{"id":37704,"date":"2024-11-19T12:27:19","date_gmt":"2024-11-19T20:27:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=37704"},"modified":"2024-11-19T12:27:20","modified_gmt":"2024-11-19T20:27:20","slug":"gop-targets-medicaid-snap-benefits-to-pay-for-tax-cuts-for-their-billionaire-donors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2024\/11\/19\/gop-targets-medicaid-snap-benefits-to-pay-for-tax-cuts-for-their-billionaire-donors\/","title":{"rendered":"GOP Targets Medicaid, SNAP Benefits to ‘Pay for Tax Cuts for Their Billionaire Donors’"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"Donald<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Former President Donald Trump listens as House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) speaks during a press conference on April 12, 2024 in Palm Beach, Florida.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00a0(Photo: Joe Raedle\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The GOP wants to make food and healthcare unaffordable and inaccessible for the most vulnerable people in our country,” said Rep. Summer Lee. “Make no mistake on who they’re serving.”<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

JAKE JOHNSON<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nov 18, 2024 (CommonDreams.org)<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Congressional Republicans are reportedly considering new work requirements for recipients of Medicaid and nutrition assistance as well as spending caps for the programs as potential ways to counteract the massive cost of their tax agenda, which would primarily benefit the rich<\/a> and large corporations<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Washington Post<\/em>reported<\/a> Monday that Republicans, who are poised to take full control of the federal government come January, “have begun preliminary discussions about making significant changes to Medicaid, food stamps, and other federal safety net programs to offset the enormous cost of extending” soon-to-expire elements<\/a> of the regressive tax law<\/a> that President-elect Donald Trump<\/a> signed in year one of his first White House term.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimated<\/a> earlier this year that an extension of the 2017 tax cuts would add $4.6 trillion to the U.S. deficit over the next decade. Republicans have made clear<\/a> that tax legislation is a top priority in the next Congress, and they’re preparing to use a fast-track procedure known as reconciliation to ram a new round of tax cuts through.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to the Post<\/em>, members of Trump’s transition team have discussed with GOP lawmakers and aides the possibility of adding punitive new work requirements and spending caps to Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). Research<\/a> and real-world experience<\/a> have consistently shown that work requirements do virtually nothing to boost employment while making it harder for people in need to receive aid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“To pay for tax cuts for their billionaire donors, the GOP wants to make food and healthcare unaffordable and inaccessible for the most vulnerable people in our country,” Rep. Summer Lee (D-Pa.) wrote<\/a> in response to the Post<\/em>‘s reporting. “Make no mistake on who they’re serving.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“We already knew the push to cut taxes for the wealthy next year was going to be costly. Now we’re learning that deep cuts to critical programs are on the agenda to help pay for them.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Following an election in which grocery costs were a leading concern<\/a> of many voters, the Post<\/em> reported that Republican lawmakers are “discussing stripping presidential authority to recalculate benefits” for SNAP, the nation’s highly effective<\/a> hunger-reducing tool that helps millions afford food each year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Republicans argue that if they eliminate that authority and hemmed in SNAP benefits\u2014which increase automatically with inflation\u2014that should count as reducing the deficit by tens of billions of dollars, according to some estimates,” the Post<\/em> noted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As for Medicaid, the newspaper detailed preliminary GOP discussions to halt Biden administration efforts to help people who lost coverage due to the post-pandemic purge<\/a>, adding a work requirement similar to SNAP’s<\/a>, and conducting more frequent eligibility checks\u2014which could result in more people losing access<\/a> to the program.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

House Budget Committee Chair Rep. Jodey Arrington (R-Texas) openly made the case last week for what he called a “responsible and reasonable work requirement” for Medicaid, the Post<\/em> observed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Estimated savings from such changes come nowhere near offsetting the huge projected cost of extending Trump’s 2017 tax cuts for individuals and handing additional tax breaks to big corporations. On the campaign trail, Trump proposed reducing the corporate tax rate from 21% to 15%, a change that would give the 100 largest U.S. corporations a combined tax cut<\/a> of $48 billion a year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trump’s tax agenda would also disproportionately benefit the wealthiest individuals in the U.S. The Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP) released an analysis<\/a> last month showing that the tax proposals Trump floated during his bid for a second White House term would deliver annual tax cuts to the top 5% and tax hikes for the bottom 95%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“We already knew the push to cut taxes for the wealthy next year was going to be costly,” ITEP\u00a0wrote<\/a>\u00a0on social media Monday. “Now we’re learning that deep cuts to critical programs are on the agenda to help pay for them.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

JAKE JOHNSON<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jake Johnson is a senior editor and staff writer for Common Dreams.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Full Bio ><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Former President Donald Trump listens as House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) speaks during a press conference on April 12, 2024 in Palm Beach, Florida. \u00a0(Photo: Joe Raedle\/Getty Images) “The GOP wants to make food and healthcare unaffordable and inaccessible for the most vulnerable people in our country,” said Rep. Summer… Continue reading → <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37704"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37704"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37704\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37705,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37704\/revisions\/37705"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37704"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37704"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37704"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}