The not-so-stealth motive of House Republicans in ballooning the deficit with their tax cut bill (beyond tax cuts for the donor class) is to create a fiscal crisis they can use to try to force cuts to social insurance programs. It's not like they're keeping their motives secret. In fact, they've created a bill that starts in on destroying Medicare immediately. According to the Congressional Budget Office's analysis, the tax cuts bill could cut $25 billion out of Medicare immediately, forcing those cuts in 2018.
The tax bill will add an estimated $1.5 trillion to the deficit over a decade. Congressional "pay-as-you-go" rules, called pay-go, require that the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) automatically cut mandatory spending if legislation increases the deficit beyond a certain point.
"Without enacting subsequent legislation to either offset that deficit increase, waive the recordation of the bill's impact on the scorecard, or otherwise mitigate or eliminate the requirements of the [pay-go] law, OMB would be required to issue a sequestration order within 15 days of the end of the session of Congress to reduce spending in fiscal year 2018 by the resultant total of $136 billion," CBO wrote on Tuesday.
Medicare can only be cut by a maximum of 4 percent through the pay-go rules, however, which amounts to $25 billion in cuts.
Don't think that this isn't on purpose. Destroying Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security has motivated Republicans for generations—it’s been Paul Ryan’s dream his whole life. Now they think that goal is in their grasp.
The Republican tax giveaway to the super wealthy attacks students, universities, non-profits, blue states, homeowners, the sick and the disabled. And Medicare enrollees. Please, call your member of the House of Representatives at (202) 224-3121 and tell them to vote "no" on the Republican tax bill.