The Congressional Budget Office has informed Senate Republicans that they're $1.5 trillion tax cuts bill will force a $25 billion cut to Medicare in 2018. But according to Capitol Hill reporter Steve Dennis, "Most Senators I talked to yesterday in both parties had no idea CBO said the tax bill would trigger ~$100B/year in automatic entitlement cuts, including $25B from Medicare, because of the Paygo law."
It will, and if Republicans pass this disastrous bill, they'll have to go begging Democrats for help to get out of the mess.
Waiving the automatic cuts could take 60 votes in the Senate, requiring support from at least eight Democrats in a chamber Republicans control 52-48.
The GOP could try to waive the cuts as part of the tax bill -- although that could anger the party’s deficit hawks -- or they could promise to do it later, which could worry moderates who in the meantime would be voting for a bill that cuts benefits to senior citizens.
Here's the dilemma for Democrats: Should they help waive the spending reductions, even though that would help the GOP enact the tax cuts? Or should Democrats continue doing all they can to make the tax-cut plan difficult for Republicans to pass, even though recipients of Medicare and other programs would suffer and they could be blamed?
Democrats will not be blamed for these cuts and therefore can tell Republicans to pound sand. But once again, Republicans persist in the idea that Democrats will be the responsible governing party and bail them out after they make this disastrous policy decision.
Given that's been the screaming headline of the tax story for the last few days, it's hard to believe that Republicans or Democrats really don't know about the looming Medicare cuts. But we should assume it's true, which gives us one job: we have to tell them.
Jam the phone lines of your senators and member of the House of Representatives at (202) 224-3121 and inform them they're about to vote on huge Medicare cuts. Tell them to vote "no" on the Republican tax bill.
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