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patriotsnet · 3 years

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Are Republicans Cutting Social Security And Medicare

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Are Republicans Cutting Social Security And Medicare

His Tax Cut Isnt Helping The Economy But It Did Blow A Hole In The Budget That Hed Fill By Gutting Entitlement Programs

Health-care activists rally in front of the Capitol in March 2017 to highlight the changes then being sought in Medicaid in the Republican American Health Care Act.

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Later this evening, Donald Trump delivers his third State of the Union address. If past speeches are any indicator, we know tonight’s speech will be filled with a number of exaggerations and outright falsehoods — especially when it comes to the economy.

Since he signed the bill two years ago, Trump has heralded the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act as this administration’s greatest accomplishment, declaring that

But this couldn’t be further from the truth. While the law gave giant tax breaks to the wealthy and big corporations, the rest of us were left with crumbs — at best. The wage growth that Trump promised hasn’t materialized, and 100 million Americans are going to be left paying higher taxes.

Another opinion:Trump should offer a new deal for the middle class in his State of the Union speech

Now, Trump is using his tax cuts, which he promised would be a boon to the economy, as an excuse to threaten cuts to Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid — programs Americans have been paying into with every paycheck, and programs the federal government is required, by law, to offer to every single eligible person.

Turns out everyone’s predictions were right: Republicans are targeting Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security. No surprise there.

Column: Mitch Mcconnell Says It Out Loud: Republicans Are Gunning For Social Security Medicare And Obamacare Next

Michael Hiltzik

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All Washington seems to be buzzing this week over a single question: Is Sen. Mitch McConnell deliberately trying to throw the election to the Democrats?

At the root of the debate are interviews the Senate majority leader gave to Bloombergand Reuters on Tuesday and Wednesday. McConnell identified “entitlements” — that’s Washington code for Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid — as “the real drivers of the debt” and called for them to be adjusted “to the demographics of the future.”

Translation: He wants to cut benefits.

In terms of Republican orthodoxy, McConnell’s remarks are nothing new. Sen. Marco Rubio and House Speaker Paul Ryan each made exactly the same point last November and December. McConnell himself has made the point before, including during a speech in his home state in 2013.

McConnell’s position on the social insurance programs fits in with Republican policy on the Affordable Care Act; as it happens, the majority leader also telegraphed a plan to try again to repeal the ACA after the midterm elections. That’s despite indications that the ACA is becoming more popular with the public, not less, and voters’ concerns about preserving its protections for those with preexisting conditions may be driving them to the polls — and not to vote Republican.

It’s true that Democrats are using these comments against the Republicans, but one can hardly deny that the Republicans handed them the ammunition.

Republican Senators Push Social Security Medicare And Medicaid Cuts After Supporting Ineffective Tax Cuts

Republicans Target Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid

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The economy is recovering from the depths of the pandemic in large part due to the massive relief packages that Congress passed in 2020 and 2021. Just in time for this recovery, Senate Republicans are pushing for cuts to vital programs. According to news reports, five GOP senators are proposing a commission that would come up with proposals to balance the federal budget within a decade. Given that four of the five sponsors of this idea have signed on to the tax pledge to never, ever under any circumstances raise taxes, they are looking for programs to cut. They consequently take aim mainly at cuts to Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.

These targeted programs are already and will continue to prove crucial to the financial and physical health of millions of Americans that have suffered from the pandemic. Many workers, especially older ones, have lost their jobs permanently and will move into early retirement with permanently lower benefits and little or no savings outside of those benefits. Millions of Americans, again particularly among older ones, experience long-term consequences from COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel virus. Those hardest hit by pandemic will need strong, expanded retirement and health benefits, not cuts to an already basic system.

Fact Check: ‘record’ Job Gains Still Leave The Us Labor Market In Worse Shape Than Great Recession

On the last night of his party’s convention, President Trump bragged about “record” job gains in recent months, but the 9.1 million jobs he touts come with some qualifiers.

“Over the past three months, we have gained over nine million jobs, and that’s a record in the history of our country,” Trump said Thursday.

The recent job gains are still less than half the number of jobs the economy shed in March and April at the height of pandemic-ordered lockdowns. From March through July, the economy lost a net 12.9 million jobs, the most in American history.

The nearly 2 million jobs added in July also represent a sharp slowdown from the almost 5 million jobs added in June.

And several major groups of workers are at greater risk of falling behind. Black unemployment, at 14.6 percent in July, registered less than a percentage point of improvement. Among Hispanics, the rate of unemployment also remained elevated at nearly 13 percent, compared to just nearly 9 percent for white workers.

Declaring victory is premature, especially as COVID-19 continues to inflict staggering damage to the economy, said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics.

“It still has a long way to go, and risks falling back in as the pandemic continues to rage and causes more layoffs and curtails hiring,” he said.

Filling Public Trustee Jobs For Medicare And Social Security Is A Step To Shoring Up The Programs

The trust funds that support Social Security and Medicare are expected to run out of money. Policy experts argue Congress needs to act quickly to avoid benefit cuts.

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Political parties don’t seem to agree on much these days, but at least 100 members split among Democrats and Republicans do share one common belief — Social Security is in dire need of help — and they want Congress to do something about it.

The trust funds that support Social Security’s activities are expected to run out of money by 2035, and if that were to happen, beneficiaries would receive about 80% of what they’re owed. Medicare is in even more imminent danger — the Medicare Hospital Insurance fund, which supports inpatient care, is expected to be exhausted in 2026.

The Bipartisan Policy Center and the National Academy of Social Insurance released a letter this month, with 100 signatures from both political parties, addressing this issue, and one way to go about fixing it.

In the letter, Republicans and Democrats call on Congress to act on pending nominations for the public trustee roles for the boards of Social Security and Medicare, which have been vacant since 2015. These roles are supposed to be filled by two people, one Democrat and one Republican, who will work with the boards of Social Security and Medicare to provide guidance for these programs from an independent, nongovernmental perspective.

See: This word describes Social Security — but not everyone agrees

Will Republicans Cut Social Security And Medicare For Poor And Elderly To Pay For Their Tax Plan

U.S.RepublicansSocial SecurityMedicareDonald Trump

Senate Democrats are warning constituents that the newly passed Republican tax overhaul could lead to significant cuts to Social Security, Medicare and other entitlement programs.

President Donald Trump said last week that entitlement cuts will, “take place right after taxes, very soon, very shortly after taxes” despite promising on the campaign trail that he would not touch entitlement programs. “I’m not going to cut Social Security like every other Republican, and I’m not going to cut Medicare or Medicaid,” he said as a candidate.

Key Democrats are already campaigning against the potential cuts. ” dream has been to undo those programs, give massive tax breaks to those who don’t need them, and take us back to the 1920s,” said Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders at a rally on Sunday. Democratic Oregon Senator Ron Wyden agrees. “Republicans are already saying ‘entitlement reform’ and ‘welfare reform’ are next up on the docket. But nobody should be fooled—that’s just code for attacks on Medicaid, on Medicare, on Social Security, on anti-hunger programs,” he said.

Social Security and Medicare are both rapidly approaching insolvency—Medicare’s hospital insurance trust fund will be exhausted by 2029, and Social Security’s trust fund will be exhausted by 2034. Reform is necessary, but aiming to decrease fraud or to cut funding will not help the programs stay afloat.

Is Trump Defunding Social Security And Medicare Concerns Mount After President’s Executive Order

U.S.Donald TrumpExecutive OrderSocial SecurityMedicare

President Donald Trump’s Saturday decision to sign an executive order to defer payroll taxes has fueled concerns that he is attempting to defund Social Security and Medicare, with the latest order drawing criticism from conservatives and liberals alike.

“First one is on providing a payroll tax holiday to Americans earning less than $100,000 per year,” the president said during a Saturday press briefing. “In a few moments, I will sign a directive, instructing the Treasury Department to allow employers to defer payment of the employee portion of certain payroll taxes…”

Trump said that he would make the temporary tax deferral permanent if he was re-elected in November. “So I’m going to make them all permanent,” he said.

Notably, this is not a tax cut. Under the wording of the executive order, the payments would simply be deferred until next year unless further actions were taken.

Whether Trump’s executive orders, which also provided an extension of extra federal unemployment benefits at a reduced rate of $400 per month, will withstand legal scrutiny is a matter of debate. His decision came as Republicans and Democrats in Congress remained at an impasse over a new round of coronavirus economic stimulus legislation. Under the Constitution, Congress, not the Executive Branch, is granted power over spending federal funds.

Hillary Clinton: Trump Going After Medicare, Social Security If Re-Elected

Fact Check: Trump Boasts Of Delivering Ppe Early In Pandemic Doesn’t Mention Ongoing Shortages

“We shipped hundreds of millions of masks, gloves and gowns to our frontline health care workers. To protect our nation’s seniors, we rushed supplies, testing kits, and personal — to nursing homes, we gave everything you can possibly give and we’re still giving it because we’re taking care of our senior citizens,” Trump said on Thursday night, talking up his COVID-19 response.

In the early days of the pandemic, the Trump administration did indeed procure millions of supplies, even flying personal protective equipment in from overseas, with much fanfare and often exaggerated numbers.

But Trump fails to mention that the shortages of PPE and critical testing supplies are ongoing.

One in five U.S. nursing homes faced severe shortages of PPE this summer, according to a study released in August. The American Medical Association decried the “persistent shortage” of N95 masks and other protective equipment yesterday.

“It is hard to believe that our nation finds itself dealing with the same shortfalls in PPE witnessed during the first few weeks that SARS-CoV-2 began its unrelenting spread,” the group’s president, Dr. Susan Bailey, said on August 26th. “But that same situation exists today, and in many ways things have only gotten worse.”

Republicans Will Cut Social Security And Medicare After Tax Plan Passes Says Marco Rubio

U.S.SenateTax planRepublicansMedicare

Update | Florida Senator Marco Rubio admits that the Republican tax cut plan, which benefits corporations and the wealthy, will require cuts to Social Security and Medicare to pay for it.

To address the federal deficit, which will grow by at least $1 trillion if the tax plan passes, Congress will need to cut entitlement programs such as Social Security, Rubio told reporters this week. Advocates for the elderly and the poor have warned that entitlement programs would be on the chopping block, but this is the first time a prominent Republican has backed their claims.

Expect all the guests on the Sunday shows to be Republicans explaining how they now have no choice but to slash Social Security & Medicare because the deficit has suddenly and mysteriously gotten much worse.

— Bruce “Snarking and Barking” Bartlett December 1, 2017

“You have got to generate economic growth because growth generates revenue,” Rubio said at a Politico conference. “But you also have to bring spending under control. And not discretionary spending. That isn’t the driver of our debt. The driver of our debt is the structure of Social Security and Medicare for future beneficiaries.”

Rubio’s talk of structural change is vague but will likely include changing the rate and age of Social Security and Medicare payouts.

So where does that money come from?

Column: Keep Social Security And Medicare Reform Out In Daylight Where We Can All Watch

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CHICAGO – Charlie Rich, the late country music singer and songwriter, had it right when he crooned this famous line: “Oh, no one knows what goes on behind closed doors.” We need to remind Congress of the truth of that line as it tries to push a plan to negotiate changes to Social Security and Medicare as part of its latest pandemic relief bill.

Yes, you heard that right – in the midst of a raging pandemic, Senate Republicans are focusing on cuts to Social Security and Medicare.

That is the essence of the ironically named TRUST Act, the brainchild of Senator Mitt Romney, a Utah Republican. The bill is on track to be folded into the GOP relief plan. It would create a behind-closed-doors process for legislators to make changes to the Social Security and Medicare trust funds. Translation: it would allow lawmakers to do something the public clearly does not want – namely, cut benefits.

The TRUST Act calls for the U.S. Department of the Treasury to issue reports within 45 days of its passage on the financial status of the federal trust funds for Social Security, Medicare and federal highways.

That would be followed by closed-door meetings of congressionally appointed bipartisan committees tasked with recommending legislation to restore solvency of the funds by June 1 next year. Finally – and crucially – Congress would be required to give the proposals an up-or-down vote, with no amendments allowed.

Social Security and Medicare do face financial challenges.

Fact Check: Are Republicans Trying To Eliminate Social Security Medicare And Medicaid

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Democratic Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island claimed that Republicans are seeking to “get rid of Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security.”

Verdict: False

Republican leaders have not called for entitlement programs to be eliminated, although they have said they are looking to reform the programs in the coming years.

Fact Check:

Whitehouse, who was re-elected on Tuesday, made the claim in a campaign ad.

“The Republicans have run enormous deficits up to provide tax cuts to big corporations, millionaires and billionaires,” he said. “Now that we have this deficit problem that we caused with our tax bill, they turn around and they say they got to get rid of Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security.”

While Republican leaders have said that entitlement programs need to be reformed, they have not called for their elimination.

An MSNBC article cited in Whitehouse’s ad mentions Rep. Steve Stivers, chair of the National Republican Congressional Committee, who expressed in August that bipartisan efforts are the only way to sustain entitlement programs.

“The only way we’re going to be able to fix Social Security and Medicare is for the two parties to come together – the way that Ronald Reagan did with Tip O’Neill – and figure out how to fix them together,” he said in an interview with CNBC.

“People are quick to blame deficits on tax cuts but I don’t buy that,” Kudlow said. “Tax cuts promote growth and wages.”

Have a fact check suggestion? Send ideas to .

Fact Check: Trump Hammers Biden On Nafta Support Which He Said Killed Jobs He’s Right

President Trump used part of his speech Thursday night to hammer Joe Biden on his support of “catastrophic” trade deals he said bled U.S. jobs to other countries.

“Biden voted for the NAFTA disaster, the single worst trade deal ever enacted; he supported China’s entry into the World Trade Organization, one of the greatest economic disasters of all time. After those Biden calamities, the United States lost 1 in 4 manufacturing jobs,” Trump said.

This claim is true, although trade was not the only reason that U.S. companies shed these jobs.

They Haven’t Taken A Dime From The Social Security Program That Isn’t Accounted For

Another misconception is that the Republican Party stole money from the Social Security Trust and used it to fund wars. More specifically, Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, and George W. Bush have come under intense scrutiny for borrowing from Social Security and “not putting the money back.”

However, the truth of the matter is that Congress has been able to “borrow” Social Security’s excess cash for five decades, and it’s happened under every single president over that stretch. In fact, the Social Security Administration is required by law to purchase special-issue bonds and certificates of indebtedness with this excess cash. Please note the emphasis on “required by law” that I’ve added above. The federal government isn’t simply going to sit on this excess cash it borrows from Social Security. It’s spending this cash on various line items, which may be wars and the defense budget, as well as education, healthcare, and pretty much any other expenditure you can think of.

This setup is actually a win-win for both parties. The federal government has a relatively liquid source of borrowing with the Social Security Trust, and the Trust is able to generate significant annual income from the interest it earns on its loans. Last year, $85.1 billion of the $996.6 billion that was generated by the program came from interest income.

Opinion:trump Just Gave Away The Republican Game On Social Security And Medicare

Davos went to President Trump’s head. Perhaps it was the rarefied air of the annual World Economic Forum, a place where billionaires congratulate one another on what they see as their unique virtues and smarts. Perhaps it was the ego boost, as Trump basked in acceptance by a high-end business crowd that once held him at arm’s length. But whatever the reason, it caused Trump to make a major mistake.

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Trump gave away the Republican game on Social Security and Medicare.

During an interview with CNBC on Wednesday, Trump was asked, “ entitlements ever be on your plate?” Entitlements are, of course, Washington-speak for Medicare and Social Security. Trump responded, “At some point they will be,” adding, “It’ll be toward the end of the year.” Just in case Trump misunderstood, Joe Kernen followed up, reminding him this was something he had “said you wouldn’t do in the past” and specifically mentioning Medicare. Trump cut him off. “Well, we’re going to look.”

For Democrats, this is what’s generally known as a gimme — one that makes it more important than ever that the Democrats make sure their presidential nominee is someone who can take on Trump over the issue. That person is not former vice president Joe Biden, and that’s true no matter how many commercials he runs proclaiming, “Joe Biden has repeatedly voted to save Social Security.”

Fact Check: Trump Claims Biden Wants To ‘close All Charter Schools’ That’s False

“Biden also vowed to oppose school choice and close all charter schools, ripping away the ladder of opportunity for Black and Hispanic children,” Trump claimed on Tuesday night.

This is false. The Biden campaign does not oppose charter schools, though they’ve advocated against for-profit charter schools and supported different regulations and oversight of the schools.

And while “school choice” is a buzzy word, it can means different things to different people. Trump supports letting students take federal funds to private schools, something Joe Biden and many Democrats oppose, instead supporting allowing families to make choices within publicly-funded school districts.

‘we’ve Brought It Up With President Trump Who Has Talked About It Being A Second

Find your bookmarks in your Independent Premium section, under my profile

Republicans on Capitol Hill say Donald Trump may be willing to cut Social Security and Medicare if he wins in 2020, reportedly describing the potential move as a “second-term project”.

Several senators told the New York Times in a report published this week they spoke to the president about reducing the costs of the federal health care and retirement programmes — a move that would likely stir controversy in a presidential election season.

Republicans have said cutting both programmes is crucial to reducing the nation’s deficit, which has ballooned under Mr Trump thanks, in part, to the GOP tax bill passed in 2017.

Senator John Barrasso, a Republican from Wyoming, described the process of cutting the costs of social security and medicare to the New York Times as “best done during divided government”.

“We’ve brought it up with President Trump,” he added, “who has talked about out it being a second-term project.”

Do Republicans In Congress Want To Take Away Social Security Medicare Medicaid

It’s been a time-tested Democratic attack line: Republicans are going to take away your Medicare, or maybe your Social Security. We gave a variant of the line our 2011 Lie of the Year.

Now the talking point has re-emerged, in a , from Oregon’s Ron Wyden, the top Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee:

“#TrumpTax was only the beginning. After giving massive tax giveaways to wealthy & powerful shareholders, Republicans in Congress are plotting to take away Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security.”

? #TrumpTax was only the beginning. After giving massive tax giveaways to wealthy & powerful shareholders, Republicans in Congress are plotting to take away Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security.https://t.co/9YTuAYnOWw

— Ron Wyden March 29, 2018

In reality, the notion that congressional Republicans are scheming to “take away” Medicaid, Medicare or Social Security is inaccurate.

The Democratic news release

The first piece of evidence undercutting the tweet’s message is actually linked in the tweet itself.

An accompanying Senate Democratic press , dated March 27, starts by saying, “It’s only been a few months since Republicans jammed through their to corporate executives and wealthy shareholders. Now they’re planning on paying for it with huge cuts to Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security, despite President Trump’s promises that he wouldn’t do so.”

These quotes suggest the Republican in charge of the House continues to seek overhauls of the entitlement system.

Featured Fact-check

Meet The New Gop Plan To End Medicare Same As The Old Gop Plan To End Medicare

We here in the Democratic Whip Press shop will give Republicans credit for their transparency. They are not even trying to hide the fact that their “Cut, Cap and End Medicare” bill would end the program’s guarantee.

Republican Study Committee Chairman Jim Jordan said yesterday the plan “basically mirrors the budget proposal that the House passed this year.”

That would be the same Republican budget proposal that ends the Medicare guarantee and more than doubles heath care costs for seniors, all while preserving tax breaks for the wealthy.

And the Republican “Cut, Cap and End Medicare” plan is no different.

But don’t just take our word for it. According to theCenter on Budget and Policy Priorities, the measure:

“…stands out as one of the most ideologically extreme pieces of major budget legislation to come before Congress in years, if not decades.”

“…The legislation would inexorably subject Social Security and Medicare to deep reductions.”

In addition, the extreme and draconian Republican proposal would reverse decades of precedent that exempt cuts to basic services for the most vulnerable among us. More from the CBPP:

“Since the Gramm-Rudman-Hollings law of 1985, all such laws have exempted the core basic assistance programs for the poorest Americans from such across-the-board cuts. “Cut, Cap, and Balance,” by contrast, specifically subjects all such programs to across-the-board cuts if its spending caps would be exceeded.”

Democrats Urged To Reject Latest Gop Attempt To Hold Social Security ‘hostage’

Jake Johnson

Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham on Wednesday said he would be willing to vote to raise the federal debt ceiling in exchange for a policy that could result in cuts to Social Security and Medicare, a proposed trade-off that progressive advocacy groups implored Democrats to reject.

“Fortunately, Democrats can protect Social Security and Medicare by raising the debt ceiling in the forthcoming reconciliation package.”—Alex Lawson, Social Security Works

With members of Congress staring down an August deadline to increase the debt limit—the amount of money the federal government is legally permitted to borrow to meet its financial obligations—Graham toldBloomberg that he could bring himself to vote yes on a debt ceiling hike if Democrats agree to legislation establishing commissions tasked with crafting Social Security and Medicare “reforms.”

But Social Security Works, a progressive advocacy organization, was quick to warn that Graham’s offer is a thinly veiled trap.

“Lindsey Graham and his fellow Republicans will stop at nothing to cut the American people’s earned Social Security and Medicare benefits,” Alex Lawson, executive director of Social Security Works, said in a statement. “Graham has now telegraphed his party’s intention to demand a commission to cut Social Security and Medicare as the price for raising the debt ceiling.”

Democrats Risk Unintended Medicare Cuts If They Pass Partisan Covid Relief

Sahil Kapur

WASHINGTON — Democrats considering a maneuver to forgo bipartisan support to pass Covid-19 relief are confronting an unintended consequence: Doing so could automatically cut Medicare.

Many Democrats want to pass President Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion Covid-19 relief proposal, which includes $1,400 stimulus checks and aid to local governments. A group of Republican senators is pushing for a smaller plan that would provide $1,000 checks.

So Democratic leaders are preparing to use a process known as budget reconciliation, which would allow them to pass Biden’s proposal without getting 60 votes in the Senate, which would require at least 10 Republicans.

But under the Pay-As-You-Go Act of 2010, known as PAYGO, new laws that raise the national debt automatically trigger offsetting cuts in some safety net programs.

The Republican Obsession With Dismantling Social Security And Medicare

The Republicans are desperate to destroy Social Security and Medicare. These two programs demonstrate government at its best. The federal government runs these two extremely popular programs more efficiently, universally, securely, and effectively than the private sector does with its alternatives — or indeed could, no matter how well those private sector programs were designed.

Because Social Security and Medicare are government programs that work so well, the Republican elite — with its seemingly religious belief that the private sector is always the best — hates them. So obsessed are the Republicans in their desire to eliminate these effective government programs that the very first action that House Republicans took in the new Congress was to adopt a rules package that included a new rule that amounts to a stealth attack on Social Security and Medicare.

The rules package, adopted at the start of every new Congress, sets out how the chamber will operate for the next two years. This year’s package is already infamous for provisions in the initial version that would have gutted the Office of Congressional Ethics — provisions that were ultimately dropped after a massive outcry from the American people. Unnoticed by most was an additional provision, which is one part of the Republican game plan to destroy Social Security and Medicare.

Trump Keeps Proposing Entitlement Cuts And Then Denying That He Did So

In 2015 and ’16, Trump differentiated himself from the rest of the Republican presidential hopefuls by campaigning on a vow to not cut entitlements.

“I’m not going to cut Social Security like every other Republican and I’m not going to cut Medicare or Medicaid,” Trump told the Daily Signal, a conservative publication affiliated with the Heritage Foundation, in 2015.

As his budget proposals indicate, this promise was an empty one. Trump, however, seems to realize that cutting entitlements is a political loser for him, and as a result has continued to make assertions about preserving them that are at odds with reality.

All Republicans support people with pre-existing conditions, and if they don’t, they will after I speak to them. I am in total support. Also, Democrats will destroy your Medicare, and I will keep it healthy and well!

— Donald J. Trump October 18, 2018

Last month, however, Trump seemed to have a moment of radical honesty when he told CNBC during an interview conducted in Davos that “at some point” entitlement cuts will be on the table.

CNBC: Will entitlements ever be on your plate ?TRUMP: “At some point they will be”CNBC: But you said you wouldn’t do that in the pastTRUMP: “We also have assets that we never had” pic.twitter.com/FgZnzYz33l

— Aaron Rupar January 22, 2020

Those comments created a negative stir, so the very next day Trump tried to walk them back.

Fast-forward less than a month, and Trump is again pushing entitlement cuts. It’s whiplash-inducing.

How Trump Is Proposing Changing Medicare Medicaid And Social Security

When it comes to Medicare, the White House has been very clear: “He’s not cutting Medicare in this budget,” Vought said. “What we are doing is putting forward reforms that lower drug prices. Because Medicare pays a very large of drug prices in this country, has the impact of finding savings. We are also finding waste, fraud, and abuse.”

Here’s what’s actually happening: This budget proposes finding $845 billion in savings over 10 years from Medicare as we know it. But $269 billion of that figure is reclassified under the Department of Health and Human Services, bringing the Medicare cuts to $575 billion. As Vox explained, the administration says it will achieve these cost reductions by targeting wasteful spending and provider payments and lowering prescription drug costs.

The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, which advocates for fiscal responsibility, estimates that 85 percent of these cuts will come from reductions in provider payments, 5 percent would come from policies around medical malpractice, and 11 percent would come from reducing drug costs through the Medicare Part D program. Medicare Part D is the only area of these reforms that could raise out-of-pocket drug prices for some while lowering it for others. Otherwise, premiums, deductibles, and copays would largely be left unaffected.

But when it comes to Trump’s proposed changes to Medicaid and Social Security, the intent is unambiguous: These are cuts to benefits.

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emergencydentistnorthyork-blog · 5 years

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Fear of the Dentist - Love in the Dental Office

Emergency Dentist North York

Abitibi Dental Center North York, realizes that dental crises can occur. That being stated, we are constantly accessible to help! Regardless of whether you've lost a tooth playing hockey, or are basically encountering an awkward tooth hurt, our North York Dentists and Thornhill Dentistry group are constantly arranged to help you with your crisis dentistry needs.

The nuts and bolts of dental treatment, including examinations, cleanings, fillings, and teeth extractions, were advertised. Other all the more exorbitant administrations which may have been important to spare teeth, for example, endodontics (root trench treatment), crown and extension, halfway or full dentures and periodontal (gum and bone) treatment required pre-endorsement like pre-approvals required for insurance agencies. Kids were typically affirmed for the nuts and bolts, yet treatment for grown-ups, especially the individuals who required a blend of root channel treatment with crown and scaffold, was once in a while endorsed.

On account of the little populace of the booking (4000) and the constrained spending plan of the program, a few doctors and North York dental specialists, such as myself, were enrolled directly out of dental school and were set in an extremely troublesome circumstance, whereby they ended up as the sole suppliers of their forte of medicinal services in the office. Unpracticed dental specialists did not have the advantage of further hands-on instruction working with others in their calling who had more involvement, for discussions, or for accomplishing progressively troublesome techniques. Clearly, my aptitudes were restricted and my patients were the appalling recipients of my expectation to learn and adapt. Out of the blue, I comprehended the genuine significance of the term, " to rehearse dentistry."

The equivalent is valid in comparable cases where low salary patients getting government supported Medicaid advantages or patients with private or representative advantages dental protection could be denied important tooth-sparing treatment just in light of the fact that it would not be cost useful to spare the teeth. Despite the fact that numerous patients are helped by these projects and may not generally have the capacity to manage the cost of even essential dental treatment, suggestions dependent on post-viability and overall revenue isn't right. It frequently brought about the expulsion of imperceptibly harmed teeth. This, alongside the sad, however unavoidable, oversights of a new kid on the block dental practitioner, made a cycle of doubt between this dental specialist and his patients.

The making of trust and love between the North York emergency dental specialist and the patient is a standout amongst the most imperative components of the fruitful relationship inside the dental condition. I snicker when I consider how innocent I was. I attempted to work around the framework by applying for tooth-sparing advantages for grown-ups. They were rejected. I composed articles on North York dental wellbeing and nourishment for the center news notice. It failed to be noticed. I attempted to train my patients to home consideration and gave them healthful guidance. Very few minded. I made a youngsters' dental wellbeing week publication challenge and gave away requested prizes, for example, toothbrushes and floss to the champs. Not many youngsters entered. I went on a nearby TV show called "Bowling for Dollars" and a few radios shows so as to spread the message. It had no effect. It turned out to be all the more disappointing for me as time passed by. I understood that long periods of maltreatment and disregard by the framework would not have been wiped out by a Jewish white kid from New York. This absence of "adoration and trust" frequently appeared as exceptionally dreadful patients, or an unnecessary number of broken arrangements, or extraordinary trouble filling the arrangement book. In any case, basically, the missing piece was "love and trust." They didn't confide in me. They didn't love me.

Despite the fact that we dental practitioners are prepared to spare teeth, our endeavors are regularly diminished by the patient's protection or their support in a legislature supported program, for example, Medicaid. Either a yearly advantage most extreme or confinements inside the individual arrangement regularly decided the real treatment plan. The undeniable answer, still unaccomplished right up 'til the present time, is national dental medical coverage in which the majority of our natives approach the best dentistry accessible. Likewise, with the proceeding with discussion over national restorative medical coverage, it is critical that the final product be that nature of consideration does not endure or be constrained by reasonableness. Until that occurs, where do dental specialists, particularly the private experts who may acknowledge a few protections or government appropriations as an installment in full, and who must bring home the bacon from the benefits of his or her training, fit into the condition?

Dental charges are dictated by numerous components. Up to 66% of dental salary is controlled by the overhead costs expected to run the workplace. This incorporates phone, heat, power, dental materials, instruments, books, magazines, furniture, gear, lab, finance, proceeding with training courses, bookkeeping, risk and wellbeing, and misbehavior protections. It had no effect on my labor to my dental provider whether I was getting a full charge or tolerating a lower expense. These costs must be controlled all together for the matter of dentistry to endure.

In dental school, I was encouraged that in the event that I needed to gain a decent living from the dental calling, I needed to work rapidly and proficiently and render however much treatment as could be expected in a visit. For instance, completing four fillings in an hour is savvier than completing two forty-five moment visits of two fillings each. Some of the time that implied stretching the limits and doing excessively. There is a logical inconsistency that exists when wellbeing experts rely on either a substantial volume of patients or higher charges for their employment. One visit endodontics (root channel treatment), multi-quadrant (more than one zone) crown and scaffold planning or gum and bone medical procedure isn't just horrendous amid the technique, yet can result in more post-employable inconveniences and distress for the patient. Time and again, vast volume implies low quality. Shockingly, high expenses don't generally extrapolate into better quality and administration. All the time the patient feels " ripped off" by the high charge or low quality and never again confides in the dental practitioner explicitly or the calling in general.

Tragically, even today, in The United States of America, there are few spots for a person with little intends to get quality consideration.North York emergency dental Schools offer their understudies' administrations at a lower cost and training emergency clinics do have assistants and inhabitants that may give quality consideration at a lower cost. Medicaid can furnish youngsters from low-salary families with fundamental dental needs. Grown-ups, with Medicaid, in any case, can get lost in an outright flood and get even less vital dental consideration. Like a woodworker or a handyman who has extraordinary abilities, a dental specialist ought to be legitimately redressed. Dentistry is giving treatment to diminish torment or enable an individual to grin or bite their nourishment, which is fundamental human needs. It is a trick that in the most extravagant nation on this planet, the framework enables the treatment of decision to be controlled by one's budgetary status.

The cutting edge idea that "time is cash" can urge dental practitioners to plan long arrangements. The reasons sound conceivable. When the patient is anesthetized, it is smarter to do as much as you can. This can result in fewer visits, which is something patients do appreciate. Be that as it may, the physical and mental pressure it can cause for the patient ought to be considered. Due to the weight of a bustling calendar, there is a brief period for clarification of treatment. This can leave the patient off guard with regards to settling on shrewd choices on their dental consideration. The weight on the TMJ, the musculature, the need of utilizing more anesthesia and the trouble of getting a right nibble when more than one region is numb are only a few reasons not to do an excess of treatment in one visit.

Check out the dental office whenever you have an arrangement. What's missing? Awkward business seats or sofas are in the sitting area. The suitable three-month-bygone era or Newsweek magazines are on a table or in a rack on the divider. Some paper or magazine articles about sparing teeth are appended to a notice board with pushpins. Some trademark notes to say thanks or hand-made thank you endowments are conspicuously shown. You are driven into the "operatory" and situated in an expansive vinyl seat. Before you are bundles of sterile instruments. Drilling muzak is siphoned into the room. The North York dental practitioner wearing a veil and latex gloves enter. There are a couple of minutes of casual conversation. They clarify the treatment planned for an unknown dialect and continues. What is absent? As I would like to think, "love and trust"are absent.

Most dental practitioners, however in the calling for evident money related prizes do have a more profound explanation behind picking their field.

Regular Dental Emergencies

– Tooth Ache

– Chipped Tooth

– Broken Tooth

– Lost Tooth

– Severely Bitten Lip or Tongue

– Item Stuck Between Teeth

– Lost Filling

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fullspectrum-cbd-oil · 4 years

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Exclusive: U.S. Slashed CDC Staff Inside China Prior to Coronavirus Outbreak

The Trump administration cut staff by more than two-thirds at a key U.S. public health agency operating inside China, as part of a larger rollback of U.S.-funded health and science experts on the ground there leading up to the coronavirus outbreak, Reuters has learned.

Most of the reductions were made at the Beijing office of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and occurred over the past two years, according to public CDC documents viewed by Reuters and interviews with four people familiar with the drawdown.

The Atlanta-based CDC, America’s preeminent disease fighting agency, provides public health assistance to nations around the world and works with them to help stop outbreaks of contagious diseases from spreading globally. It has worked in China for 30 years.

The CDC’s China headcount has shrunk to around 14 staffers, down from approximately 47 people since President Donald Trump took office in January 2017, the documents show. The four people, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the losses included epidemiologists and other health professionals.

The material reviewed by Reuters shows a breakdown of how many American and local Chinese employees were assigned there. The documents are the CDC’s own descriptions of its headcount, which it posts online. Reuters was able to search past copies of the material to confirm the decline described by the four people.

“The CDC office in Beijing is a shell of its former self,” said one of the people, a U.S. official who worked in China at the time of the drawdown.

Separately, the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the global relief program which had a role in helping China monitor and respond to outbreaks, also shut their Beijing offices on Trump’s watch. Before the closures, each office was staffed by a U.S. official. In addition, the U.S. Department of Agriculture(USDA) transferred out of China in 2018 the manager of an animal disease monitoring program.

Reductions at the U.S. agencies sidelined health experts, scientists and other professionals who might have been able to help China mount an earlier response to the novel coronavirus, as well as provide the U.S. government with more information about what was coming, according to the people who spoke with Reuters. The Trump administration in February chastised China for censoring information about the outbreak and for keeping U.S. experts from entering the country to assist.

“We had a large operation of experts in China who were brought back during this administration, some of them months before the outbreak,” said one of the people who witnessed the withdrawal of U.S. personnel. “You have to consider the possibility that our drawdown made this catastrophe more likely or more difficult to respond to.”

The White House declined to comment or respond to questions from Reuters regarding the U.S withdrawal of staff in China.

The CDC did not respond to detailed questions submitted by Reuters about the cuts. It has insisted its staffing levels did not hinder the U.S. response to the coronavirus.

“There are many factors that go into decisions around staffing,” the CDC said in a statement.

Some health experts were skeptical that more CDC employees operating inside China would have made a difference in stemming the outbreak. Beijing has been widely criticized for silencing its own public health officials who warned of a deadly new respiratory disease emanating from the Chinese city of Wuhan and surrounding Hubei province.

“The problem was China, not that we didn’t have CDC people in China,” said Scott McNabb, a former CDC epidemiologist who is now a research professor with Emory University. He pointed to China’s censorship as the main culprit in the spread of the pandemic, which has infected at least 435,470 people worldwide, killed 19,598 and upended the global economy.

China’s embassy in Washington, D.C. declined to comment.

SHUTTERED OFFICES

The NSF closed all foreign offices in 2018, according to spokesman Robert Margetta. He said the agency planned on “sending teams on short-term expeditions around the world to find ways to increase international collaborations.”

A USAID spokesman said the decision to shutter its Beijing office was “due to significantly decreased access to Chinese government officials as well as the Agency’s position that the Chinese model of development is not aligned with U.S. values and interests.”

The USDA confirmed that it moved a manager position out of Beijing. A spokesman said the department has retained an office in China that employs eight people: five Americans and three Chinese. The office monitors animal disease and helps resolve “trade-related issues as they occur at Chinese ports of entry,” the spokesman said.

Reuters first reported about changes to CDC staffing in China on Sunday. The news agency revealed that the Trump administration had eliminated the position of a U.S. trainer of Chinese field epidemiologists, who were deployed to the epicenter of outbreaks to help track, investigate and contain diseases.

In a press briefing on Sunday, Trump criticized the Reuters story as “100 percent wrong.” Yet the CDC acknowledged the position had been cut. The agency said the decision was made because of China’s “excellent technical capability,” and said the elimination of that post did not hamper the U.S. effort to respond to the coronavirus outbreak.

The CDC staffing documents newly reviewed by Reuters show a sharp decline in the overall number of employees at the agency in Beijing, with 33 out of 47 positions lost.

The documents show the breakdown between American and Chinese staffers. The number of so-called American “assignees” declined to three positions from eight at the outset of the administration. Positions lost included medical epidemiologists and other experts in infectious diseases.

The biggest cuts were to positions filled by Chinese employees on the U.S. payroll, down to around 10 from 40 over the same period. Many of those local hires included medical and disease experts, according to the people who spoke with Reuters.

“Local staffers stayed even longer at the CDC and had a real depth of knowledge,” one of the people said. “There’s a loss of deep expertise and institutional knowledge.”

The CDC told Reuters the three Americans currently on staff in China are a country director, an influenza expert and an information technology expert. A temporary deputy director arrived recently, and that job will be filled permanently, the agency said in a statement. In addition, two Chinese staffers continue to work on specific public health areas, including the training program, according to the statement.

The shuttered USAID and NSF offices in China also had a role in building scientific relationships and combating global disease, according to the four people familiar with the situation.

USAID’s Beijing office, which was staffed by a senior U.S. officer and two Chinese employees, was working on initiatives including multidrug-resistant tuberculosis and malaria, the people said. The office closed in 2019.

The NSF office was once led by Nancy Sung, a respected American scientist who was a key link between the U.S. and Chinese scientific communities, according to the U.S. government official who spoke with Reuters. The office also employed two local staffers.

“She had far more contacts than most of us,” said the official, who had been in China at the time and was familiar with her role. “She could have helped maintain vital channels of communication between the two countries which to this day is greatly curtailed.”

Sung, who is now with the NSF in the United States, declined to comment about the closure of her office in 2018 and referred questions to the agency’s public affairs office.

‘WITHOUT BENEFIT TO THE U.S.’

The changes came amid escalating tensions between Washington and Beijing. Trump has long complained that China has stolen millions of American jobs and intellectual property, charges the Chinese government has rejected as baseless. The countries have slapped billions in tariffs on each other’s goods. Now their leaders are battling to control the narrative over the pandemic. Trump has called it the “Chinese virus” to keep the focus on China’s role in unleashing the pandemic. China, meanwhile, is trying to assert global leadership by providing aid to Italy and other hard-hit countries.

Over the last two years, the White House has pushed U.S. agencies with a presence in China to de-fund programs there along with the positions to manage them, according to the U.S. official who spoke to Reuters.

The source said Terry Branstad, the U.S. ambassador to China and a former Republican governor of Iowa, tried to remind the White House of the importance of the U.S. presence in China but was told to “get with the program” by an administration official.

“The White House saw the relationship as one-sided and without benefit to the U.S.,” the source said.

A State Department spokesman said in a statement that the U.S. Embassy in China is “one of our largest, reflecting the many areas of bilateral engagement.”

“Since Ambassador Branstad’s arrival, the U.S. Mission to China has maintained robust staffing to advance important foreign policy goals on behalf of the American people,” the statement said. “Staffing levels for the numerous federal agencies and sections have, on the whole, held steady and in some cases increased.”

After Reuters’ story about the elimination of the key CDC position in China ran on Sunday, Trump’s re-election campaign seized on it for fundraising. In a mass email to supporters, it accused Trump’s critics of “siding with the Chinese” and helping Beijing with a “cover-up.”

The CDC on Monday told Reuters that Redfield had decided to add a global health threats program director to its China staff.

“At the request of Dr. Redfield, CDC is continuing to look long term at possible additions to enhance CDC’s 30 plus year presence in China,” the statement said.

(Reporting by Marisa Taylor in Washington; Editing by Marla Dickerson)

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themaxes-blog · 7 years

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Storage Unit Prices Nyc

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frontstreet1 · 7 years

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CHERRY HILL, N.J. — Even as the Republican health care overhaul remains a work in progress, states are planning for big changes that could swell the ranks of the uninsured and hit them with higher costs.

A key tenet underlying the GOP plan is to give states more authority over how to structure their health care markets. That approach is welcome in states that want fewer mandates from the federal government but is causing alarm in states that embraced former President Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act.

This is especially true for states that expanded their Medicaid programs and could now see a huge pool of federal health care money evaporate. They will face tough decisions about balancing costs and care.

States’ preparations come even as Republican members of the U.S. Senate promise significant revisions to the health care bill that narrowly passed last week in the House. Some governors already have begun pressing their senators to soften the bill in ways that would lessen the financial blow to the states.

The current GOP plan would undo a mostly federally funded expansion of Medicaid coverage for low-income adults and allow insurance companies to charge far higher premiums on older Americans and some people with pre-existing conditions.

Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner of Illinois, a state that expanded coverage under Obama’s law, said he will push senators to change the legislation so the impacts are not as dire for the state.

“Recent changes did not address fundamental concerns about the bill’s impact on the 650,000 individuals that are part of our Medicaid expansion population,” he said, “nor have those changes eased the concerns of the 350,000 people in the individual market who are dealing with skyrocketing premiums and fewer choices.”

Undoing Obama’s law has been a goal for Republican lawmakers since it was adopted in 2011 and was a top campaign promise of President Donald Trump.

As soon as Trump was elected, state officials were on notice that changes were likely.

Even if it gets major revisions in the Senate, the House bill is serving as a baseline for a task force in New Jersey organized by Joseph Vitale, chairman of the state Senate’s health committee. It starts meeting this month to consider how the state might respond.

“It’s unlikely to get worse from here from where they landed yesterday,” Vitale said Friday, a day after the House vote.

Officials in Connecticut have set up a similar task force, and New York lawmakers say they are prepared to hold a special session later this year to deal with any fallout from the health care changes.

New Jersey, along with 30 other states and the District of Columbia, accepted a core deal from Obama’s health overhaul to expand Medicaid; 550,000 people have gained coverage through it in New Jersey alone. Nationwide, the Medicaid expansion provided coverage to about 11 million people who were newly eligible.

No government estimates have been released showing how much it would cost the states to keep the expansion and pay for it on their own.

In March, a Congressional Budget Office estimate for an earlier version of the bill said it eventually would lead to 24 million Americans losing their health coverage. The same report found that federal Medicaid subsidies to states, which run the programs, would be $880 billion less over 10 years because of the end of the expansion and other changes that would affect allocations even to states that chose not to expand.

In a report this week, Fitch Ratings said states would have to make “material, but not impossible” budget changes to absorb the blow. But it also said implementing those changes by 2020 gives states little time to figure out what to do.

New York officials estimate the GOP bill would lead to 2.7 million residents losing coverage and the state losing up to $6.9 billion in federal Medicaid money. Gov. Andrew Cuomo said such cuts would reduce support for hospitals, nursing homes and 7 million New Yorkers who rely on the program.

“They’re trying to gut Medicaid,” he said Friday. “They’re trying to put our hospitals out of business.”

It’s not just Democratic governors sounding the alarm.

Ohio Gov. John Kasich, a former Republican candidate for president, has been consistently critical of his own party’s attempts to make deep cuts in the Medicaid program. He supported Medicaid expansion in his state and called the House bill “woefully short on the necessary resources to maintain health care for our nation’s most vulnerable citizens.”

Underscoring those concerns, Ohio Sen. Rob Portman, a Republican, said he does not support the House bill in its current form, in part because it does not protect Ohioans who benefited from the Medicaid expansion.

A recent Ohio State University study found that almost everyone covered through Ohio’s Medicaid expansion would have no other viable insurance option if the Affordable Care Act is repealed. That’s roughly 712,000 people.

State Medicaid data also show that Ohio schools would lose about $8 million a year in Medicaid funding for special education services under the House bill.

Katherine Hempstead, who analyzes health policy at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, said she does not expect any states to be able to afford keeping the Medicaid expansion in place. But she said some could choose to use federal money for subsidies, in addition to what would be offered anyway, for people who buy insurance on the individual market. In many states, premiums have been rising and insurance choices dwindling.

“States might face a choice of what population they want to reinforce,” she said.

Under the House bill, states would be allowed to reduce coverage requirements for people who buy individual insurance plans while allowing insurers to charge higher premiums to older people and those with pre-existing conditions if they had a lapse in coverage. States taking that step would have to establish government-operated insurance programs for expensive patients called high-risk pools.

Hempstead said she expects that states with more consumer protections won’t go that route.

Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton, a Democrat, is resolute on that issue: “I would not entertain that notion,” he said.

In some of the states that are likely to relax standards and set up the high-risk pools, the choices that lie ahead are being welcomed. Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, a Republican, said he would consider allowing the higher charges for pre-existing conditions.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, also a Republican, wasn’t fretting about tough decisions.

“Congress’ efforts to repeal and replace Obamacare is a step toward ending the lawless health care regime that failed to live up to its promises and is spiraling to a hasty death,” Abbott spokesman John Wittman said Friday.

___

Associated Press writers Steve Karnowski in Minneapolis; David Klepper in Albany, New York; John O’Connor in Springfield, Illinois; Todd Richmond in Madison, Wisconsin; Julie Carr Smyth in Columbus, Ohio; and Paul J. Weber in Austin, Texas, contributed to this report.

By GEOFF MULVIHILL – May. 7, 2017 11:16 AM EDT

___

Follow Mulvihill at http://www.twitter.com/geoffmulvihill

States Brace For Big Decisions Under GOP Health Care Changes CHERRY HILL, N.J. — Even as the Republican health care overhaul remains a work in progress, states are planning for big changes that could swell the ranks of the uninsured and hit them with higher costs.

#Congressional Budget Office #GOP Health Care #Medicaid Programs

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