Last week, House Freedom Caucus honcho Mark Meadows (R-NC) announced that his group would be following up their Trumpcare win by demanding massive cuts in social services, including possibly Social Security and Medicare.
This week, that's what Politico is reporting the House intends to do—massively cut programs to the poor and toss in Speaker Paul Ryan's pet obsession, Medicare. Oh, and to do it through a budget reconciliation process so Senate Democrats couldn't block it.
Under enormous internal pressure to quickly balance the budget, Republicans are considering slashing more than $400 billion in spending through a process to evade Democratic filibusters in the Senate, multiple sources told POLITICO.
The proposal, which would be part of the House Budget Committee's fiscal 2018 budget, won't specify which programs would get the ax; instead it will instruct committees to figure out what to cut to reach the savings. But among the programs most likely on the chopping block, the sources say, are food stamps, welfare, income assistance for the disabled and perhaps even veterans benefits. […]
Atop that, GOP budget writers will also likely include Speaker Paul Ryan’s (R-Wis.) proposal to essentially privatize Medicare in their fiscal 2018 budget, despite Trump’s unwavering rejection of the idea. While that proposal is more symbolic and won’t become law under this budget, it’s just another thorny issue that will have Democrats again accusing Republicans of “pushing Granny off the cliff.”
Brilliant, huh? Not only are they admitting they're going to completely shred the social safety net, they say out loud that they're doing it because popular vote loser Donald Trump wants them to. He apparently was angered by all the headlines saying that Democrats won the short-term funding fight, so now Trump has to win. Says Rep. David Brat (R-VA), a budget committee member, Trump's "critique last time was that we didn’t embed enough Trump agenda items into our budget" and that he has "made it clear it will be embedded in this budget. […] And so people will see a process much more aligned with President Trump's agenda in this forthcoming budget."
Nothing like embracing even more fully a historically unpopular president who is under investigation for potential treason. And then destroying the safety—potentially even for veterans!—on the heels of passing what is easily the least popular major policy bill in memory. These guys must have a death wish.
Let's help them with that. Hold Trump and House Republicans responsible by helping future Democratic challengers with your $1.