House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) stated on Sunday that protecting Medicare, Social Security, and Medicaid is a &#8220;top priority&#8221; for the White House and congressional Republicans.
In an interview on Fox News&#8217; &#8220;Sunday Morning Futures&#8221; with host Maria Bartiromo, Johnson discussed the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/hold-trump-scores-big-beautiful-victory-house-budget-vote" target="_blank" rel="noopener">recently-passed</a> budget reconciliation framework, which sets the stage for President Donald Trump&#8217;s proposed comprehensive bill to advance his domestic priorities.
&#8220;Well, here&#8217;s the key to all of it. The president has made absolutely clear many times, as we have as well, that we&#8217;re going to protect Medicare, Social Security, and Medicaid for people who are legally beneficiaries of those programs,&#8221; Johnson replied. &#8220;There are a lot of Americans who rely upon those programs, and we have got to ensure that they&#8217;re safeguarded. That&#8217;s a big priority of the White House and the Republicans in Congress.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Today, exclusively on <a href="https://twitter.com/SundayFutures?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@SundayFutures</a> with <a href="https://twitter.com/MariaBartiromo?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@MariaBartiromo</a>, House Speaker Mike Johnson <a href="https://twitter.com/SpeakerJohnson?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@SpeakerJohnson</a> spoke about Congress advancing a blueprint of President Trump&#39;s agenda.<a href="https://twitter.com/FoxNews?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@FoxNews</a> <a href="https://t.co/WbvVwgZwnz">pic.twitter.com/WbvVwgZwnz</a>
&mdash; SundayMorningFutures (@SundayFutures) <a href="https://twitter.com/SundayFutures/status/1911442736827297914?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 13, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
He continued: &#8220;At the same time, we have to root out fraud, waste, and abuse. We have to eliminate people on — for example, on Medicaid, who are not actually eligible to be there, able-bodied workers, for example, young men who are — who should never be on the program at all.&#8221;
Johnson was responding to Bartiromo asking the question: &#8220;So knowing that 76% of the spending goes toward mandatory spending, Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, where are the offsets?&#8221;
Democrats have <a href="https://www.democrats.senate.gov/news/press-releases/leader-schumer-floor-remarks-on-republican-attacks-on-social-security-and-elon-musks-call-to-eliminate-entitlement-programs" target="_blank" rel="noopener">warned</a> that Republicans, led by Trump and influenced by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) effort overseen by Elon Musk, are working to dismantle the various programs in a move that would harm millions of seniors, people with disabilities, and other Americans who are reliant on the benefits they offer.
Johnson argued that preserving resources for those who truly need them — such as young single mothers, people with disabilities, and the elderly on Medicaid — requires preventing others from &#8220;draining&#8221; these programs.
&#8220;We have got to protect and preserve that program,&#8221; Johnson said. &#8220;So we&#8217;re going to preserve the integrity of it in this process. We have lots of categories of areas where the government is too large, it does too many things. And the DOGE efforts and others have highlighted that for the American people.&#8221;

Speaker of the House Mike Johnson

Speaker Johnson Outlines Plan To Secure Benefits, ‘Root Out’ Fraud And Waste

Congress

Medicaid

Medicare

Mike Johnson

Social Security

U.S.

U.S. House of Representatives

President Trump is keeping his promises, moving fast and making changes in historic and amazing ways.
On Tuesday, the President of the United States, via his Office of Management and Budget (OMB), put forward a proposal that would temporarily pause $3 trillion in spending from the federal government.
The pause is temporary; much of that spending will go forward.
But the idea is to review all non-mandatory federal government spending. There&#8217;s a lot of mandatory spending in the federal budget that includes Medicare, Social Security, and many aspects of Medicaid. That will all continue, as will various payments to law enforcement, bodies, and defense.
What the order is meant to do is allow a pause for the various branches of the federal government, which are under the control of President Trump, to review spending and ensure all expenses are in accordance with the president&#8217;s wishes and with the wishes of Congress.
So, of course, the Left freaked out, claiming that President Trump is doing something deeply unconstitutional and fascistic.
But here’s the point: You do not get to expand and centralize power of the executive branch for over a century and control every aspect of Americans’ lives, as the Left has done, and then, when your political opponent takes over and uses that power in order to cut back the amount of power the executive branch would be exerting in Americans lives, get to claim that he is a dictator.
You don&#8217;t get to do that. You break it; you bought it. You built this thing, so you can&#8217;t be shocked when the person who takes over decides he&#8217;s going to use the instruments that you created to downgrade the amount of impact that those instruments have on Americans’ everyday lives.
<h3><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/bss-ep-2127-member-exclusive" target="_blank" rel="noopener">WATCH: The Ben Shapiro Show</a></h3>
On Tuesday, the executive office of the President, the Office of Management and Budget, put out a memo. It <a href="https://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/25506186/m-25-13-temporary-pause-to-review-agency-grant-loan-and-other-financial-assistance-programs.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">stated</a>: 
<blockquote>The American people elected Donald J. Trump to be President of the United States and gave him a mandate to increase the impact of every federal taxpayer dollar. In Fiscal Year 2024, of the nearly $10 trillion that the Federal Government spent, more than $3 trillion was Federal financial assistance, such as grants and loans. Career and political appointees in the Executive Branch have a duty to align Federal spending and action with the will of the American people as expressed through Presidential priorities. Financial assistance should be dedicated to advancing Administration priorities, focusing taxpayer dollars to advance a stronger and safer America, eliminating the financial burden of inflation for citizens, unleashing American energy and Marxist equity, transgenderism, and green new deal social engineering policies is a waste of taxpayer dollars that does not improve the day-to-day lives of those we serve.</blockquote>
In other words, “We got elected, and now we&#8217;re going to implement the priorities of the American people.”
This memorandum, according to the OMB, requires federal agencies to identify and review all federal financial assistance programs and supporting activities consistent with the president&#8217;s policies and requirements. By the way, this does not include assistance provided directly for individuals. Nothing in the memo itself should be construed to impact Medicare or Social Security benefits.
So, of course, the media, en masse, lied, suggesting that individual benefits from these mandatory social spending programs were going to be impacted by the OMB order.
That&#8217;s false. It&#8217;s a lie. And it&#8217;s being promoted by people who are lying to you. According to the OMB: 
<blockquote>To implement these orders, each agency must complete a comprehensive analysis of all of their Federal financial assistance programs to identify programs, projects, and activities that may be implicated by any of the President&#8217;s executive orders. In the interim, to the extent permissible under applicable law, Federal agencies must temporarily pause all activities related to obligation or disbursement of all Federal financial assistance, and other relevant agency activities that may be implicated by the executive orders, including, but not limited to, financial assistance for foreign aid, nongovernmental organizations, DEI, woke gender ideology, and the green new deal.</blockquote>
One of the great boondoggles in American public life is non-governmental organizations being paid grants by the federal government that are going to Left-wing social organizations on a nonprofit basis.
According to the memo, “No later than February 10, 2025, agencies shall submit to OMB detailed information on any programs, projects or activities subject to this pause. Each agency must pause: (i) issuance of new awards; (ii) disbursement of Federal funds under all open awards; and (iii) other relevant agency actions that may be implicated by the executive orders, to the extent permissible by law, until OMB has reviewed and provided guidance to your agency with respect to the information submitted. OMB may grant exceptions allowing Federal agencies to issue new awards or take other actions on a case-by-case basis.”
It is a lie that this is a blanket nuking of all federal spending.
It is a way of taking a harder look at the federal spending that has grown wildly out of control — spending in which your taxpayer dollars are being used to subsidize groups that, for example, sponsor illegal immigrants or go toward social engineering of the Left, such as transgenderism.
The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) and OMB found that $37 billion was about to go out the door to the World Health Organization, which is an organization that President Trump no longer wants the United States to be a part of. So that wouldn&#8217;t be in line with the president&#8217;s agenda. DOGE and OMB also found that $50 million taxpayer dollars would have gone out the door to fund condoms in Gaza, where Hamas makes them into helium balloons carrying inflammatory devices.
What we are also seeing is malicious compliance here from various people inside the so-called “Deep State,” attempts to humiliate the Trump administration. The Medicaid portal story, which was the biggest story yesterday in the mainstream media, was just silly. The portal was up and running again within hours. What likely happened is that somebody in the Medicaid system pretended they were complying with Trump, but shut down the website to attempt to create a humiliating fiasco for President Trump.
A federal judge, according to CNBC, has put a hold on Trump’s administration order. This will likely end up at the Supreme Court level, and that will determine presumably exactly how far empowerments can go.
It’s a fight worth fighting.

TOPSHOT-US-POLITICS-TRUMP

Trump Takes A Wrecking Ball To The Federal Government

Ben Shapiro

Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE)

Donald Trump

Federal Government

Leftists

Office of Management and Budget (OMB)

Opinion

President Trump

spending

The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has aims worthy of its mastermind, but plans for the government-slashing commission outlined so far have raised doubts about the project’s efficacy.
Elon Musk, the wealthiest man in the world, originally suggested <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/heres-how-elon-musks-department-of-government-efficiency-will-work" target="_blank" rel="noopener">DOGE</a> during a wide-ranging conversation with President-elect Donald Trump on an X space. With Trump to take office next month, he has tasked Musk alongside entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy with heading DOGE and crafting a report for ways to reduce government size and spending by July 4, 2026.
The DOGE will be set up as an outside adviser group working closely with the White House to identify inefficiency in the federal government and recommend fixes, primarily through cuts, repeals, and reorganization. Musk has set an ambitious goal: cutting federal spending by $2 trillion, roughly a quarter of the federal budget, in addition to major reductions in regulations.
The project has generated excitement among conservatives who have long called for drastic action on the expanding size of government. Some supporters of Musk and Ramaswamy’s goals for the project are nonetheless skeptical that their strategy will create meaningful and lasting savings or efficiency.
“I’ve spent two decades thinking and writing about the administrative state and how I think it presents an enormous constitutional problem,” Hillsdale College politics professor Joseph Postell told The Daily Wire. “The fact that Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy are talking about the things that I&#8217;ve been talking to my students about for 10 or 20 years, I&#8217;m thrilled about this.”
“I&#8217;m coming from a perspective of somebody who&#8217;s highly sympathetic to what they want to do, but who doesn&#8217;t want to see them waste their opportunity,” he added.
Musk and Ramaswamy in an op-ed in <a href="https://federalnewsnetwork.com/commentary/2023/05/opening-up-federal-contracting-jobs-for-more-americans/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Wall Street Journal</a> in November outlined DOGE’s approach.
“The two of us will advise DOGE at every step to pursue three major kinds of reform: regulatory rescissions, administrative reductions and cost savings. We will focus particularly on driving change through executive action based on existing legislation rather than by passing new laws,” they wrote.
But for their recommendations to turn into lasting realities, Congress must be involved, according to Postell. And working with Congress, DOGE has the opportunity to rewrite the most expansive laws passed by Congress that have effectively given bureaucrats wide-ranging authority to regulate Americans&#8217; lives.
“I think you need laws passed by Congress that restructure the administrative state and sort of revise the authorities granted to it,” Postell said. “First and foremost, it would be great to have an enormous reform of the Administrative Procedure Act where we very clearly state what agencies can do, what they can&#8217;t do, and how they have to go about doing what it is that they do.”
Postell cited reforming laws such as the Clean Water Act and Clean Air Act, as well. Reforming major legislation would limit its scope while, in effect, repealing massive swaths of regulations crafted under the prior laws.
As the project stands, however, Musk and Ramaswamy seem to prefer executive action rather than working with allies in Congress to battle against an expansive bureaucratic regime. Here’s a breakdown of the DOGE plan to reform the federal government:
<h3>Spending</h3>
Musk has said he can cut the annual federal budget by $2 trillion. Asked about the odds of DOGE being able to accomplish that, Postell placed the likelihood at “less than a percent.”
Part of the problem lies in what DOGE can realistically recommend cuts to. Major entitlements such as Medicaid and Social Security, which Trump has campaigned against cutting, make up 46% of the <a href="https://www.cato.org/blog/where-did-tax-dollars-go-federal-budget-breakdown">budget</a>. National defense, unlikely to be cut under Trump, is another 12%. Interest on the national debt is another 8%.
As the options for cuts begin to narrow down, Musk’s $2 trillion target looks increasingly over-optimistic. Musk and Ramaswamy could recommend <a href="https://www.usaspending.gov/explorer/agency#:~:text=You%20are%20viewing%20FY%202024,below%20to%20start%20your%20exploration.&amp;text=Department%20of%20Health%20and%20Human,0...&amp;text=Unreported%20Data*:%20Unreported%20amounts,how%20you%20use%20the%20data!" target="_blank" rel="noopener">gutting</a> the departments of Agriculture, Education, and Transportation and not account for half of the goal.
<h3><a href="https://get.dailywire.com/?_gl=1*12irifn*_gcl_au*MTk0MTMwNzY0LjE3MzUwNjczNzI.*_ga*MjExMDc1MjEyMy4xNzE5NDkwOTk4*_ga_CZKR9ZYKJP*MTczNTMwOTU5OC43NzMuMS4xNzM1MzA5NjI2LjMyLjAuMA.." target="_blank" rel="noopener">50% OFF ALL DAILY WIRE ANNUAL MEMBERSHIPS FOR A LIMITED TIME!</a></h3>
Outside of entitlements and the military, Trump’s administration could still make significant cuts, if not enough to meet Musk’s goal, according to Postell. But of the coalition that put Trump in the White House, only a small portion of that is dedicated to slashing spending, presenting DOGE with a problem of lack of political support for its mission.
“It actually kind of reflects a little bit more of the older Republican party, more of the Reagan side of the Republican party, which was really focused on shrinking government,” Postell said. “Part of what’s made Trump so successful is that he’s moved away from that concept – that kind of conservative, slashing government approach.”
<h3>Regulation</h3>
In its aim to cut regulation and free the American economy from onerous or duplicitous rules, Musk and Ramaswamy cited two Supreme Court rulings they say will provide the basis for their crusade against red tape: West Virginia v. Environmental Protection Agency decided in 2022 and Loper Bright v. Raimondo decided in 2024.
In the EPA case, the court decided the major questions doctrine, ruling that government bureaucrats cannot make regulations over “major” policy areas without explicit approval from Congress. In Raimondo, the court overturned the Chevron doctrine, meaning that courts no longer must defer to bureaucratic interpretations of Congressionally-approved laws and rules.
“Together, these cases suggest that a plethora of current federal regulations exceed the authority Congress has granted under the law,” Musk and Ramaswamy wrote in WSJ.
It’s doubtful whether those cases will work for DOGE the way Musk and Ramaswamy predict. As far as West Virginia may be concerned, it’s unclear how many regulations could be affected. 
“A lot of the existing rules really have already survived that kind of scrutiny,” Postell said. “So, I&#8217;m not sure how this authorizes a retroactive look back.”
Raimondo may actually cause more headaches for DOGE than Chevron would have. Under Chevron, the Trump administration could use the ruling to assert its own narrow interpretation of a law and roll back regulations. Under Raimondo, courts have authority to interpret laws anew.
“Now, there&#8217;s actually not going to be deference given to the Trump administration when, you know, Greenpeace or the NRDC inevitably sues the EPA over that,” Postell said. “In a strange way, the death of Chevron is going to be a problem for the Trump administration&#8217;s regulatory reform effort. It’s not a tool in their toolbox, it’s actually a tool that’s going to be used against them.”
<h3>Bureaucracy</h3>
Within the sprawling federal bureaucracy, there is undoubtedly much fat that can be cut while maintaining the government’s current level of function. Toward that end, Ramaswamy has suggested some policies that will likely provide substantial results, such as requiring all federal employees to work in office five days a week where appropriate. A recent survey <a href="https://federalnewsnetwork.com/commentary/2023/05/opening-up-federal-contracting-jobs-for-more-americans/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">found</a> that just 6% of bureaucrats currently hold that schedule.
That said, reductions in the federal workforce is arguably one of the least impactful of DOGE’s aims. Without the cuts to regulations and federal spending, reductions in the federal workforce would result in very little worthwhile change.
“A lot of people don&#8217;t really want governmental efficiency,” Postell said. “You know, tyranny is not easier to swallow simply because it’s efficient.”
While the extent of DOGE’s recommendations for cuts to the federal bureaucracy have yet to be seen, deep cuts could result in a different set of problems if government work is shifted from bureaucrats to private contractors.
Private contractors already make up the majority of the federal government’s workforce. According to one <a href="https://federalnewsnetwork.com/commentary/2023/05/opening-up-federal-contracting-jobs-for-more-americans/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">estimate</a>, the number of federal contractors nearly doubles the number of federal employees: 3.7 million contractors to 2 million employees. While a smaller federal footprint would generally be positive, if that reduction resulted in more duties turned over to private contractors, the benefits are more questionable, according to Postell.
“If it starts to move towards a more privatized government, you could have serious concerns that you&#8217;ve actually made a problem worse because that&#8217;s a less accountable government, maybe, even than one where you know which department and which employees are behind whatever is happening,” Postell said.

TOPSHOT-US-GOVERNMENT-POLITICS-MUSK

Breaking Down DOGE: What To Expect From Musk’s Grand Government Overhaul Project

Elon Musk

Hillsdale College

National Debt

Vivek Ramaswamy

President-elect <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/donald-trump" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Donald Trump</a> announced on Tuesday that he was nominating <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/dr-oz" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Dr. Mehmet Oz</a> to become his administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS).
Oz, a celebrity TV physician who <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/john-fetterman-defeats-dr-oz-in-pa-senate-race-projection" target="_blank" rel="noopener">lost</a> in Pennsylvania&#8217;s 2022 U.S. Senate race to Democrat John Fetterman, would oversee a federal agency that <a href="https://www.cms.gov/about-cms" target="_blank" rel="noopener">says</a> it provides health coverage to more than 160 million people through Medicare, Medicaid, the Children&#8217;s Health Insurance Program, and the Health Insurance Marketplace.
&#8220;I am very pleased to nominate Dr. Mehmet Oz to serve as the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Administrator,&#8221; Trump said in a statement. &#8220;America is facing a Healthcare Crisis, and there may be no Physician more qualified and capable than Dr. Oz to Make America Healthy Again.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
NEW: President Trump announces the nomination of <a href="https://twitter.com/DrOz?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@DrOz</a> to serve as the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator <a href="https://t.co/cXHKFW6K7M">pic.twitter.com/cXHKFW6K7M</a>
&mdash; Trump War Room (@TrumpWarRoom) <a href="https://twitter.com/TrumpWarRoom/status/1858979076327043440?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 19, 2024</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Trump said Oz is &#8220;an eminent Physician, Heart Surgeon, Inventor, and World-Class Communicator, who has been at the forefront of healthy living for decades.&#8221; Trump added that Oz would &#8220;work closely&#8221; with Robert F. Kennedy, his <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/trump-expected-to-nominate-robert-f-kennedy-jr-for-hhs" target="_blank" rel="noopener">selection</a> to lead the Health and Human Services Department, &#8220;to take on the illness industrial complex, and all the horrible chronic diseases left in its wake.&#8221;
Normally, a candidate for such a position would have to pass through a Senate confirmation process, but Trump has indicated that he wants to use <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/this-is-how-recess-appointments-work-and-how-they-could-help-trump-fill-his-cabinet" target="_blank" rel="noopener">recess appointments</a> to install his Cabinet members. It remains to be seen how the GOP-led Senate in the next session will handle Trump&#8217;s picks for top positions in his second administration.
<a href="https://www.amiracist.com/?_gl=1*jtghwp*_gcl_au*ODQ1NjYzNTg2LjE3Mjg5MDk3OTE.*_ga*MTc2NzM0NDQ2NS4xNzI4OTA5Nzkx*_ga_CZKR9ZYKJP*MTczMDEyMDgwOS40OS4xLjE3MzAxMjA4MzkuMzAuMC4w" target="_blank" rel="noopener">MATT WALSH’S ‘AM I RACIST?’ NOW STREAMING ON DAILYWIRE+</a>
Trump said he expects Oz to become a &#8220;leader in incentivizing Disease Prevention, so we get the best results in the World for every dollar we spend on Healthcare in our Great Country.&#8221; Trump also predicted Oz &#8220;will also cut waste and fraud within our Country’s most expensive Government Agency, which is a third of our Nation’s Healthcare spend, and a quarter of our entire National Budget.&#8221;
After mentioning details of Oz&#8217;s background, including his education and career accomplishments, Trump ended his nomination announcement with a personal touch: &#8220;I have known Dr. Oz for many years, and I am confident he will fight to ensure everyone in America receives the best possible Healthcare, so our Country can be Great and Healthy Again!&#8221;

Dr. Mehmet Oz

Dr. Oz Picked For Spot In Trump Admin

Dr. Oz

Executive

Health

Politics

Presidential nomination

Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

The Harris Campaign told <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/politics/harris-campaign-not-push-medicare-for-all-plan-despite-previous-support" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Fox News</a> on Tuesday that the Democratic presidential nominee will not push a Medicare-for-all plan despite campaigning on providing universal Medicare just five years ago.
A Harris campaign official told Fox News&#8217; Peter Doocy that the vice president, who campaigned on pushing Medicare-for-all in the 2020 Democratic primary, will not make the same promise on this campaign.
Harris told Doocy in 2019, &#8220;So, the bottom line and the most important is that everyone have access to health care. That is the goal. That is the purpose for me supporting the policy of ‘Medicare-for-all.'&#8221; On her 2020 presidential campaign website, Harris wrote, &#8220;&#8216;Medicare-for-all&#8217; will cover all medically necessary services, including emergency room visits, doctor visits, vision, dental, hearing aids, mental health, and substance-use disorder treatment, and comprehensive reproductive health care services. It will also allow the Secretary of Health and Human Services to negotiate for lower prescription drug prices.&#8221;
When Harris was still a senator representing California, she also <a href="https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/senate-bill/1129/cosponsors" target="_blank" rel="noopener">co-sponsored</a> Sen. Bernie Sanders&#8217; (I-VT) single-payer &#8220;Medicare for All Act of 2019,&#8221; arguing at the time, &#8220;It’s not just about what is morally and ethically right. It also makes sense from a fiscal standpoint.&#8221; Sanders&#8217;s single-payer plan would have made the government completely responsible for covering health care costs and <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/23/health/private-health-insurance-medicare-for-all-bernie-sanders.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">abolished</a> private insurance.
When CNN asked about private health insurance in January 2019, Harris <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/23/health/private-health-insurance-medicare-for-all-bernie-sanders.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a>, “Let’s eliminate all that. Let’s move on.”
Trump campaign Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt blasted Harris on Wednesday, <a href="https://x.com/kleavittnh/status/1823699993540133351" target="_blank" rel="noopener">writing</a>, &#8220;Kamala Harris’ spokespeople are once again alleging she has flip flopped on her positions — this time saying she no longer supports socialist Medicare for All. Kamala needs to stop insulting the intelligence of voters and speak for herself to explain why she is running from every liberal policy she has ever supported.&#8221;
<a href="http://www.amiracist.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=http://www.amiracist.com/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1723312978172000&amp;usg=AOvVaw1Kuw7_CFpxtIaxl4Gay5PU">WATCH THE TRAILER FOR ‘AM I RACIST?’ — A MATT WALSH COMEDY ON DEI</a>
Harris&#8217;s Medicare flip-flop isn&#8217;t the only issue the vice president has been criticized for backtracking on after becoming the Democrats&#8217; nominee. While running for president in 2020, she said entering the U.S. without proper documentation should not be a criminal offense. The Harris campaign now says that her position is “the same as the administration’s — unauthorized border crossings are illegal,” POLITICO <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2024/08/09/harris-promises-to-go-tough-on-border-security-00173485#:~:text=Harris'%20remarks%20Friday%20were%20similar,on%20fentanyl%20and%20human%20trafficking." target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a>.
Many of Harris&#8217;s policy positions have been impossible to nail down since she has not sat down for a major interview or held a press conference since becoming the nominee, and her campaign website has yet to publish a policy platform. The vice president said last week that she is hoping to get an interview on her schedule &#8220;before the end of the month.&#8221; Harris is set to debate Republican nominee Donald Trump for the first time on September 10 on ABC.
RELATED: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/walz-of-shame-ben-shapiro-exposes-kamalas-vp-pick-in-latest-episode-of-scamala-series">&#8216;Walz Of Shame&#8217;: Ben Shapiro Exposes Kamala&#8217;s VP Pick In Latest Episode Of &#8216;Scamala&#8217; Series</a>

Kamala Harris

Kamala’s Campaign Says She Will Not Push Medicare-For-All. She Fully Supported It 5 Years Ago.

Harris Campaign Says She Will Not Push Medicare-For-All. She Fully Supported It 5 Years Ago.

2024 Election

Biden Administration

Elections

Medicare for All

According to an exclusive report from <a href="https://www.wsj.com/health/healthcare/medicare-health-insurance-diagnosis-payments-b4d99a5d?mod=hp_lista_pos1">The Wall Street Journal</a>, an analysis of billions of Medicare records showed private insurers connected to the federal government’s $450 billion-a-year Medicare Advantage program issued “hundreds of thousands of questionable diagnoses that triggered extra taxpayer-funded payments from 2018 to 2021.”
The Journal noted that the program currently covers more than half of the 67 million seniors and disabled people on Medicare. It explained that insurers can add their own diagnoses in addition to the ones doctors submit for their patients.
“Medicare gave insurers that option so they could catch conditions that doctors neglected to record,” the Journal stated, adding, “The Journal’s analysis, however, found many diagnoses were added for which patients received no treatment, or that contradicted their doctors’ views. The insurers make new diagnoses after reviewing medical charts, sometimes using artificial intelligence, and sending nurses to visit patients in their homes.”
“They pay doctors for access to patient records, and reward patients who agree to home visits with gift cards and other financial benefits,” the Journal asserted.
Between 2018 and 2021, Medicare compensated insurers roughly $50 billion for diagnoses the insurers had added.
“The government paid all Medicare Advantage insurers more than $700 million from 2019 to 2021 for diabetic cataracts. Most of the diagnoses were added by insurers,” the Journal reported. Over 66,000 Medicare Advantage patients were diagnosed with diabetic cataracts despite the fact they had previously received cataract surgery.
“It’s anatomically impossible,” Dr. Hogan Knox, an eye specialist at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, told the Journal. “Once a lens is removed, the cataract never comes back.”
UnitedHealth spokesman Matthew Wiggin responded to the Journal’s report by saying its analysis was “inaccurate and biased.” He stated that Medicare Advantage “provides better health outcomes and more affordable healthcare for millions of seniors” than traditional Medicare. A spokesman for Humana echoed that the Journal’s analysis of treatment rates “is flawed and misleading.”
However, the Journal claimed that more than a dozen experts said the news outlet&#8217;s methodology was accurate.

Medicare part C insurance papers with clipboard and pen.

Private Insurers Made $50 Billion From Medicare For Illnesses Untreated By Doctors: Report

Health Insurance

Wall Street Journal

There is no such thing as a free lunch, but there are a lot of people out there who believe there is such a thing as free medicine. The case they make is that Big Pharma in the United States makes a lot of money.
It is true that there are a lot of problems with Big Pharma; there are drugs that are marketed as though they are amazing for people but aren’t, the most obvious example being OxyContin. But it is also true that every single drug you take was developed by Big Pharma. Every single medicine you take was developed by Big Pharma. Big Pharma is responsible for OxyContin — but they&#8217;re also responsible for Advil.
Big Pharma is responsible for the MMR vaccine that you didn&#8217;t want to take — but Big Pharma is also responsible for all of the chemotherapy medications that your mother may be taking. And the medical advances in the United States have led to a tremendous expansion of life expectancy in the United States; the five-year cancer survival rate in the United States is much higher than anywhere else on Earth, because we have better medicines than anywhere else on Earth.
We develop a huge number of medical patents right here in the United States. The reason for that is because when it comes to drug pricing, the United States is possibly the last country on Earth that actively allows patients and doctors to buy drugs at the price that Pharma is selling them, rather than the government cramming down particular pricing. This has been a bugaboo for a lot of politicians because they look at Canada, Germany, Europe, or any place else on Earth and say, “Well, they&#8217;re buying those American drugs for far less than we are paying for those American drugs.”
Yesterday, the U.S. government named 10 drugs that will be subject to the first-ever price negotiations by Medicare, taking aim at some of the most widely used and costly medicines in the country. The 10 drugs include many drugs fighting diabetes, an arthritis drug from Amgen called Enbrel, and the psoriasis drug from Johnson and Johnson.
Joe Biden is very excited about all of this. He says we pay much more for prescription drugs than any other economy in the world. That’s true, but — the reason that&#8217;s true is because the United States has allowed a bunch of other countries to free ride off the prices that Americans are paying.
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So what exactly would be the downstream effects of the feds getting involved in drug pricing? According to the Wall Street Journal, lower prices. Medicare would save an estimated $25 billion a year by 2031. The savings would mostly go to Medicare because it pays the bulk of the cost of the drugs. The reductions wouldn&#8217;t directly affect the price patients pay at the pharmacy counter. But the price cuts would have an indirect impact on people’s spending. Medicare plans to use the savings to put a $2,000 annual cap on how much members have to pay out of pocket for drugs starting in 2025.
This sounds like an unalloyed good, right? Everything is great. It&#8217;s awesome.
There&#8217;s only one problem: Medical innovation in the United States is about to crater. And when the government can cram down pricing in any particular area and remove the profit margin from the actual pricing mechanism, that means people are not going to invest the kinds of money necessary in order to create the drugs in the first place. This is similar to the way that rent control decreases the number of people building and constructing. Why would you build a new apartment knowing there&#8217;s no profit in it? The investment in the biotech sphere is going to utterly dry up if the government, via Medicare, continues to force policies like this one.
Here is the thing that people are not seeing: The amount of money that is put into Research and Development on developing and producing drugs is insane. The amount of money that is sunk into biotech to develop a working drug is totally crazy. If you remove the profit margin from these companies, there will just be less investment in this sphere. Drugs that would have been produced just will not be produced.
When the government simply names prices for drugs and then the price magically comes down, the prices on those drugs will indeed come down, but what you won’t see is the drugs that will never be developed.
In 2019 alone, the pharmaceutical industry spent $83 billion on research and development, according to one 2020 study, which covered 632 new therapeutic drugs and biologic agents approved by the FDA. The estimated median capitalized research and development cost per product was $985 million, counting expenditures on failed trials, which should count because the vast majority of drugs that are originally developed never make it to market. Somewhere between 85% and 90% of all drugs that enter phase one testing never make it through the FDA approval process. But they still cost a fortune.
That means, for every drug that actually hits the market — and it&#8217;s not that many drugs every year, maybe a dozen — it&#8217;s costing roughly $1 billion by some estimates, while others estimate the cost to be between $1.3. and $2.4 billion a year to develop each one of those drugs.
Why would the pharma companies spend billions creating a drug or risk hundreds of millions of dollars on drugs that aren&#8217;t ever going to make it out of phase three? The reason is that on the other end, there has to be some sort of way to earn back that money. What exactly would happen if Medicare gets away with cramming down this pricing structure? Drug development would plummet.
There&#8217;s another solution: Aggressively make other countries pay their fair share when it comes to American medication.
We could use every lever at our disposal in order to do that. This is where a trade war would be useful. Say to Canada or to the National Health Service, “You guys are going to pay American companies what we pay here in the United States.” America is subsidizing the rest of the world when it comes to drug creation. But the solution to that is not the American government cramming down a pricing mechanism on Big Pharma companies, drug companies, and medicine companies.  
When you do that, you get rid of all the innovation.
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Ben Shapiro Editorial Series 11 copy

Don’t Let The Feds Control Drug Pricing. That New Drug You Need Might Not Get Developed.

Big Pharma

Medical

Medical Research

Readers Pass

This week, the Biden administration announced that Medicare would name some 10 prescription drugs it would subject to direct price negotiations. The drugs include Jardiance (diabetes), Entresto (heart failure), Imbruvica (blood cancer), and Stelara (psoriasis). If the companies that created the drugs refuse to kowtow to Medicare, they will be forced to withdraw from Medicare and Medicaid coverage or face a 95% excise tax.
The White House celebrated the decision as a win for taxpayers: after all, they pointed out, the 10 selected drugs were responsible for one-fifth of all Medicare Part D prescription costs between June 1, 2022, and May 31, 2023. “There is no reason,” Biden said in a statement, “why Americans should be forced to pay more than any developed nation for life-saving prescriptions just to pad Big Pharma’s pockets.”
Of course, that’s not what’s really happening.
First off, drug development is unbelievably expensive. In 2019 alone, the pharmaceutical industry spent $83 billion on R&amp;D. According to a 2020 study, which covered some 632 new therapeutic drugs and biologic agents approved by the FDA, the “estimated median capitalized research and development cost per product was $985 million, counting expenditures on failed trials.” The average cost was $1.3 billion (some drugs are much more expensive to develop than others). According to the National Institutes of Health, the success rate of drug development is just 10 to 15%.
Americans bear the brunt of this cost – largely because other countries get a free ride. But Americans also capture the industry upside of drug development in the United States. This is why, according to one 2010 study, the United States accounted for “42 percent of prescription drug spending and 40% of the total GDP among innovator countries and was responsible for the development of 43.7 percent of the [new molecular entities].” According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the pharmaceutical and medicine manufacturing industry is responsible for some 332,000 jobs. 
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So, what would the new regulations do? If they are implemented, according to National Review’s Jeff Zymeri, drug development will drop off: “The CBO has predicted that the scheme provided for under the IRA would lead to a manufacturer-revenue loss of 15 percent. Such a cut in CBO’s predicted 45 new drugs per year would suggest around 6.8 fewer drugs per year, totaling around 121 lost over the 18-year horizon, as one report estimated.” The drugs most likely to disappear would be drugs that target rare conditions, and thus have less of a market. 
As an investor in biotech stock, I can say with confidence that investment will shift out of the sector and into other, freer sectors should the Biden administration move to quash profit margins in the sector. Why would investors sink money into a drug, only to find out that the more successful it is, the less profit there will be in it? 
There is another solution: force other countries to pay their fair share. This would ensure that Americans pay similar prices to those around the world, while also creating incentive for innovation. But that would require politicians to abandon their happy talk and deal in the real world. And that’s not something politicians are likely to do.
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Ben Shapiro 10 (1)

The Law Of Unintended Consequences Can’t Be Repealed

The Law Of Unintended Consequences Can't Be Repealed

Joe Biden

President Joe Biden&#8217;s administration <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/politics/feds-threat-catholic-hospital-funding-chapel-candle-could-ignite-legal-firestorm-attorneys-say" target="_blank" rel="noopener">could pull federal funding</a> from a Catholic hospital in Oklahoma — unless the hospital agrees to snuff out a chapel candle known as the &#8220;Eternal Flame.&#8221;
According to a <a href="https://becketnewsite.s3.amazonaws.com/20230502211111/CMS-Response-St.-Francis-Health-System-4-20-23.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">letter</a> sent to Saint Francis Hospital South, a lone candle that represents the presence of the body of Christ in the Eucharist has been deemed a safety hazard — despite being displayed enclosed in a glass candle holder with a brass top and located in close proximity to fire sprinklers.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/BREAKING?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#BREAKING</a>: The federal government told an Oklahoma Catholic hospital to either blow out a sanctuary candle or stop serving elderly, disabled, and low-income patients. <a href="https://twitter.com/BECKETlaw?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@BECKETlaw</a> sent a letter to <a href="https://twitter.com/HHSGov?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@HHSGov</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/CMSGov?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@CMSGov</a>, reminding them of Saint Francis’ right to religious freedom.… <a href="https://t.co/nfNf4UJyUx">pic.twitter.com/nfNf4UJyUx</a>
&mdash; LoriWindham (@LoriWindham1) <a href="https://twitter.com/LoriWindham1/status/1653758052078874624?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 3, 2023</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
That <a href="https://becketnewsite.s3.amazonaws.com/20230502211111/CMS-Response-St.-Francis-Health-System-4-20-23.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">letter</a>, sent by a hospital accreditation agency known as the Joint Commission, said that failure to snuff out that candle — which has remained in place for 15 years at that particular hospital without any issues — could result in the hospital losing its accreditation. Because Joint Commission accreditation is often tied to federal funding, this could also result in the Saint Francis Health System — the nation&#8217;s 12th largest hospital — losing its ability to receive federal funding through programs like Medicare, Medicaid, or the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP).
The Joint Commission has denied four waiver requests regarding the candle, prompting the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty and the law firm Yetter Coleman LLP to take action on the hospital&#8217;s behalf.
In a <a href="https://becketnewsite.s3.amazonaws.com/20230502214615/St-Francis-Pre-litigation-Letter.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">letter</a> dated May 2 and sent to both the Joint Commission and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services — along with Oklahoma&#8217;s two Senators — the Becket Fund threatened a lawsuit unless the candle was left alone.
&#8220;In requiring Saint Francis to extinguish its flame, you are trying to extinguish not just a candle, but the First Amendment rights of Saint Francis Health System, as well as vital healthcare for the elderly, poor, and disabled in Oklahoma,&#8221; the letter stated in part.
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&#8220;We are writing to ask you to cease and desist before we file an emergency lawsuit naming you as defendants and seeking emergency relief and substantial damages,&#8221; the letter continued. &#8220;If we go to court, you will lose. I write in the hope that you will see reason (or at least the law) and we can skip to the easy part.&#8221;

Red Sanctuary Lamp or Eternal Flame at the Tabernacle in Catholic church

Biden Admin Could Yank Federal Aid Over Catholic Hospital’s Candle

Biden Admin Could Yank Federal Aid Over Catholic Hospital's Candle

Catholic Church

Prayer

Some individuals can expect a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/medicare" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Medicare</a> tax increase under the new <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/budget" target="_blank" rel="noopener">budget</a> proposal scheduled to be unveiled this week by the <a href="http://dailywire.com/topic/biden-administration" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Biden administration</a>.
Medicare, a federal health insurance program intended for senior citizens, is partially <a href="https://www.irs.gov/individuals/net-investment-income-tax" target="_blank" rel="noopener">funded</a> by a 3.8% tax on investment income for individuals earning more than $125,000 or married couples filing jointly and earning more than $250,000. The White House contended in a Tuesday <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2023/03/07/fact-sheet-the-presidents-budget-extending-medicare-solvency-by-25-years-or-more-strengthening-medicare-and-lowering-health-care-costs/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">statement</a> that “modestly increasing” the tax rate to 5% for those earning more than $400,000 would extend the solvency of the Medicare Hospital Insurance Trust Fund by at least 25 years.
“Since Medicare was passed, income and wealth inequality in the United States have increased dramatically,” the statement said. “By asking those with the highest incomes to contribute modestly more, we can keep the Medicare program strong for decades to come.”
The White House additionally vowed to close loopholes in the Medicare tax system because “some high-paid professionals and other wealthy business owners have managed to shield some of their income from tax by claiming it is neither earned income nor investment income.” The Medicare Hospital Insurance Trust Fund is expected to deplete in 2028, according to a <a href="https://www.cms.gov/files/document/2022-medicare-trustees-report.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">report</a> issued last summer by trustees for the program.
The announcement comes as Republicans and Democrats discuss mechanisms to reduce the budget deficit and mitigate increases to the national debt, which now surpasses $31.5 trillion. President Joe Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) are <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/congressional-budget-office-reveals-when-government-will-run-out-of-cash" target="_blank" rel="noopener">negotiating</a> to decrease spending after the debt ceiling, an arbitrary cap on the national debt established by Congress, exceeded the statutory limit of nearly $31.4 trillion earlier this year.
Each official has said that they will not consider reforms to Social Security and Medicare, raising <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/sparing-the-sacred-cow-republicans-and-democrats-refuse-to-touch-social-security-as-debt-crisis-looms" target="_blank" rel="noopener">questions</a> as to whether meaningful spending cuts will be possible since the two programs constituted 46% of the federal budget during the last fiscal year, according to <a href="https://fiscaldata.treasury.gov/americas-finance-guide/federal-spending/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">data</a> from the Treasury Department. Biden administration officials have asserted that Republicans are seeking to reduce benefits from Social Security and Medicare despite repeated statements from McCarthy and other lawmakers to the contrary.
Biden <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/speeches-remarks/2023/02/07/remarks-of-president-joe-biden-state-of-the-union-address-as-prepared-for-delivery/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">vowed</a> during his State of the Union address that his budget proposal would “lower the deficit by $2 trillion” even as no reforms are made to Social Security and Medicare. “If anyone tries to cut Social Security, I will stop them. And if anyone tries to cut Medicare, I will stop them,” he declared. “When I offer my fiscal plan, I ask my Republican friends to offer their plan. We can sit down together and discuss both plans together.”
Runaway federal spending has been a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/national-debt-surpasses-31-trillion-for-the-first-time-republicans-and-democrats-both-to-blame" target="_blank" rel="noopener">problem</a> under Republican and Democratic administrations: former President Donald Trump added $7.5 trillion to projected debt levels through his legislative agenda and executive orders, while President Joe Biden has added $5 trillion to projected debt levels. Not considering the stimulus measures passed by both chief executives during the lockdown-induced recession implies an added debt burden of $4 trillion for the former and $2.5 trillion for the latter.
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Biden also claimed during his State of the Union address that he oversaw “the largest deficit reduction” in the nation’s history during his first two years in office. Although he witnessed a decline in the deficit from $3.1 trillion in fiscal year 2020 to $1.4 trillion in fiscal year 2022, according to <a href="https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/FYFSD" target="_blank" rel="noopener">data</a> from the Office of Management and Budget, he neglected to mention that the record spending came as a result of legislation passed in response to the lockdown-induced recession. The deficit last year still exceeded those witnessed in the years before the crisis.

President Biden Delivers Remarks On The Economy In Maryland

Some People Can Expect Medicare Tax Increases Under Next Biden Budget

Medicare Tax Increases Are Coming In Next Biden Budget Proposal

Budget

Economy

President Joe Biden started off his State of the Union address with a wonderful call for unity.
&#8220;You know, we’re often told that Democrats and Republicans can’t work together. But over the past two years, we proved the cynics and naysayers wrong,&#8221; Biden said. &#8220;To my Republican friends, if we could work together in the last Congress, there’s no reason we can’t work together and find consensus on important things in this Congress as well.&#8221;
But then he got nasty.
&#8220;So my — many of — some of my Republican friends want to take the economy hostage — I get it — unless I agree to their economic plans. All of you at home should know what those plans are. Instead of making the wealthy pay their fair share, some Republicans — some Republicans want Medicare and Social Security to sunset. I’m not saying it’s a majority &#8211;&#8221;
<blockquote>AUDIENCE: Booo —
THE PRESIDENT: Let me give you —
AUDIENCE: No!
THE PRESIDENT: Anybody who doubts it, contact my office. I’ll give you a copy. I’ll give you a copy of the proposal.</blockquote>
But that hasn&#8217;t happened. Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) has offered an 11-point plan that includes a proposal for every piece of federal legislation to sunset after five years. If the legislation works, Congress could simply renew it.
Yet Democrats love their &#8220;Mediscare.&#8221; They love telling the American people that the GOP is going to attack the most vulnerable in our nation &#8212; knowing full well that it&#8217;s not true.
For his part, Scott <a href="https://thehill.com/homenews/house/3849304-scott-doubles-down-on-sunsetting-all-federal-programs-after-bidens-jab/">dismissed</a> Biden’s accusations as a “dishonest move” by a “very confused president.” “I will not be intimidated by Joe Biden twisting my words,” he added.
Former Vice President Mike Pence, too, has pondered reformations to Social Security.
“There are modest reforms in entitlements that can be done without disadvantaging anybody at the point of the need,” Pence <a href="https://thehill.com/policy/finance/3843718-pence-weve-got-to-have-a-conversation-about-reforming-social-security/">said</a> last week. That isn&#8217;t exactly doing away with the entitlement programs.
Pence has also suggested the U.S. government let younger Americans put part of their Social Security withholdings into a private savings account, but that idea went nowhere when George W. Bush proposed it back in the aughts.
Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) has gone further, saying in 2010, it &#8220;will be my objective to phase out Social Security, to pull it up by the roots and get rid of it.&#8221;
After backlash, he walked that back, eventually <a href="https://www.heraldextra.com/news/2022/oct/29/in-his-own-words-a-convesation-with-sen-mike-lee/">proposing</a> a privatization plan similar to Pence&#8217;s.
Other Republicans have suggested moving the threshold age for Medicare to 67 and for Social Security to 70 in an attempt to reduce costs. But Republicans joined Democrats this year in boosting Social Security by 14% in the 2023 budget, and Medicare is set for a $32 billion increase, taking its gross spending on benefits above $1 trillion.
So Republicans don&#8217;t really want to do away with either program. But Biden got himself worked up into a tizzy, foaming at the mouth as he said, &#8220;Those benefits belong to the American people. They earned it. And if anyone tries to cut Social Security &#8230; if anyone tries to cut Medicare, I’ll stop them. I’ll veto it.&#8221;
&#8220;And, look, I’m not going to allow them to take away — be taken away. Not today. Not tomorrow. Not ever.&#8221;
Well, no one&#8217;s trying to do that, Mr. President. And you know that.
The views expressed in this piece are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.
Joseph Curl has covered politics for 35 years, including 12 years as White House correspondent for a national newspaper. He was also the a.m. editor of the Drudge Report for four years. Send tips to josephcurl@dailywire.com and follow him on Twitter @josephcurl.

President Biden Delivers State Of The Union Address

Republicans Aren’t Really Trying To Kill Social Security And Medicare, And Biden Knows It

Republicans Aren't Really Trying To Kill Social Security And Medicare, And President Joe Biden Knows It

Mike Lee

Mike Pence

Rick Scott

House Speaker <a href="http://dailywire.com/topic/kevin-mccarthy" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Kevin McCarthy</a> (R-CA) said that spending cuts to <a href="http://dailywire.com/topic/social-security" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Social Security</a> and <a href="http://dailywire.com/topic/medicare" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Medicare</a> are “off the table” as lawmakers seek to fund the government while reducing deficits.
McCarthy plans to meet with President <a href="http://dailywire.com/topic/biden-administration" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Joe Biden</a> on Wednesday to discuss possible budget cuts after the <a href="http://dailywire.com/topic/debt-ceiling" target="_blank" rel="noopener">debt ceiling</a>, an arbitrary cap on the <a href="http://dailywire.com/topic/national-debt" target="_blank" rel="noopener">national debt</a> established by Congress, exceeded the statutory limit of nearly $31.4 trillion. The lawmaker said multiple times during an <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e8FaXFR0jRg" target="_blank" rel="noopener">interview</a> with CBS senior foreign affairs correspondent Margaret Brennan on Sunday that Republicans would not offer to reduce allocations for Social Security and Medicare.
“Let’s take those off the table,” McCarthy said when asked about the programs. “If you read our Commitment to America, all we talk about is strengthening Medicare and Social Security.”
Social Security, Medicare, and other health initiatives constituted 46% of the federal budget during the last fiscal year, according to <a href="https://fiscaldata.treasury.gov/americas-finance-guide/federal-spending/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">data</a> from the Treasury Department. In order to balance the budget while exempting defense, veteran benefits, Social Security, and Medicare from cuts, all other federal spending would have to be reduced 85%, according to an <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/federal-spending-must-be-cut-26-to-balance-budget-even-more-to-keep-core-social-defense-programs-intact-analysis" target="_blank" rel="noopener">analysis</a> from the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget.
McCarthy, who presides over a narrow majority in the House of Representatives, expressed a willingness to examine defense programs for unnecessary waste. “I want to make sure we’re protected in our defense spending, but I want to make sure it’s effective and efficient. I want to look at every single dollar we’re spending, no matter where it’s being spent. I want to eliminate waste wherever it is,” he continued. “Like every single household, like every single state, we shouldn’t just print more money. We should balance our budget.”
Keeping veteran and defense spending intact would require 33% spending reductions for all other federal programs, including Social Security and Medicare, according to the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget. The average annual benefit for a new retiree would thus decrease by $13,000, while as many as 25 million recipients of Medicare would lose eligibility.
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/very-irresponsible-yellen-blasts-house-republicans-for-wanting-spending-cuts-amid-debt-showdown" target="_blank" rel="noopener">warned</a> lawmakers that the “extraordinary measures” adopted by her agency to keep the government solvent will last only until June. Brennan pressed McCarthy on whether he would commit to avoiding a default on obligations at all costs.
“We have hundreds of billions of dollars. This won’t come to fruition until some time this June. So the responsible thing to do is sit down like two adults and start having that discussion. Unfortunately the White House was saying before that they wouldn’t even talk. I’m thankful that we’re meeting on Wednesday, but that’s exactly what we should be doing,” McCarthy responded. “What has happened with the debt limit is we’ve reached our credit card limit. Should we just continue to raise the limit, or should we look at what we’re spending?”
Republican lawmakers <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/here-are-the-concessions-house-speaker-kevin-mccarthy-gave-to-republican-holdouts-to-win-their-support" target="_blank" rel="noopener">struck a deal</a> with McCarthy under which the party’s new majority will introduce a budget that refrains from increasing the debt ceiling. The national debt exceeded $31.5 trillion even as <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/interest-payments-on-the-national-debt-on-pace-to-surpass-military-spending" target="_blank" rel="noopener">maintenance costs</a> soar due to a higher interest rate environment. An <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/government-must-raise-taxes-40-or-cut-spending-30-to-achieve-fiscal-balance-study" target="_blank" rel="noopener">analysis</a> from economists at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School recently found that a 30% decrease in spending or a 40% increase in taxation would be necessary to handle current spending and future obligations.

Kevin McCarthy

Reforming Social Security And Medicare ‘Off The Table’ In Debt Negotiations, McCarthy Says

Social Security And Medicare Cuts 'Off The Table' In Debt Negotiations

Debt Ceiling

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