Dont look now, but the Republican tax bill will cut $25 billion from Medicare next year
Don’t look now, but the Republican tax bill will cut $25 billion from Medicare next year
WRITTEN BY Tim Fernholz 33 mins ago
As both candidate and president, Donald Trump promised not to cut either Medicaid or Medicare, the government health-insurance programs for the poor and the elderly. The Republican party’s tax reform proposal, however, looks set to break that promise.
However, might Democrats rally around a call to “save Medicare”? It turns out the tax bill will also cut billions from this program, because one of the many rules lawmakers must navigate to change US spending, the Pay-As-You-Go Act (PAYGO), requires the White House to order immediate budget cuts if deficits increase in a given year.
Because the tax bills under consideration would add as much as $1.5 trillion to the national debt over 10 years, they will violate the PAYGO rules. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) evaluated the bill (pdf) and said the White House budget office “would be required to issue a sequestration order within 15 days of the end of the session of Congress to reduce spending fiscal year 2018 by the resultant total of $136 billion.”
CBO estimates that $25 billion would come out of Medicare, with the remaining cuts hitting other spending—including student loans, Obamacare spending to back up the individual insurance market, and even agricultural subsidies.
https://qz.com/1131507/the-republican-tax-bill-cuts-25-billion-from-medicare/
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