Remember when the president promised that no one was touching Social Security? Of course, that was when he was counting on the votes of conservative seniors. Now that he’s in office, will he go along with the $2 trillion in cuts to mandatory spending that is in the GOP’s budget resolution? That’s a silly question. The president is getting just what he wanted.
Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid make up about 75% of mandatory spending. Contrary to beliefs of the ill-informed, Social Security isn’t a giveaway; it’s a financial insurance policy that workers pay into. Medicare isn’t free. Seniors pay premiums.
Providing Medicaid is not only the right thing to do, it also saves lives and money. When the previously uninsured get access to preventive care, they can avoid the high costs of treating a full-blown disease, costs that often fall on healthcare providers. Medicaid seems to be the most likely to get chopped.
The cuts to IRS will also affect those in the bottom tax brackets. They’ve removed the tool that lets people file their taxes online without a filing fee. A word of advice: don’t buy anything on credit, expecting a timely tax refund this year. Remember how long it took to get service at the understaffed IRS? Well, it’s back.
According to food and agriculture journalist Grace Yarrow, the House Agriculture Committee is planning cuts to supplemental nutrition programs. This, on top of tariffs that can have a negative effect on our farmers, doesn’t seem like a smart move. Neither does cutting funding that provides all children with access to an education.
