Trump’s team wants the poor to suffer to fund tax cuts for the rich

President-elect Donald Trump is seeking to deliver huge tax breaks to America’s richest people and corporations, starting with extending and expanding his 2017 tax cuts that primarily benefited the rich. To offset lost tax revenue, Trump’s economic advisers are considering a plan that would punish the poorest Americans by making it even more difficult to access Medicaid, food stamps and other federal programs, according to a report released Tuesday. from Washington Post.

According to seven sources who spoke with the publication Mail, All of whom were familiar with the debate taking place on Trumpworld, the president-elect’s advisers, including Republican lawmakers, are proposing new work requirements and spending caps on social safety net programs.

The proposals under discussion are likely to simultaneously increase inequality and hardship in America. when almost 4 out of 10 households struggling to pay their bills. In this case, cuts to America’s meager social safety net would be used to finance an unusually direct upward transfer of wealth. A review Of Trump’s 2024 campaign tax promises, the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy found that his proposals, taken together, “would, on average, result in tax cuts for the richest 5 percent of Americans and tax increases for all other income groups.”

Among the options being considered is introducing work requirements for the Medicaid program, which provides health insurance to 70 million low-income Americans. Medicaid eligibility is subject to strict income limits. Limits vary by state, but generally speaking, beneficiaries are not allowed to earn enough money to live on. One state, Arkansas, previously accepted Medicaid work requirements and quickly eliminated health insurance for 18,000 residents before a judge struck down the program.

Federal rules require states to conduct eligibility tests once a year to determine whether Medicaid enrollees are poor enough to keep their health insurance. It is clear that such reviews often result in people being administratively excluded from the program illegally, even if they meet the criteria. Republicans are discussing the possibility of states conducting similar checks several times a year.

Making any of these changes to Medicaid would likely result in millions of poor Americans losing their health insurance plans with no way to replace them.

Sources on Capitol Hill who spoke to Mail Republican lawmakers were briefed by former Trump health official Brian Blase, who co-authored a document arguing for cutting federal funding for enrollees who are insured through the Democrats’ Affordable Care Act expansion of Medicaid. Blaise is president of the Paragon Health Institute, a think tank largely funded conservative civil rights activist Leonard Leo.

The paper argues for “Medicaid reform that focuses states on maximizing benefits for those who truly need government assistance, rather than just maximizing receipt of federal dollars,” and argues that “the current (Medicaid) funding structure discriminates against the more vulnerable Medicaid enrollees to benefit able-bodied, able-bodied, and generally childless adults, or Affordable Care Act (ACA) expansion enrollees.

Several sources have pointed out Mail that Republicans were discussing introducing new requirements for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) recipients and stripping the president of the authority to adjust SNAP benefit levels without congressional authorization.

One tax consultant told Mail that lawmakers were interested in potentially tightening work requirements for SNAP recipients. Be that as it may, in 48 states A family of four cannot earn more than $3,380 in gross monthly income to qualify for SNAP benefits. The program already has strict income limits. During his first term as President, Trump proposed to exclude the rules which allow states to raise SNAP income limits so low-income families can build savings and manage expenses without losing access to their benefits.

“Some of them are looking at Medicaid and food stamps. When you talk about spending, that’s what they immediately turn to,” one Republican political adviser told the magazine. Mail. “But I’m not sure they want the headlines about them paying for tax cuts by cutting these programs.”

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