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Chicago Tribune
43 minutes ago
- Chicago Tribune
Medicaid, environment experts react to Trump's megabill, potential effects
Northwest Indiana Medicaid and environmental experts expressed concern with the impacts of the Trump Administration's megabill. President Donald Trump signed a megabill focused on tax breaks and spending cuts into law July 4, the day after a tight House roll call vote of 218-214 in favor of the bill. At its core, the package's priority is $4.5 trillion in tax breaks enacted in 2017 during Trump's first term that would expire if Congress failed to act, along with new ones. This includes allowing workers to deduct tips and overtime pay, and a $6,000 deduction for most older adults earning less than $75,000 a year. There's also a hefty investment, some $350 billion, in national security and Trump's deportation agenda and to help develop the 'Golden Dome' defensive system over the U.S. To help offset the lost tax revenue, the package includes $1.2 trillion in cutbacks to Medicaid health care and food stamps, largely by imposing new work requirements, including for some parents and older people, and a major rollback of green energy tax credits. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimates the package will add $3.3 trillion to the deficit over the decade and 11.8 million more people will go without health coverage. U.S. Rep. Frank Mrvan, D-Highland, issued a statement after last week's House vote explaining his opposition vote. While the bill may seem 'beautiful' to corporations and the wealthy, for a teacher in East Chicago, a nurse in Gary, the steelworker in Portage or a farmer in LaPorte County, the bill creates 'uncertainty and actually increases the cost of living.' 'I opposed this measure because I cannot in good conscience leave people behind. The Republican Majority made a decision to prioritize their elite donors and corporations, and now seniors, veterans, hard-working Americans, women, children and those yet to be born will pay with increased costs and possibly their lives,' Mrvan said. The bill passed the Senate vote two days before the House vote. The Senate's 50-50 tie was broken by Vice President JD Vance. U.S. Sen. Todd Young said the package includes his legislation that incentivizes R&D activity as well as leveraging private sector investment to increase affordable housing options. 'While I wish this legislation included additional fiscal reforms, this is a strong bill that will benefit Hoosier families and increase the security and prosperity of all Americans,' Young said in a statement. U.S. Sen. Jim Banks, who voted for its passage in the Senate on Tuesday, lauded its increased funding for the Departments of Homeland Security and Defense. 'I'm proud to support the biggest tax cut for working families in American history. This bill delivers on President Trump's promises to secure the border and strengthen our military, while also making the largest spending cut ever.' Under the federal law, states have until Jan. 1, 2027, to enforce the work requirements for Medicaid enrollees. The new law means Hoosiers 19 to 64 years old will have to work at least 80 hours per month to be eligible, according to a statement from the Indiana House Democratic Caucus. Under the law, parents of children 13 years and younger and medically frail individuals are exempt from the work requirements. But the law requires those who have to follow the work requirements to complete eligibility redeterminations twice a year, as opposed to once a year, according to the statement. Earlier this year, the Indiana Legislature passed a law that as of July 1, imposed a work or volunteer requirement of 20 hours per week, quarterly eligibility checks and monthly monitoring of internal reviews of personal information, according to the statement. Further, Indiana has a trigger law that requires Medicaid expansion to automatically begin unwinding if federal funding for Medicaid expansion drops below 90%, which means services would be reduced, according to the release. Currently, Indiana's Medicaid program is funded 90% by the federal government and 10% through the cigarette tax and hospital assessment fee, said Tracey Hutchings-Goetz, a Hoosier Action organizer. The new federal Medicaid law will supersede the state Medicaid law, Hutchings-Goetz said. In Indiana, Children's Health Insurance Program, Hoosier Healthwise, Healthy Indiana Plan, Hoosier Care ConnectTraditional Medicaid, MedConnect, or Medicaid for employees with disabilities, are all funded through Medicaid, according to the release. The bill cuts a trillion dollars from Medicaid through shifting the financial burden of Medicaid to states and taxpayers, according to the release. 'Indiana Medicaid enrollees could face cuts to services and longer waitlists due to the loss of federal funding. Even the privately insured will feel the squeeze of Medicaid cuts as hospitals and clinics will now have to eat the costs to provide uncompensated care for uninsured individuals,' according to the release. At Hoosier Action, a community organization that focuses on issues like health care, leaders are 'deeply concerned' about the megabill, and the people the organization supports are scared, Hutchings-Goetz said. Hutchings-Goetz said that she has heard daily from Medicaid recipients who are self-employed, chronically ill, with disabilities or parents with sick children with questions about how the bill will impact them and what they can do. In anticipation of a lapse of coverage, Hutchings-Goetz said people are considering stockpiling medications and other emergency preparedness strategies. 'People are trying to plan and they don't have enough information, and we don't have enough information,' Hutchings-Goetz said. 'People are really scared.' In Indiana, the Medicaid cuts will result in 12 rural hospitals closing, Hutchings-Goetz said. When that happens, people will have to travel further for care, which will lead to sicker populations and potential death, she said. 'This bill is going to make us sicker and poorer, and we're not happy with it,' Hutchings-Goetz said. Leslie Hawker, program manager for Everybody Counts Inc., said the new federal Medicaid law is 'devastating' for everyone, as it's projected that 17 million people will be kicked off Medicaid. As the uninsured go to hospitals for emergency care, Hawker said insurance costs will increase for those who have private insurance as hospitals seek to recoup the cost of caring for the uninsured, Hawker said. 'It's going to kill people, and for what? Who benefits by this bill? It's not the normal, everyday John Q. Public. It's people who own corporations. It's a death sentence for a lot of people,' Hawker said. Coupled with Medicaid changes, one former Environmental Protection Agency leader believes environmental changes will have drastic effects for U.S. citizens. 'It will increase a variety of pollution threats, like emissions from power plants, from heavy-duty diesel buses and trucks,' said former EPA Region 5 Administrator Debra Shore. 'Eventually, it will lead to early deaths, loss of work and school hours. It's a severe hit to the gains we had made in protecting public health.' While the megabill was still going through the House and Senate, the EPA posted on Facebook, saying it 'delivers for all Americans,' by eliminating hundreds of billions of dollars in Green New Deal tax credits, repealing former President Joe Biden administration's electric vehicle mandates, and opening federal lands and waters to oil, gas, coal, geothermal and mineral leasing, according to Post-Tribune archives. Shore, who led the EPA's Chicago office during Biden's presidency, said the bill is 'perhaps the most sweeping rollback of environmental and public health protections in modern U.S. history.' 'The size of cuts in the EPA budget will effectively, in my opinion, eviscerate the agency,' Shore said. 'At a time where Congress has been adding to the agency's statutory mission to protect human health and the environment, it's removing the resources that would enable it to fulfill its obligations.' Shore is particularly worried about cuts to the agency's Office of Research and Development budget. The budget proposes a nearly 34% decrease in science and technology funding, which is about $255 million, according to a budget breakdown. Specific laboratories and research areas impacted include air and energy, sustainable and healthy communities, safe and sustainable water resources, and chemical safety for sustainability. Between the four research areas, about $204.1 million from the EPA's budget is cut in the upcoming fiscal year. 'I've never worked with such a team of smart, devoted professionals who had a shared sense of mission, namely to protect public health and the environment,' Shore said. 'It is heartbreaking to hear how they are being treated with willful cruelty, with dismissal of expertise and utter disregard for their passionate devotion to the agency's mission.' Susan Thomas, director of policy and press for Just Transition Northwest Indiana, said that although the megabill's passage was imminent, it doesn't make it any easier. 'So much has been stripped away,' Thomas said. 'It's destruction for destruction's sake.' Thomas is worried about how much oil and gas companies will benefit from the megabill and how it will impact generations to come. Environmental justice communities — such as those in Northwest Indiana — could continue to suffer if industries are given more power. She believes public health will worsen as a result of EPA rollbacks and Medicaid cuts. An October report from Industrious Labs found that most residents in Gary are in the top 10% of U.S. residents most at-risk for developing asthma and at-risk of low life expectancy. In 2020, Indiana had a lung cancer rate of 72.5 per 100,000 people, with Lake County as one of the counties with the highest cancer mortality rates, according to the American Lung Association. A 2016 JAMA Network report also found Gary as one of the top five U.S. cities with the lowest life expectancy at one point. 'We've really got to take a step in our communities and be hyperlocal,' Thomas said. 'That will help make local progress, and when you make connections with folks, you make friendships, you make bonds, and you start to rely on each other. It's really powerful.'
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Trump news at a glance: markets react with confusion as Trump appears to move goal posts on tariffs again
Stock markets slipped amid confusion as to when – and at what level – new US tariffs would be applied, as Donald Trump's self-imposed 9 July deadline edged closer. The US is close to finalising several trade agreements in the coming days and will notify other countries of higher tariff rates by Thursday, the president said on Sunday, with the higher rates to take effect on 1 August. 'President Trump's going to be sending letters to some of our trading partners saying that if you don't move things along, then on August 1 you will boomerang back to your April 2 tariff level,' treasury secretary Scott Bessent told CNN. Trump in April announced a 10% base tariff rate on most countries and higher 'reciprocal' rates ranging up to 50%. However, Trump also said levies could range in value from 'maybe 60% or 70% tariffs to 10% and 20%', further clouding the picture. With very few actual trade deals done, analysts had suspected the date would be pushed out, though it was still not clear if the new deadline applied to all trading partners or just some. Trump said on Sunday that his administration plans to start sending letters on Monday to US trade partners, dictating new tariff rates to be imposed on goods they sell to Americans. 'It could be 12, maybe 15,' the president told reporters, 'and we've made deals also, so we're going to have a combination of letters and some deals have been made.' Kevin Hassett, who heads the White House National Economic Council, told CBS that there might be wriggle room for countries engaged in earnest negotiations. 'There are deadlines, and there are things that are close, and so maybe things will push back past the deadline,' Hassett said, adding that Trump would decide if that could happen. Read the full story Donald Trump called Elon Musk's decision to start and bankroll a new US political party 'ridiculous' on Sunday. 'Third parties have never worked, so he can have fun with it but I think it's ridiculous,' the president told reporters traveling with him back to the White House from his New Jersey golf club. He then elaborated, at great length, in a post on his social media platform, Truth Social. 'I am saddened to watch Elon Musk go completely 'off the rails,' essentially becoming a TRAIN WRECK over the past five weeks,' the president wrote. Read the full story Trump said he believed a hostage release and ceasefire deal could be reached this week, which could lead to the release of 'quite a few hostages.' He was speaking after Benjamin Netanyahu left Israel for talks in Washington, praising Trump's return to the presidency. 'We have never had such a friend in the White House … We have already changed the face of the Middle East beyond recognition, and we have an opportunity and the ability to change it further and to enable a great future for the state of Israel, the people of Israel and the entire Middle East,' Israel's prime minister told reporters. Read the full story Laura Loomer has emerged as the most prominent Maga America First influencer in the early days of Trump's second term. In early April, Loomer, a 32-year-old pro-Trump online influencer widely seen as a rightwing conspiracy theorist, met with Trump and gave him a list of names of people on the staff of the national security council that she believed were not loyal enough to Trump or at least had professional backgrounds that she considered suspect. Trump fired six staffers. Later, national security adviser Mike Waltz, whom Loomer had criticized for his role in the Signalgate chat leak scandal, was ousted as well. Read the full story Donald Trump announced on social media that he had signed a federal emergency declaration that would free additional resources to support local efforts in search and rescue operations in Texas after deadly flooding. Trump also posted a letter saying federal efforts would be coordinated by Benjamin Abbott of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema). In May, that agency's acting administrator was fired after he told Congress he did not believe it was 'in the best interest of the American people to eliminate' Fema, which Trump has said he plans to do. Asked on Sunday if he is still planning to phase out Fema, Trump told a reporter: 'Well, Fema is something we can talk about later, but right now they're busy working.' Read the full story David Smith asks if Trump's expansion of presidential powers is setting the stage for future Oval Office holders? Adam Gabbatt writes that although Trump's mega-bill has been widely criticized in the press, Fox News sees it differently. Catching up? Here's what happened 5 July. Sign in to access your portfolio
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Fifa opens office in Trump Tower, deepening ties with US president
Fifa's relationship with the US president, Donald Trump, now has a physically tangible marker, with soccer's world governing body announcing it has opened an office in Trump Tower in New York City. The announcement of the new office came on Monday evening, after Fifa placed the Club World Cup trophy on display in the lobby of the skyscraper in an event attended by several Fifa dignitaries including its president, Gianni Infantino, and the Brazilian great Ronaldo as well as Eric Trump, the son of the US president and executive vice-president of the Trump Organization. Related: Qatar weighs up 2029 Club World Cup bid that could mean winter tournament 'Fifa [is] a global organisation [and] to be global you have to be local, you have to be everywhere, so we have to be in New York,' Infantino said. 'Not just for the Fifa Club World Cup this year and the Fifa World Cup next year – we have to be in New York as well when it comes to where our offices are based. Thank you, Eric [Trump], thank you to everyone. Thanks, of course, to president Trump as well.' Fifa did not provide specifics on which staff or departments would be housed in New York. It is now a tenant of the company owned by the sitting US president with the start of its biggest and most lucrative tournament next June. It follows Fifa's opening in 2024 of an office in Miami, Florida, which houses the organization's legal division and some staff responsible for putting on the Club World Cup and next year's World Cup. Some staff from Fifa's global headquarters in Zurich were relocated to the US to work in Miami. 'On behalf of myself, on behalf of New York, on behalf of the Trump Organization and everybody that works in this building – we love you,' Eric Trump said in remarks at the event. 'We're honoured, we're excited about all the things that Fifa is doing.' The office opening continues efforts by Fifa and Infantino to appear publicly close to the US president, with Infantino describing his relationship with Trump as 'absolutely crucial' in a February meeting with the International Football Association Board in February. Infantino has since appeared with the US president at several public events, including at the Oval Office when announcing the creation of a World Cup task force. In that meeting, Infantino presented Trump with the Club World Cup trophy, which has continued to be on display in the Oval Office for all of the president's scheduled events in the space. Infantino was later present at the first public meeting of the World Cup taskforce, at which he was seated alongside Trump with vice-president JD Vance. Infantino also accompanied Trump to the Middle East this year – a trip that made him late for the Fifa congress in Paraguay, angering Fifa delegates who walked out of the gathering in protest. Uefa later accused Infantino of putting 'private political interests' ahead of his Fifa responsibilities, and Human Rights Watch demanded that Infantino reveal the specific purpose and details of his trip, which he has yet to do. 'As president of Fifa my responsibility is to make decisions in the interests of the organisation,' Infantino said at the congress, where he apologized for his tardyness. 'I felt that I needed to be there to represent football and all of you.'
