Reports indicate that the White House and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy are nearing an agreement to raise the debt ceiling for two years. McCarthy would release the fiscal hostage in return for concessions from President Joe Biden that have congressional Democrats up in arms, and that are just objectively bad policy. One of these would impose tougher work requirements on food assistance and/or Medicaid. The other would shift some of the new funding Democrats provided to the IRS over to defense and veterans. Both would reinforce bogus Republican narratives.
The New York Times reported the outlines of the emerging deal late Thursday: strict caps on discretionary spending for the next two years, increases in defense spending and for veterans, and a shift of $10 billion in new funding for the IRS to other programs. Semafor and Punchline report that stiffened work requirements for social welfare programs are still in discussion. None of this is good or necessary.
The work requirements are particularly pernicious, and particularly pointless. Biden has been wobbly on this one for weeks, suggesting that he’d be open to them. The Republican bill has work requirements for Medicaid and stricter requirements for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. Both are unnecessary, punitive, and would do more harm than good to the people who can least afford it.
The majority of people getting Medicaid coverage already work, or qualify for exemptions, and adding the bureaucratic hassle of making them prove they are employed won’t increase employment and will result in more people becoming uninsured. That’s been well established, including by experience. Arkansas tried it during the Trump administration and it was a failure. A new analysis from Commonwealth backs that up and adds further insight. Forcing work requirements would cost states and public hospitals more than they would save. States would have to administer the program and create new layers of bureaucracy to enforce them, and hospitals and clinics would have to pick up the cost of caring for more uninsured people. It’s pointless and it’s cruel.
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The same arguments hold true for food assistance. As of now, people up to age 50 who don’t have dependents or disabilities already have to show they’re working to get the help. Republicans want to raise that to age 56. Public policy researchers recently studied the potential impact; they found it “would sever food assistance benefits for an estimated 275,000 low-income people between the ages of 50 and 55, including many with health conditions and who care for others.” That would add to food insecurity not just for the individuals but for their families, and it would also negate the economic benefits their communities get from their ability to buy food.
House Democrats are particularly unhappy about this potential part of the deal, and leadership has told the White House so. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, Minority Whip Katherine Clark, and Democratic Caucus Chair Pete Aguilar called White House negotiators Thursday to inform them they could not count on as many as 100 Democratic votes for a deal if these kinds of concessions are included. “We’ve been exceedingly clear where we are depending on what’s in it,” a senior Democratic aide told Punchbowl.
Taking funding away from the IRS is another unnecessary concession that does little but reinforce bullshit Republican narratives. Democrats in Congress joined Biden to secure the new IRS funding in last year’s Inflation Reduction Act, totaling $80 billion over the next 10 years, which was long overdue after decades of cuts to the IRS budget that left the agency struggling with ancient technology and overworked staff.
The Congressional Budget Office projected that new funding would raise about $203 billion over the next decade; discounting the $80 billion it costs, the Treasury would net $124 billion from this investment. And a lot of wealthy people who have been cheating on their taxes will have to finally cough up their fair share because there will finally be enough IRS auditors to go after them.
That part was enough to turn the Republicans inside out. They insist that this would mean armed IRS thugs would be breaking into every Republican home to steal their hard-earned money in politically motivated revenge. That’s the extent they’ll go to keep rich people from having to pay taxes. Decades’ worth of tax cuts from the Bush and Trump administrations weren’t enough: Republicans want to shield the rich from paying even that much. So why give them even this much of a win on that bullshit?
On top of all of this, defense spending gets increased and the Republicans would be able to prove the BS rhetoric that they’re supporting veterans—after they passed their bill that slashes veterans’ services. It’s like throwing them a political life preserver when they deserve an anchor.
There’s little upside to Biden dividing Democrats when McCarthy can barely hold his conference together. The Freedom Caucus is still raising hell, insisting that they will not vote for anything other than the draconian bill they passed in April. Biden should be forcing McCarthy to get the votes for any deal on his own, and not asking for Democrats to hold their noses and vote for something that could do harm.
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