border wall, which triggered a five-week partial government shutdown last year, the new budget asks Congress for $2 billion for construction of the wall. In December, Congress tentatively agreed to a federal spending plan that included $1.4 trillion for the wall.

The Washington Post reports that the budget plan would cut foreign aid by 22 percent, while humanitarian aid funding for disaster relief and refugees would fall from $9 billion to $6 billion in total.

“U.S. foreign assistance is a symbol of hope for millions,” responded Bill O’Keefe, executive vice president for mission, mobilization and advocacy at Catholic Relief Services. The international humanitarian organization criticized the proposed 2021 budget in a statement released Feb. 11. “When the U.S. administration proposes cutting aid by 22%, including deep cuts to poverty-reducing development and lifesaving humanitarian assistance, we snuff out that hope,” reads the statement.

Catholic Relief Services: “U.S. foreign assistance is a symbol of hope for millions.”
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“The Catholic community in the United States, through their individual support for agencies like Catholic Relief Services, firmly believes in our collective ability to preserve and uphold the sacredness and dignity of all human life.”

Promoting an increase in defense spending, President Trump has proposed over $15 billion for 115 “advanced fighter aircraft,” among other military programs. The budget allocates $111 million for the newly formed Space Force, the first new branch of the military established since 1947.

The budget also calls for an 19 percent increase in funding for the National Nuclear Security Administration, in part to pay for the creation of a new nuclear warhead, the W93. Some $3.2 billion is slated for the development of hypersonic weapons. The New York Times stated that Mr. Trump’s focus on military spending makes his clear his “own belief that the United States should maintain the world’s most powerful nuclear force—and perhaps enlarge it.”

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Not that I'm a fan of the cuts, but I don't really buy the healthcare side. They're not saying the wrong things, but they're not really saying the right things either. I get the sense they're more (as) upset about the money than the people. There was no we'll continue to help people despite the cuts. They seemed more upset about losing the people that add the most to their margin. Could just be my natural skepticism.

I'm sure there are good people in healthcare upset for the right reasons. On the admin/business/lobby side of healthcare, I doubt anything is higher on their minds than the money.

That's true for most industries/business sectors when we're talking the national budget, though.

Not sure how I feel about the military/VA topic either. On the one side, I feel like the VA could definitely do better. But, a lot of it could be better with better use of money they've had allotted in the past. That might be more the military side than VA. So many over budget, behind schedule, non-functional projects and over priced, unnecessary purchases.

It not just Trump, GOPers always want to cut safety net programs and take from the poor. I don't know how anyone over 65 ever votes Republican. And the poor or working poor are just fools to vote Republican. That is about 50% of the country right there.

Because people do not work hard to provide for others. There hard work should provide for their families. Social Security is a ponzy scheme plan and simple. If a person is smart they do not trust it to be there. I do feel that a person should get what they paid into SS. But, if someone never paid into the system they should never receive benefits from the program.

The system relies on those that work 35 to 40 years to die early so they do not get out of it what they paid in. Terrible program.

I think it's obvious that you don't know what happened to folks before these FDR era social safety nets were installed. Social Security would have never come close to being insolvent if the greedy hadn't used the accounts as political piggy banks. Imagine inheriting your grandparents, parents, aunts, uncles, and disabled family members to provide for on top of your immediate family OR having to watch them suffer horribly in their old age and not being able to help. Careful what you wish for... and read more history.

Roosevelt was an idiot. His policies haunt us yet today.

You are clueless.

Let's see,, Pro-family? Cuts to the CDC at a time when we are all facing a potential world wide crisis..

Yeah, that's pro family,, sure....

Thanks buddy

Not true.

Some of the reductions to Medicare would actually help beneficiaries, said Marc Goldwein, senior vice president and senior policy director at the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget. The Medicare spending reductions along with reforms to prescription drug pricing would amount to roughly $600 billion in savings, which could lead to lower premiums and out-of-pocket costs.

Some of these changes, such as ones to Medicare, would help sustain the programs, Goldwein said, and ideas found in the proposal have been echoed in Democrats’ proposals, too. “The reality is, the cost of Medicare is high and growing fast,” he said. “We have to make changes soon and these are good ideas with bipartisan support.”

There are recommendations that highlight assistance to seniors in other ways, such as creating approximately 1,200 housing units for low-income elderly and persons with disabilities.

1,200 housing units is a rather miniscule amount when talking the federal budget. I'd also hazard a guess that a Trump-linked construction company is the front-runner to get the contracts for most, if not all, of them. They'll probably overcharge and underdeliver-- Like most everything related to Trump.

...

U must not know much about NY real estate or campaign promises ...

1200 is his starting point. If Congress wants to add to it, I am sure Trump would sign it.

Care to spell it out for me? I'm not sure where you're trying to go with that.

NY? We're talking about 1200 units in the entire country. They'll probably end up being cheap 1 room apartments in the middle of nowhere that charges the government double or more the rate for something similar in the area with the money ending up in the pockets of some greedy Trump lackey.

No desire to spell it for u ...

My reference to NY real estate had to do with your attempted shot at Mr. President ... overcharge and underdeliver ... That has TDS written all over it ...

You may wish to speak to former contractors who worked for him.

No desire because you're just not up to it at the moment or no desire because you decided bringing it up was a bad idea? If the former, I hope you feel better.

TDS? I'm guessing you don't mean Travel Document System which is what Google brings up.

I was more thinking along the lines of his wall, his University, the amount his properties charge the secret service to stay.

Bull, Dawg.

I’m feeling fine .. thanks for asking, i think ... i thought u were then u got cute with your TDS comment .... so I’m not sure if u were sincere ... if not, good one ...

I simply don’t care enough to have a convo with u because if u think he overcharges and under delivers your mis informed and it proves u know diddly about the NYC real estate industry ... I’m not going to waste my time having a convo with someone that is in way over head on the topic ...

U know how much were paying for the wall ... please do tell l...

His university was a scam ... no doubt ...

How much he charges secret service men to stay at his properties ... once again ... u know what he’s paying compared to what they should be paying ... once again ... please share ...

On that note ... he’s been accused of overcharging foreign reps staying at his hotel ... then it came out he charged them the retailing rate for the area and not the exuberant prices he charges his guest at those locations ...

This dude can’t sneeze w/o one of the libs crawling up his butt yet u think he’s going to be involved in the those construction contracts .... he’s not a Biden ...

US deficit surges 25% in fiscal 2020 and is $1.1 trillion over the past year

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/02/12/us-defic...-past-year.html

Hooooot damn. 25%? Y’all would be KILLING Obama if he did that going into year 4 of his presidency on the deficit.

I'm admitting I know next to nothing about NYC real estate other than it's expensive. That's why I asked what TDS was. Did a search of TDS and New York and the travel document bit was what came up.

I debated between overcharge and oversell. Landed on overcharge because that's what I think will happen when it's the government footing the bills rather than consumers setting the market.

The wall is probably a better fit if I had used oversell. It was a big part of his campaign, but there hasn't been much progress.

Including pork in bills and budgets is a time honored DC tradition. This was put together by Trump, so I figured he'd be the likely beneficiary.

I'd probably poke at whoever was president when they put out the standard budget fluff piece. Democrats are just as bad.

U seriously don’t know what TDS is? ...

That’s cause you conservatives pick crap acronyms.

TDS sounds like some car company’s performance line up.

“Introducing, the all new Saturn Rambler TDS, with 400 break HP and 350 LB-FT of torque”.

U may as well be speaking French to me if your gonna use a car analogy ... i know diddly about cars ....

That’s exactly how people feel when you say TDS. Another language.

Have a nice night ...

In the context of New York real estate, I seriously had no idea.

Think I've since figured out it's the tenant data system with some guesswork and Google searches, but I've still not got a good grip on all it entails.

*L* ... your messin with me and i always think the best of people and once again the jokes on me ... *L* ....

Good one ...

I get it now. Tenant data system actually is a thing in New York apparently.

Sorry, I mainly stick to streaming shows when I want to turn my brain off and unwind. Outside of these boards, I try to avoid politics whenever possible. I only venture in here when there's nothing new in the football related forums. I do have a tendency to get lost down the rabbit hole once I'm here.

Trump Derangement Syndrome does sound vaguely familiar now that I tried Trump for the T. I was thinking military/government acronyms not invented media/meme acronyms. I try to avoid thinking about Trump.