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New York Times
3 days ago
- Business
- New York Times
Ernst's Remark About Medicaid Cuts Draws Jeers at Iowa Town Hall
Senator Joni Ernst, Republican of Iowa, had a gloomy message for constituents at a town hall in Butler County, Iowa, on Friday morning: 'We all are going to die.' Ms. Ernst was fielding questions about cuts to Medicaid that were included in the domestic policy bill working its way through Congress, when someone in the audience yelled out that the effect would be that 'people are going to die.' 'Well, we all are going to die,' Ms. Ernst responded, drawing jeers from the crowd. Ms. Ernst appeared taken aback by the negative response. 'For heaven's sakes, folks,' she said. Democrats moved quickly to call attention to the comment from Ms. Ernst, a second-term lawmaker who is up for re-election next year. The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee circulated a video clip of the moment, calling Ms. Ernst's remark 'stunningly callous' and saying that it came as Republicans in Congress were pushing massive cuts to Medicaid that would leave 'millions of Americans uninsured in order to pay for a tax giveaway for billionaires.' The sprawling legislation, which contains a $4 trillion tax cut that would provide the biggest savings to the wealthy, also would make several changes to Medicaid, including adding a strict new work requirement. The independent, nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office projected that the bill would cause around 10 million Americans to become uninsured. Ms. Ernst comment on Friday came after town hall attendees interrupted her as she was highlighting provisions in the measure that sought to ensure that undocumented immigrants, who are not eligible to enroll in Medicaid, would not receive any services. As they defend the legislation, Republicans often refer to that aspect of it, suggesting that the only major changes it would make to Medicaid would be cracking down on waste and abuse in the program, including illegal use by undocumented people. Still, it is the more morbid portion of Ms. Ernst's remarks that Democrats are likely to play on repeat in campaign aids against her in the coming months. With her re-election top of mind, Ms. Ernst, a survivor of sexual assault and the Senate's first female combat veteran, earlier this year caved to a right-wing pressure campaign and voted to confirm Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth despite expressing reservations about his bid. A spokesman for Ms. Ernst said in a statement: 'While Democrats fearmonger against strengthening the integrity of Medicaid, Senator Ernst is focused on improving the lives of all Iowans.' The spokesman added: 'There's only two certainties in life: death and taxes, and she's working to ease the burden of both by fighting to keep more of Iowans' hard-earned tax dollars in their own pockets and ensuring their benefits are protected from waste, fraud, and abuse.'
Yahoo
25-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
The Long Shadow Of Bill Clinton Over The ‘One Big Beautiful Bill'
WASHINGTON – An unexpected name kept coming up as House Republicans crafted their multi-trillion dollar legislative package slashing Medicaid and taxes for the wealthy: Bill Clinton. On the House floor, during committee hearings and in hallway interviews, several Republicans have justified their Medicaid cuts by pointing to the Democrat who served as the 42nd President of the United States. 'We are reintroducing Clinton-era work requirements,' Rep. Nick Langworthy (R-N.Y.) said in a floor speech this week. 'One of the most popular things Bill Clinton achieved in his presidency, and he worked with Congress to get it done, was bringing commonsense work requirements to social welfare programs.' Work requirements — better understood as benefit limits for the unemployed — are the centerpiece of Medicaid and food benefit cuts Republicans are using to offset part of the cost of tax cuts at the heart of their so-called 'One Big Beautiful Bill.' Work requirements were the core of a 1996 welfare reform bill that Clinton signed into law. There is, however, little evidence work requirements actually encourage unemployed Medicaid or SNAP recipients to find jobs and lots of evidence they bombard aid recipients with paperwork, causing even some employed people to lose benefits when they can't keep up. Their return is one of several bitter pills Democrats are swallowing as the GOP advances a bill amounting to a massive redistribution of wealth from poor to rich. Just a few years ago, Democrats seemed to be escaping the 1990s politics of welfare, in which the government can help poor people only after a state-federal bureaucracy has vetted their deservingness. Now, they're watching Republicans repeatedly invoke a Democrat to justify health care coverage cuts which will result in millions of people losing health insurance and food benefits. 'I think work is really important in America and Democrats need to stand up for the value of work, and we should be encouraging work,' Robert Gordon, a former Clinton White House aide who is now a fellow at Georgetown University's McCourt School of Public Policy, told HuffPost. 'But taking away people's health care and food benefits is not the way to do it, and it's a completely different animal from what was debated 30 years ago.' Republicans originally wanted the Medicaid work requirements to start in 2029 as part of a package of changes saving nearly $700 billion over a decade. Hardliners demanded the start date be moved up to December 2026, a key concession that helped the bill pass on Thursday morning. Even though the work requirements will obviously cut federal spending, Republicans say they don't count as cuts, and therefore that they are fulfilling Trump's pledge not to touch Medicaid. Under their logic, people will make their own deliberate decisions to disenroll from Medicaid because they would simply rather not document 20 hours per week of 'community engagement.' The paperwork hassle and availability of suitable work aren't part of the equation. 'Bill Clinton proposed work requirements. This isn't like some crazy conservative idea,' Rep. Nick Lalota (R-N.Y.), a moderate who vocally opposed Medicaid cuts, told HuffPost on the Capitol steps last week. (All the moderates wound up voting for the bill except for another New York Republican, Rep. Andrew Garbarino, who missed the vote because he fell asleep.) 'We're restoring Medicaid for the people who rely on it, putting in requirements for people to work that can work,' Sen. Bernie Moreno (R-Ohio) told HuffPost after the bill passed the House. 'That's what the Democrats used to be, right? It's kind of sad that they're so extreme. They don't want people to work.' Moreno and Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) are MAGA populists insistent that the Big Beautiful Bill not cut Medicaid. Even for them, work requirements don't count as cuts. 'If you can work and you're not working, you should be working. We don't want to pay people not to work,' Hawley said. The law Clinton signed rebranded the old Aid to Families with Dependent Children program as Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, capping its federal costs, imposing time limits on benefits and encouraging states to shrink enrollment through a system of work requirements. Participation plummeted, and so did child poverty, prompting Clinton and others to declare the reforms a success. In later years, much of the employment gains among single mothers and poverty reduction have been attributed to the strong economy of the late 1990s. When the Great Recession came around, TANF enrollment stayed low, and scholars noted there had been a rise in cashless poverty among people who should have been eligible for assistance, but got none. Fewer than 1 million families receive TANF benefits today, making it one of the federal government's least helpful social programs. At a committee meeting this week, Rep. Austin Scott (R-Ga.) entered into the record an article describing the apparent early success of the Clinton welfare reforms. 'The welfare-to-work side under Bill Clinton was a success and we believe that this one will be as well,' Scott said. For a brief time, it seemed like welfare politics had changed. During the coronavirus pandemic, Republicans and Democrats agreed that everybody should get stimulus checks, regardless of whether they proved their deservingness through work. In 2021, Democrats seized the momentum and enacted a near-universal child benefit. For six months that year, most American parents received as much as $300 per child. Child poverty fell as the U.S. joined peer nations in recognizing the economic disadvantages facing parents. Democrats failed to make the policy permanent, however, after Sen. Joe Manchin ( refused to vote for it because he feared voters would see the money going to crackheads, i.e., the undeserving poor. One irony of the Bill Clinton name-dropping is that while Republicans may like him as a mascot for work requirements, when it comes to the federal budget, they're not following Clinton's example. In the late 1990s, a strong economy, combined with restrained spending and a higher top marginal tax rate, converted federal budget deficits into annual surpluses. Even with its $1 trillion in cuts to Medicaid and nutrition assistance, Republicans' Big Beautiful Bill would add an extra $2 trillion to the national debt over the next decade. In a speech on Thursday before the bill passed, House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) called out the Clinton surplus and widening deficits under Republican presidents. 'My colleagues have the nerve to talk about fiscal responsibility,' he said. Gordon, the former White House aide from the Clinton administration, noted that the welfare reform law sought to boost workforce participation by providing flexible funds states could use to offer child care, transportation assistance and subsidized jobs. He also pointed out that the welfare reform law sought to mitigate the supposed evil of cash assistance – not in-kind benefits like health care. 'We're not talking about people saying, 'Oh, I'm not going to earn cash because I am getting it already.' Instead, it's, 'I'm not going to earn cash because I have health insurance.' It's a much weaker theory of the case, and there's a lot of evidence it is wrong.' Gordon said. Clinton, for his part, vetoed two welfare reform bills sent to his desk by a Republican Congress that he considered overly harsh on Medicaid and food stamps, as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program used to be called. Later, the former president told the journalist Jason DeParle, 'I thought there ought to be a national guarantee of health care and nutrition.'
CNA
23-05-2025
- Business
- CNA
Dollar under pressure and all eyes on Treasuries as US fiscal anxiety rises
LONDON/SYDNEY :The dollar headed for its first weekly fall in five weeks against major currencies on Friday and long-dated Treasury yields stayed elevated, as U.S. debt concerns that have mounted for years started driving moves in currencies and global debt. Investor attention has switched from tariff anxiety to U.S. fiscal concerns in a week where Moody's downgraded the U.S. credit rating and the Republican-controlled House of Representatives on Thursday passed a sweeping tax and spending bill. Futures contracts tracking Wall Street's benchmark S&P 500 share index were steady in European morning trade as investors balanced the tax-cut boost to corporate earnings with longer-term concerns about the U.S. economy. "It's good for corporates initially, and clearly you're seeing the flip side of that in Treasury markets," Netwealth CIO Iain Barnes said. But with long-dated debt yields' tendency to impact valuations of other assets, from global currencies to stocks, he said investors were nervous that any further volatility in 30-year Treasuries could start rippling across global markets. "Multi-asset investors' primary concern is thinking about how these different asset classes respond to each other," he said, adding that he was keeping his own portfolios broadly diversified and neutral on market risk for now, in line with much of the investment industry. With the U.S debt pile already at $36 trillion, President Donald Trump's plans to slash taxes, cut federal budgets and boost military and border enforcement spending has sparked rollercoaster moves in the long-term debt yields that set the nation's borrowing costs. The 30-year Treasury yield was 4 basis points lower but held just above 5 per cent after hitting a 19-month high in the previous session. "There is certainly nothing in this market move or the passage of this version of the bill that tells me there is going to be meaningful reduction in U.S. bond issuance or this broader concern about global bond supply," said Ken Crompton, senior interest rate strategist at the National Australia Bank. Yields on 30-year Japanese bonds, which hit record highs earlier in the week as selling driven by domestic fiscal and inflation concerns was exacerbated by moves in U.S. debt, recovered slightly, declining by 5 bps to around 3.10 per cent. Data on Friday showed Japan's core consumer price inflation climbed 3.5 per cent in April in its steepest annual increase for more than two years, raising pressure on the Bank of Japan to keep hiking interest rates. In the euro area, German Bund yields dipped on but stayed on track for their fifth straight weekly rise, tracking U.S. Treasuries. The benchmark European debt has sold off despite money markets showing that traders anticipate the European Central Bank cutting its main deposit rate to about 1.75 per cent by year-end. DOLLAR DECLINE In currency markets, the euro firmed 0.5 per cent to $1.1335. An index tracking the U.S. currency against a basket of peers including the euro and Japan's yen, was 0.2 per cent lower and down 1.3 per cent on the week in its first weekly drop since late April. Despite the euro's gain, which tends to knock exporters' shares, Europe's Stoxx 600 share index gained 0.3 per cent in early dealings and Germany's Xetra Dax added 0.4 per cent, as traders stayed cautious towards U.S. assets. Japan's Nikkei also gained 0.5 per cent on Friday, with MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan rising by the same amount. Bitcoin prices dipped from its record high but it was still set for a weekly gain of 6.4 per cent to $110,796. Oil prices dropped for a fourth consecutive session and were set for their first weekly decline in three weeks, weighed down by renewed supply pressure from another possible OPEC+ output hike in July. Brent futures fell 0.85 per cent to $63.89 a barrel and U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude futures fell 0.9 per cent to $60.65. In precious metals, gold prices rose just over 1 per cent to $3,321 an ounce.
Daily Mail
10-05-2025
- Business
- Daily Mail
EXCLUSIVE The issue that could tear Trump's base apart... and why the president hasn't made up his mind
Republicans are viciously fighting over how dramatically they should cut Medicaid in Donald Trump 's 'big, beautiful bill' as they are trying to provide the tax cuts the president promised. The massive measure, which is expected to cost trillions of dollars, is expected to renew Trump's 2017 tax cuts, cut taxes on tips, overtime and Social Security. 'In the coming weeks and months, we will pass the largest tax cuts in American history - and that will include no tax on tips, no tax on Social Security, and no tax on overtime. It's called the one big beautiful bill,' Trump promised at a rally in April. Republicans in Congress are now deliberating over how to make good on that promise, and they must find $1.5 trillion in spending cuts to offset the income lost due to the tax cuts. However, negotiations over just how much to cut and where are proving tricky as Medicaid is popular in many GOP-controlled districts, potentially exposing the lawmakers to challenges in the midterms next year. Attacking the government health program that provides healthcare for close to 80 million Americans, about 25 percent of the U.S. population, including children, the elderly and the sick, has been an unpopular position for any lawmakers. Understanding that slashing a program that provides practically free healthcare is politically perilous for his party heading into the midterms, the president has remained opaque about what may happen. 'We want to preserve Medicaid for the most vulnerable, for our kids, our pregnant women, the poor and disabled,' he told a rally in Michigan last week. He also said in February that the program 'isn't going to be touched.' Donald Trump has waffled on Medicaid cuts as Congress wrangles with how much of the subsidized healthcare program they want to slash as they search for savings to make good on the president's promise of sweeping tax cuts The program costs about $880 billion annually, as each enrollee spends a median $7,000 to $9,000, according to Medicaid data. Republicans must find $880 billion in cuts over 10 years to finance the tax cuts this year. That $88 billion in savings annually will come, in part, from Medicaid reform, party leadership has said. And though some in the GOP see the program as a piggy bank to pull from, others are warning the situation is much more treacherous. Leaving Washington on Thursday after the last votes of the week, GOP lawmakers were perplexed on how to appropriately filet the program to every member's liking. 'There's a lot, there's 20 plus issues, I think, that are still major variables on whether any of this can come together,' Conservative House Freedom Caucus (HFC) member Chip Roy told reporters on Thursday. He and other conservatives are pushing to reform the program and whittle down how many individuals can enroll in the subsidized healthcare. Requiring Medicaid recipients to work to receive benefits and cutting the amount of federal dollars flowing to the program are on the table for the GOP. 'Work Requirements are important,' Roy told reporters. 'You shouldn't be having the people who should work, can work, getting benefits without working.' GOP members differ on how much Medicaid shut be slashed. Roy, a conservative House Freedom Caucus member is advocating for deep cuts while Bacon, who was elected in a district Kamala Harris won, has expressed doubts over major reform to the program 'You shouldn't have the ineligible getting benefits if they're, in fact, ineligible,' the Texas Republican continued, adding the reforms need to be 'transformative' to root out those 'gaming' the system. Though cuts are also majorly unpopular for some in the party, too. 'I'll hopefully get to talk to leadership about it a little later,' House Energy and Commerce Committee Chair Brett Guthrie, R-Ky., told reporters on Wednesday after a private meeting with Democrats on what portions of Medicaid to cut. 'So we'll see.' Centrist Republican Rep. Don Bacon, R-Neb., said after the meeting that if Republicans vote on a bill that reforms federal financing of state Medicaid programs, they might not succeed. 'I don't think these measures will pass the House, let alone the Senate,' he said about the current proposal. Democrats see the GOP's Medicaid cuts as risky too. 'You see the fight playing out right there because people understand Medicaid is extremely popular,' progressive caucus leader Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., told reporters on Thursday. She noted how the program 'covers nursing home care, covers births, including a significant portion of births in Mike Johnson's home state of Louisiana.' Speaker Mike Johnson has said repeatedly that Medicaid reform is a critical component of the 'big, beautiful bill,' though the question of how much is seemingly dividing his narrow majority. Whenever Johnson and Republicans finalize their work on the trillion dollar legislative package they will only be able to lose a handful of votes to advance the bill to the Senate. Currently, the GOP majority is 220 - 213, which means they can only lose three votes and still have Trump's agenda pass. 'As far as Medicaid goes, when you have six out of 10 individuals on Medicaid, able bodied and not working, there's got to be some reforms,' HFAC member Rep. Andy Ogles, R-Tenn., told the Daily Mail. 'It's intended for, you know, at risk children, single moms, the at risk population. So get your butt to work and contribute to the process.' When asked about the appetite for major cuts with narrow margins in the House, Ogles admitted he would personally want to make even deeper cuts to Medicaid. 'But obviously we've got a slim majority,' he added.
Fox News
09-05-2025
- Politics
- Fox News
Fox News Politics Newsletter: Dem in Trump District Deletes Past Praise of Progs
Welcome to the Fox News Politics newsletter, with the latest updates on the Trump administration, Capitol Hill and more Fox News politics content. Here's what's happening… -Veteran advocacy leader defends Trump's shake-ups at VA, calls for reform to support veterans -Trump pushes tax hikes for wealthy as 'big, beautiful bill' deadline looms -Former Supreme Court Justice David Souter dead at 85 FIRST ON FOX: A Democrat running for Congress in New Jersey who has been positioning herself as a moderate to unseat the sitting Republican in a pro-Trump district, has deleted several social media posts promoting progressive candidates and causes. Democrat Rebecca Bennett, who is running in the Democratic primary to unseat GOP Rep. Thomas Kean Jr. in New Jersey's 7th Congressional District, is a Navy veteran and current member of the Air National Guard who has been labeled by local media as a "moderate" in a race the Cook Political Report ranks as "Lean Republican." A Fox News Digital review of Bennett's X account, which was created in July 2011 and recently converted from @BigRedBecks to @RebeccaForNJ07, shows several deleted posts that seemingly drift away from the "moderate" label, including praise of progressive Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren…READ MORE 'I DON'T KNOW HER': Trump claims 'I don't know her' and 'listened to' RFK about surgeon general pick who's getting MAGA pushback WORKHORSES: Rubio just got an additional job in Trump's administration — and he's not the only one with multiple hats 'WITCH TRIAL': Letitia James town hall derailed by Trump supporter's question: 'Will you apologize?' NOT EVERYONE'S PLEASED: Inclusive tone of new pope isn't sitting well with some in the America First movement 'SUPER-HAPPY DAY': Pope Leo XIV, a Villanova grad, introduces himself adorned in symbolism, proverbial religious devotion HOLY HOMILY: Pope Leo gives first homily as American pontiff, says loss in faith has led to crisis in humanity MILITARY MIGHT: Russia's Putin hosts China's Xi at massive Moscow military parade on Red Square NOT OUR FIGHT: Vance says India-Pakistan conflict 'none of our business' as Trump offers US help 'NORMALIZING HOODIES': OpenAI's Sam Altman thanks Sen John Fetterman for 'normalizing hoodies' 'A DISGRACE': Dems erupt after Trump fires the Librarian of Congress 'WARNING': $8 gas? New study reveals it may come to a blue state next year, triggering bipartisan concern CALIFORNIA DREAMIN': Newsom debuts rapid-response website as critics accuse him of prioritizing presidential ambitions 'OUTRAGEOUS': Columbia suspends anti-Israel agitators after takeover, spreading of pamphlets glorifying alleged terrorist 'VERY PLEASANT CONVERSATION': Blue state governor touts meeting with CCP official cozying up to Dems: 'Grateful for the opportunity' 'AUTHORITARIAN ETHOS': Columbia faculty rights group condemns university's handling of library takeover ZERO TOLERANCE: Republican DA bucks blue state's 'broken sentencing' with tough-on-crime approach Get the latest updates on the Trump administration and Congress, exclusive interviews and more on
