Latest news with #Medicaid
The Hill
18 minutes ago
- Business
- The Hill
Trump is marooned on Epstein's island
It was the best of times and the worst of times for Donald Trump. He celebrated the passage of his big budget bill and his rescission package which enriched the wealthy and threw Medicaid patients, hungry American kids and starving Africans under the bus. Then the Epstein list came back around to bite him. Instead of basking in the reflected Republican glory of his defeat of the Democratic New Deal, he currently wallows in the mud of a sordid sex scandal. The intense speculation about Donald Trump's relationship to Jeffrey Epstein and his sexual escapades with young girls reveals two key problems with 47's second term. First, the president has broken a series of promises he made to the American people during the 2024 campaign. Second, he has always relied heavily on his most loyal supporters in times of trouble, but the once solid MAGA base is in is danger of coming undone. Trump's refusal to release the infamous Epstein list is just one of the many promises he made while he was soliciting votes for his return to the White House last year. He has become the typical politician who will say anything to get elected and fail to deliver when he wins. The Consumer Price Index rose by 2.7 percent in June after he told voters in 2024 that he would bring consumer costs down on Day One. Trump also claimed he could broker a peace between Ukraine and Russia in one day. The war there still drags on six months into his second term with no end in sight. The president's refusal to honor his pledge to release the Epstein list has alienated many of his strongest supporters such as right-wing podcaster Tucker Carlson. Trump's betrayal of his base will come back to haunt him and other Republicans in 2026 and in 2028. He has torn the sheets with his biggest booster and most generous financial supporter, Elon Musk, over the tech magnate's hostility towards the big bad budget bill. Finally former Trump White House counselor Steve Bannon (no relation) has criticized the budget bill's tax cuts for bankers and billionaires at the expense of low-income white voters who were steadfast Trump supporters in 2024. The sorry state of the economy will eventually be Trump's undoing as it was Joe Biden's. But the Epstein scandal gives Trump great grief in the here and now. His failure to follow up on his promise to release the infamous Epstein List of sexual predators has painted a giant kick me sign on his backside. Trump's failure to redeem his campaign promises could undermine support with the independents who voted for him last year even though they had doubts about his personal peccadillos. But the bottom line for Trump's success has always been his ability to galvanize the base and he has made that difficult to do with the divisions emerging within MAGA. To defend himself against the charge that he is on the list of the Epstein sexual predators, he has resorted to desperately ridiculous explanations. He has denied the existence of the list that he once promised to release. He has claimed that the list that doesn't exist was fabricated by Biden, Barack Obama and others. His director of national intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, a prominent player in Trump's theater of the absurd, has tried to deflect attention from Epsteingate with the unsubstantiated claim that Obama tried to mount a coup against Trump. The only factor that keeps Trump's approval rating from sinking underwater into the deepest crevices of the Pacific Ocean is the blind allegiance of MAGA members who have stuck with him through hell and high water. He sued Rupert Murdoch the Fox News jefe and owner of The Wall Street Journal after the paper published a report that Trump had drawn and given Epstein a pornographic 50th birthday card. He even belittled MAGA members when he tweeted 'My PAST supporters have bought this bulls– hook, line and sinker…Let these weaklings continue forward and do the Democrats work. …I don't want their support anymore…' Wow. The accumulation of broken campaign promises and MAGA splits could present serious problems for the president, GOP candidates in 2026 and the 2028 Republican presidential contenders. Democratic control of the House and the subsequent investigations into corruption within the Trump administration could cripple the last two years of his term. The divisions with MAGA could force a bloody Republican presidential primary fight in 2028 that could open the door for a Democrat to win the White House. Trump is marooned on Epstein's island and he is in for much more than a three-hour tour.
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Business Standard
an hour ago
- Business
- Business Standard
Donald Trump's tax law to add $3.4 trillion to US deficits, says CBO
President Donald Trump's recently enacted tax and spending law will add $3.4 trillion to US deficits over a decade and leave millions without health care coverage, according to a new estimate from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office. The CBO score for the law, released Monday, reflects a $4.5 trillion decrease in revenues and a $1.1 trillion decline in spending through 2034, relative to a current-law baseline. The new analysis doesn't incorporate so-called dynamic effects, such as the impact on growth or interest rates over time that the legislation's measures might have. Trump signed the 'One Big Beautiful Bill' into law on July 4 after months of negotiations with congressional Republicans. Encompassing much of Trump's economic agenda, it permanently extends his 2017 income-tax cuts and some breaks for businesses, lifts the cap on federal deductions for state and local taxes and eliminates taxes on tips and overtime on a temporary basis, among other provisions. Passage of the law triggered warnings from some economists and investors about a widening of America's budget shortfall — already large by historical standards — that could push borrowing costs and inflation up. The Trump administration points to record collections from the tariffs he's imposed on most US imports this year, saying that revenue will help fill the gap. A number of spending cuts were included in the tax law in an effort to reduce deficits and offset the cost, including to Medicaid, which provides health insurance for low-income people. New work requirements for recipients of Medicaid under the age of 65, are set to begin by the end of 2026. The law also limits states' ability to tax health care providers to help fund the program. Provisions in the law will result in 10 million Americans losing health insurance by 2034, according to the CBO analysis. The potential loss of health insurance coverage comes as rising prices due to tariffs already threaten to create increased economic hardship for low-income families. June inflation data showed some signs of the levies' impact on costs and economists expect prices to continue to rise over the summer. This would disproportionately impact low-income Americans as they tend to spend a larger share of their income on necessities, such as food. At the request of Senate Republicans, the bill was also scored separately relative to a current policy baseline. On that basis it would reduce deficits by $366 billion over a decade, with revenues falling $849 billion in the period — about one-fifth of the drop recorded in the conventional scoring. Lawmakers used this accounting maneuver to count the permanent extension of the 2017 income-tax cuts as costing nothing.
USA Today
2 hours ago
- Business
- USA Today
Trump says he's considering a new tax break. Here's how it could impact the housing market.
After pushing through a sweeping package of tax cuts in his mega-bill signed into law earlier this month, President Donald Trump is now eyeing another potential tax break for home sellers. Trump said July 22 that his administration is considering eliminating capital gains taxes that are levied when a home is sold for more than the previous purchase price. 'We are thinking about no tax on capital gains on houses,' Trump said during an Oval Office meeting with the president of the Philippines. Trump, a wealthy real estate developer who has extensive property holdings, didn't go into details about his proposal, and the White House didn't immediately respond to questions. Trump on July 4 signed a measure that extends his 2017 tax cuts and includes new tax breaks, including on tipped wages, overtime pay and car loans. The law also slashes spending on the Medicaid health insurance program for lower income Americans and lifts the nation's looming debt ceiling. The measure is expected to increase the federal debt by $3.4 trillion over 10 years, according to the Congressional Budget Office. Trump can't turn his suggestion for the housing market into reality by himself: cutting the tax on home sales would require additional legislation. The move also comes as the president has long pushed Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell to lower interest rates. "If the Fed would lower rates, we wouldn't have to do that," Trump said of the potential home sales tax cut. In general, the Fed cuts interest rates to stimulate a flagging economy and job market. It increases interest rates – or keeps them higher for longer – to lower inflation or prevent a spike in prices. Powell warned in April about the impact of Trump's tariffs on inflation, telling the Economic Club of Chicago that "Unemployment is likely to go up as the economy slows, in all likelihood, and inflation is likely to go up as tariffs find their way and some part of those tariffs come to be paid by the public." Contributing: Paul Davidson
Atlantic
3 hours ago
- Health
- Atlantic
How Medicaid Cuts Will Bleed Emergency Medicine
If you have a heart attack in the United States, you might assume that an ambulance will bring you to an ER and its staff will take care of you. But hospital closures over the past 20 years and physician shortages were undermining that assumption even before President Donald Trump signed his 'One Big Beautiful Bill' into law. Now that legislation—which will cut Medicaid spending by an estimated $1 trillion over 10 years, puts the entire emergency-medicine safety net at risk. The destabilizing effects will be felt not only by those who lose access to Medicaid, but also by those who have private health insurance. As an ER doctor in New York City, I am terrified about the coming cuts. A recent study from the Rand Corporation confirms that ERs across the entire country are dangerously overstretched and underfunded. About a fifth of emergency visits each year are never paid for, amounting to nearly $5.9 billion in care costs absorbed by hospitals. The uninsured and underinsured were already more likely to have to seek treatment in the ER when they fell ill. With the changes to Medicaid eligibility, their ranks are set to swell. Medicaid provides coverage to more than 71 million Americans; in addition, the Children's Health Insurance Program (which provides low-cost coverage for children of families that do not qualify for Medicaid) covers 7 million children. Trump's legislation is expected to deprive som 12 million people of Medicaid by 2034, and an additional 5 million will lose insurance because of changes to provisions of the Affordable Care Act. The cost of replacing this lost coverage for some 17 million Americans will be especially daunting for low-income families: On average, health-insurance premiums add up to nearly $9,000 a year, whereas a full-time minimum-wage job generates just $15,000. I went into frontline medicine to help people, not to bankrupt them—yet I am acutely aware that medical debt is a major factor in nearly three-fifths of bankruptcy cases in the United States. When someone who does not have insurance comes into the ER, I am forced to discuss with the patient what necessary care they may have to delay or forgo if they cannot afford it. These conversations will become only more frequent when millions of people are kicked off their health insurance. Jonathan Chait: The cynical Republican plan to cut Medicaid The 1986 Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act, one of the most important public-health measures ever enacted in the United States, mandates that every emergency department must provide treatment to anyone who comes through the door, regardless of their ability to pay or their insurance status. 'People have access to health care in America,' President George W. Bush once declared. 'After all, you just go to an emergency room.' But the treatment mandate is unfunded. Bush neglected to say that patients are still charged for that visit once they receive the care they need. When they can't pay, they get hounded by a collection agency. If they still can't pay, the hospital ends up eating the cost. The downstream effect is lower staffing and fewer services. The burden of uncompensated emergency care unquestionably contributes to hospital closures. Even before Trump's huge budget-reconciliation bill passed, many people living in rural communities were at risk of losing access to health care. Of 25 hospitals that closed last year, 10 were in rural America, the industry publication Becker's Hospital Review reported; according to a nonpartisan health-policy center, another 700 rural hospitals are financially distressed and at risk of closure. Nearly half of all children and one in five adults in small towns and country areas rely on Medicaid or CHIP; half of all births in these communities are financed by Medicaid. This makes rural hospitals highly dependent on the reimbursement that they receive from Medicaid for treating those patients. The more patients who lose coverage, the greater the threat to these institutions. A report from the National Rural Health Association and the research firm Manatt Health finds that, because of Trump's BBB, rural hospitals 'will lose 21 cents out of every dollar' they'd previously received in Medicaid funding. The inevitable result will be more service cuts and more hospital closures, which will endanger everyone in these areas—even people with insurance. The rational course would be for the government to put more resources into Medicaid, so that patients in need could access care in an optimal setting, instead of visiting the ER, where treatment is more expensive to provide and less comprehensive. Supporters of the BBB purport to have data showing that patients with Medicaid misuse the ER by seeking unnecessary treatment, and they argue that visit volume will go down once they are uninsured. My own experience is that although uninsured patients see me less, they typically show up much sicker—and need more resource-intensive care. One of my regular patients has both Crohn's disease and a debilitating psychiatric condition. He has no family support, usually lives in a shelter, and only sometimes has a job. After requiring an emergency intestinal surgery last year, he now comes into the ER every few days to have his ostomy bag changed, because the only clinic that takes Medicaid is in another borough. In an ideal world, he would have access to a clinic with wound-care nursing and social support. In this far-from-ideal world, taking away his Medicaid will not stop him from having chronic disease. This patient could try to skip visits, but he will have to come to the ER when he gets an infection or his illness flares again, and then he will also be stuck with a bill that will hurt his credit rating and set back his efforts to pull himself out of poverty. The hospital, too, will be worse off—forced to absorb the cost of his treatment when previously it did receive at least small payments for his visits. In short, any appearance of less demand on health-care resources is a mirage; the real outcome will be worse health for the patient and higher costs for his health-care providers. Imagine various such scenarios replicated all across the country, when millions of people lose Medicaid coverage. In a letter to Senate leadership last month, the American Medical Association's chief executive, James Madara, warned that the proposed law 'could lead to delays in treatment, increases in emergency room visits and hospitalizations, and other expensive forms of care.' His appeal went unheeded, as Congress passed the legislation on largely party-line votes. As Alison Haddock, the president of the American College of Emergency Physicians, put it: 'The very idea of emergency medicine as we now know it—lifesaving care available for anyone at any time—is under direct threat.' The threat is dire, but a stay is still possible. The majority of health-care cuts in the act will not go into effect until after the midterm elections in November 2026. Lawmakers have at least a theoretical opportunity to change course and save our emergency-medical system—if enough voters make them pay attention.
USA Today
3 hours ago
- Business
- USA Today
Big Tech billionaire backlash: Protest billboards call out Musk, Bezos, Zuckerberg
President Donald Trump's second term has sparked a renewed call for action against corporations and billionaires, with regular protests and boycotts happening throughout the nation. More Perfect Union has started a similar form of protest in multiple states. Here's what we know: Message behind 'We Make, They Take' billboards Fifty new billboards have gone up across eight states, according to an emailed news release. They are bright yellow-green and white, depict certain billionaires, and have messages calling out corporate and political exploitation of working-class Americans. The billboards are written with things like "We make minimum wage. They take our Medicaid," and "We make big tech rich. They take control of our lives." Who is on the 'We Make, They Take' billboards? There are four different designs of the billboards. Each one has a different billionaire including Elon Musk (CEO of Tesla), Mark Zuckerberg (CEO of Meta), Jeff Bezos (Amazon's founder) and Peter Thiel (PayPal's founder). Welome to 'Billionaire Bunker': How Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sanchez live in Florida's elite enclave Where are the 'We Make, They Take' billboards? The billboards are located in the following cities across nine states: What is More Perfect Union? More Perfect Union calls itself a nonprofit education, advocacy and journalism organization dedicated to building power for the working class. "We're calling out a simple truth: Working people keep this country running, but corporations keep taking more and more," said More Perfect Union Founder and Executive Director Faiz Shakir. "What we're seeing today is politically sanctioned exploitation of America's working class − the nurses, teachers, warehouse workers and service employees who hold this country together − all to benefit a handful of billionaire oligarchs and multinational corporations. This campaign calls that out and is designed to start a conversation in the places where it matters most." Miguel Legoas is a Deep South Connect Team Reporter for Gannett/USA Today. Find him on Instagram @miguelegoas and email at mlegoas@
