Republicans are reportedly willing to cut Medicaid funding to finance Donald Trump’s promised crackdown on immigration and to fund tax cuts that would primarily benefit the wealthy.
The Republican Party in the House and Senate has floated a series of ideas — many of which would target low-income Americans — to cover the cost of extending the tax cuts passed by Trump in 2017, the New York Times reported .
Among the proposals is a plan to reduce access to Medicaid, the government program that provides health insurance to low-income Americans, which would result in 600,000 people losing access to health care.
Trump touted the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 as a key accomplishment of his first term. The legislation, which cut the top corporate tax rate from 35% to 21%, is set to expire at the end of 2025, and the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office has estimated that extending it would add $4.6 trillion dollars to the deficit.
During his election campaign, Trump repeatedly promised to make the 2017 tax cuts permanent, but with the 2025 deadline looming, Republicans are scrambling to find a way to finance that commitment – so as the money needed for Trump’s desired crackdown on immigration.
Along with cutting Medicaid, which would introduce work requirements that would effectively strip 600,000 people of their health coverage, Republicans are considering ending Medicaid for non-U.S. citizens and repealing Medicaid tax credits. Biden era, designed to reduce health care costs, The New York Times. » reported the York Times.
A 50-page document circulating among congressional Republicans also proposes taxing scholarship income, rolling back climate change efforts enacted under the Biden administration and raising personal taxes able to use a free gym at their workplace.
Another proposal calls for changes to the Affordable Care Act, commonly known as Obamacare, that would reduce coverage for some low-income Americans, Newsweek reported.
The Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center reported in July that households earning about $450,000 or more would receive nearly half of the benefits of the extended tax cuts. The median household income in the United States is $80,610, and 95% of American households earn less than $400,000 per year.
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Biden had promised to extend tax cuts only to families earning $400,000 or less a year.
