Trump allies eye overhauling Medicaid, food stamps in tax legislation

[In It to Win It]

WaPo - Gift Link

President-elect Donald Trump’s economic advisers and congressional Republicans have begun preliminary discussions about making significant changes to Medicaid, food stamps and other federal safety net programs to offset the enormous cost of extending Trump’s 2017 tax cuts next year.

Among the options under discussion by GOP lawmakers and aides are new work requirements and spending caps for the programs, according to seven people familiar with the talks, many of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly. Those conversations have included some economic officials on Trump’s transition team, the people said.

However, concern is high among some Republicans about the political downsides of such cuts, which would affect programs that provide support for at least 70 million low-income Americans, and some people familiar with the talks stressed that discussions are preliminary.

“I don’t think that passing just an extension of tax cuts that shows on paper an increase in the deficit [is] going to be challenging,” said one GOP tax adviser. “But the other side of the coin is, you start to add things to reduce the deficit, and that gets politically more challenging.”

The discussions center on Trump’s 2017 tax bill, which lowered taxes for the vast majority of Americans. Major portions of that law are set to expire at the end of next year, and extending those provisions — as Trump has proposed — would add more than $4 trillion to the already soaring national debt over the next decade, according to congressional bookkeepers. The debt exceeds $36 trillion now. Trump also campaigned on a bevy of new tax cuts — such as ending taxes on tips and overtime — which tack trillions more onto the overall price tag.

[underpants]

1. So literally taking from the poor to give to the rich. 😳🙄

[sakabatou]

5. They're like Monty Python's Dennis Moore

except they know what they're doing!

[XanaDUer2]

2. Surely, no one on medicaid would vote Trump

Pls tell me they wouldn't do that.

[Tadpole Raisin]

3. Well let's see how his poor red state supporters think about that.

We knew the poor would be on the chopping block and tried to protect them.

They thought just those liberal dems would be hurt. Congratulations on your stupidity.

Well send your comments to the new resident of the WH. They’ll promptly enter it into the circular file, but hey he’s your guy!

[Johonny]

4. Trump's tax cut raised my taxes

It was no cut at all.

[MichMan]

6. The increase in the standard deduction made mine go down

Haven't itemized in many years, so it was a pretty significant cut

[W_HAMILTON]

8. It wasn't a significant cut when you realize that exemptions were removed as well.

$4,050 per taxpayer, spouse, and dependent.

At the time, standard deduction + exemption for an individual = $10,400 benefit. Trump's tax cuts upped the standard deduction to $12,000. That's $1,600 reduced taxable income, so when you factor in tax rates, that's basically like $160 to $320 actual dollars back in your pocket, net benefit, for most taxpayers.

Pretty damn skimpy given the obscene amounts that the wealthy benefited from Trump's tax cuts, not to mention now we are going to have cuts to programs tens of millions of Americans use to help pay for the deficits caused by Trump's tax cuts for the wealthy.

[louis-t]

7. They do know that food stamps bring more money in than is spent, don't they?

Don't they? According to a Moody's graph from about 20 years ago, for every dollar spent, the return is $1.73. Corporate tax cuts, and tax cuts for the wealthy never pay for themselves and offer the worst returns. Around 30 cents returned for every dollar spent.

[Mariana]

11. Reality doesn't matter.

[Kid Berwyn]

12. Practice for Medicare and Social Security

First comes Fear. Then comes Chaos. Followed by Terror. Then Perma-pee-resident Drumpf 1 will save the chosen and very few.