Slashing public health funding is a national security disaster in the making: Howard Dean
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Los Angeles Times
4 hours ago
- Los Angeles Times
Trump tax law could cause Medicare cuts if Congress doesn't act, CBO says
WASHINGTON — The federal budget deficits caused by President Trump's tax and spending law could trigger automatic cuts to Medicare if Congress does not act, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office reported Friday. The CBO estimates that Medicare, the federal health insurance program for Americans over age 65, could potentially see as much as $491 billion in cuts from 2027 to 2034 if Congress does not act to mitigate a 2010 law that forces across-the-board cuts to many federal programs once legislation increases the federal deficit. The latest report from CBO showed how Trump's signature tax and spending law could put new pressure on federal programs that are bedrocks of the American social safety net. Trump and Republicans pledged not to cut Medicare as part of the legislation, but the estimated $3.4 trillion that the law adds to the federal deficit over the next decade means that many Medicare programs could see cuts. In the past, Congress has always acted to mitigate cuts to Medicare and other programs, but it would take some bipartisan cooperation to do so. Democrats, who requested the analysis from CBO, jumped on the potential cuts. 'Republicans knew their tax breaks for billionaires would force over half a trillion dollars in Medicare cuts — and they did it anyway,' Rep. Brendan Boyle of Pennsylvania, the top Democrat on the House Budget Committee, said in a statement. 'American families simply cannot afford Donald Trump's attacks on Medicare, Medicaid and Obamacare.' Hospitals in rural parts of the country are already grappling with cuts to Medicaid, which is available to people with low incomes, and cuts to Medicare could exacerbate their shortfalls. As Republicans muscled the bill through Congress and are now selling it to voters back home, they have been critical of how the CBO has analyzed the bill. They have also argued that the tax cuts will spur economic growth and pointed to $50 billion in funding for rural hospitals that was included in the package. Groves writes for the Associated Press.
Buzz Feed
4 hours ago
- Buzz Feed
Why IKEA Turned Away My Son: A Parent's Warning
In late June, a few days before Disability Pride Month began, I took my 7-year-old child on an outing to an Ikea store. As I filled out a waiver so he could enter the store's small play area, I noticed I was the only parent present. It turned out that parents typically drop off their children while they shop, but that wasn't an option for me. My son has a rare, severe form of epilepsy called Dravet syndrome, among other medical conditions, and he can't be without a grown-up carrying his seizure rescue medication, as I was. The scary reality is that around one in five children with Dravet syndrome die in childhood because the seizures can be so severe. There is currently no cure. I explained this to a staff member and told her that I'd need to be in the room with my child. She informed me that no parents were allowed into the play area. 'But isn't there a policy for kids with disabilities?' I asked. She told me a service dog could accompany a child, but a parent could not. I stopped signing the form. I said to the staff member, 'That's discrimination against kids with disabilities.' She didn't respond. I hadn't known about the store's play area before this visit, and I had been happy to see that it wasn't a playground ― just a space with toys like a train set and dart board. Since my son had a seizure at an indoor playground a year ago, I'd stopped taking him to them. But now, even this play space was not an option for him. My child and I were both upset. He loves going to Ikea to walk through the showroom and eat in the cafeteria ― a place open enough that it was the only indoor restaurant he ate in during our four years of masking during the COVID-19 pandemic. We have several Ikea furniture items, including bunk beds, a coat/shoe cubby and a toy chest. He helped us build them all. Since his severe seizures began about two years ago, he's had to change his life in significant ways. Heat, sports, just running around to play, illness and excitement have all become triggers for him. Summer is especially hard — on hot days, he can't be outside. In fact, we had driven the hour to Ikea in traffic just so he could walk and have a change of scenery in a large, air-conditioned space because the temperature outside was dangerous for him. I told him, 'This isn't OK.' He said, 'We should talk to someone.' I was proud of him. After talking to a few staff members, we spoke with a manager, who said he wasn't familiar with the policy, and he'd get back to me the next day. He didn't. Later, I looked online, and there was a section on the Ikea website directing caretakers of children with disabilities to start a conversation with the Ikea store manager about how the child can best have their needs accommodated in the play area. I was hopeful that when we went in the future, we could show the policy to the staff. However, that doesn't undo the pain my child felt after hearing that he wasn't welcome in that play space because of his disabilities. During the hour-long car ride home afterward, we talked a lot about discrimination. I reinforced that what happened wasn't OK, and that the more than 3 million kids with disabilities in our country deserve to be included. I told him about my older sister, his late aunt, who had microcephaly and faced various barriers to equal access too, like having to sit on the sidelines of playgrounds in her wheelchair. It upset me. When I was 10 in 1993, I read about new accessible playgrounds in an issue of Scholastic News, and I hoped we could build one for her. Sadly, she died a few weeks later, but in her memory, my family and I worked with the Cincinnati Parks Department to build an accessible playground. My son thought that was cool. I also explained that many groups of people face discrimination for reasons such as gender, race, sexual orientation, immigration status and more, and we need to be allies and stand up against all forms of discrimination. I also told him that one way to help is to make disabilities more visible and raise awareness, as we have done in his school class for the past three years. This June, for Dravet Syndrome Awareness Month, he and I held a neighborhood lemonade and cupcake fundraiser and donated money to the Dravet Syndrome Foundation, which helps fund the kind of critical epilepsy research that the Trump administration has recently cut. After our experience at Ikea, as one of his bedtime books, we re-read the picture book All the Way to the Top, about a child who protested and helped advocate for the Americans with Disabilities Act, which passed 35 years ago. Afterward, I told him about children with disabilities who went to Congress this summer, asking their leaders not to make it harder for them to go to the doctor and get the medicine and treatment they need. Unfortunately, President Donald Trump's domestic policy bill has since passed, and many people, including children with disabilities, will be harmed as a result. Two days after the bill passed, my child woke up and said, 'I want to make a sign about disabilities.' He asked for my help with spelling before writing the words 'People with disabilities are important' in pencil and then tracing over them with marker. He stood by our Disability Pride yard sign, and then, since the temperature was cooler out, he walked down our street and held it up for cars passing by. He said that when he grows up, he wants to be an 'activist' and 'protester.' I told him that he already is. [Editor's Note: HuffPost reached out for a response, and Ikea US issued the following statement: 'At IKEA, we strive to offer a safe and inclusive environment for children to play while in our stores. Our Småland policies are in place to keep children safe when they are in our space. Regarding this family's recent experience in our College Park, MD store, we are incredibly sensitive to feelings of exclusion, and so we have shared information with the family about our accommodations process, so that they may have a more positive experience at IKEA. We are constantly working to improve how we create an inclusive space while maintaining policies that keep all children safe.']
New York Post
4 hours ago
- New York Post
Trump's ‘quiet' stance after Alaska meeting with Putin suggests there's still ‘sticking points' to Ukraine peace, officials say
President Trump's vague, post-meeting press conference with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska demonstrated that 'significant roadblocks' stand in the way of peace in Ukraine, several officials suggested Friday. 'That was different,' former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo quipped shortly after the Trump-Putin presser, where neither leader took questions from reporters — or offered details about what a possible cease-fire to halt the two-and-a-half-years-long war would entail. Pompeo, in an interview with Fox News host Brian Kilmeade, noted that Trump is usually 'very straightforward,' 'very forward leaning' and shares 'all the things that he can' with the press — but didn't in Anchorage. 'Clearly he felt in this instance, to deliver on behalf of America, the best thing to do was to be quiet,' the former Trump Cabinet official said. 4 Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo believes that President Trump was deliberately guarded after his meeting with Vladimir Putin. AFP via Getty Images Pompeo insisted that Americans shouldn't 'over-read that' but maintained Trump was 'pretty non-transparent,' suggesting, 'there are significant roadblocks along the way that remain. 'I think there's still significant sticking points along the way,' he added. 'They may have identified interests that they can work their way through, perhaps on economic matters and the like, but it sounds to me like sort of the central issue … Vladimir Putin's willingness to conduct a cease-fire with no condition … it doesn't sound like Putin showed up today ready to concede that core point.' House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Brian Mast (R-Fla.) argued that Trump seemed to be 'clear-eyed' about negotiations with the Russian president at the summit. 'I think his posture showed that he was clear-eyed about what Vladimir Putin was saying and where Vladimir Putin was wrong,' Mast told Fox News. 'It is just crystal clear that Putin's back is against the wall,' the congressman continued. 'And I think [Trump] demonstrated that clearness with his very first action, before saying a word, with the fact that he flew B2 bombers over [Putin's] head.' 4 Congressman Brian Mast said it's clear Putin's 'back is against the wall.' REUTERS Mast argued the flyover was 'not an accident' and that it sent a message to the Russian strongman. 'It was a signal to [Putin] that when President Trump says, 'Hey, there could be very serious consequences,' he's saying that these serious consequences can be very far reaching,' the Florida Republican said. 'Maybe it's fires that we sell to European countries or other NATO countries that can reach Moscow or St. Petersburg or oil refiners or other things, or maybe it's other weapon systems that we get into the hands of the Ukrainians,' Mast said of potential consequences Russia could face. Razom for Ukraine, a nonprofit humanitarian aid and advocacy organization backing Kyiv in the fight against Russia, said in a statement that the meeting 'reaffirms that the only way to achieve a genuine peace is by pressuring Russia, not by believing Putin's lies that he wants peace.' 'Putin remains the sole obstacle to peace,' CEO Dora Chomiak said in the statement. 4 Mast also argued that the choice to fly B2 bombers was not an accident. AFP via Getty Images Chomiak noted that 'just before Putin landed in Alaska, Russia launched another massive air strike on Ukrainian civilians, reminding us all that he won't end Russia's invasion until he's forced to.' 'The idea that Putin believes there is a positive deal for him in the near future is deeply alarming,' she added, calling on Trump to 'immediately get Ukraine the weapons it needs to save innocent families from Putin's brutal attacks. 'Putin still has hope that he can conquer Ukraine. President Trump must prove him wrong.' Ukrainian Parliament member Oleksandr Merezhko argued that Putin came out the winner of 'the informational war' after the meeting, but appeared as an equal to Trump. 'He used Trump to show that he is not isolated,' Merezhko said, according to the New York Times. 4 Some officials said Putin remains the chief obstacle to peace. REUTERS Czech Foreign Minister Jan Lipavsky criticized Putin for repeating the 'same propagandistic clichés about the 'roots of the conflict' that his state television keeps repeating,' according to Reuters. 'The problem is Russian imperialism, not Ukraine's desire to live in freedom,' Lipavsky said. 'If Putin were serious about peace talks, Russia would not have been attacking Ukraine all day today.'
