Republicans want to save $880 billion over 10 years in the Medicaid program. Politicians often turn to using various tricks and gimmicks to create the illusion of budgetary savings. But Medicaid is so large and has expanded so far past its original target population that Republicans can find those savings without relying on accounting gimmicks or price controls.
All they need is to implement three long-held Republican ideas.
The first is to bl...
Opinion
Republicans need to grow a spine and support Trump’s agenda
That didn’t take long. After a few months of celebrating Donald Trump’s astonishing political comeback by offering the president near-unanimous support, Republicans are going squishy.
The Trump agenda is hanging by a thread. Congress, which up to now has done very little to help the White House solve our border crisis, codify DOGE spending cuts or rebalance our justice system, now has to act. They have to pass a “big beautiful” bill to extend the tax reductions in the...
The inconvenient truth about Republican Medicaid fraud claims
Few lines are more central to the congressional Republican leadership’s elevator pitch than the idea that we will get major savings by cutting Medicaid fraud, not Medicaid benefits.
This sales pitch is no small deal to this White House. A president seeking to pass his tax bill with slim congressional majorities could be tanked by a handful of Republicans afraid they’ll lose seats. Those seats could be at risk if Republicans are seen as paying for tax cuts to the...
The next 100 days will reveal how the White House handles debt
One hundred days into President Trump's second term, your feelings about the administration’s performance so far probably depend in large part on how you voted.
The White House and its allies will say that the most important thing has been immigration, pitching its border and interior enforcement as a stunning success — with a good bit of supporting evidence.
Democrats, on the other hand, are ceaselessly reminding people of the administration's shortcomin...
Medicaid work-requirements are great, but states need flexibility to make them work
I was the first governor to implement work requirements on the working-age population that was on Medicaid. So I feel I have some standing to offer observations on what happened in Arkansas — a few lessons learned and recommendations to Congress as it considers a federal mandate on states to impose work and work-related activities as a condition of Medicaid eligibility.
For a number of reasons, I am firmly in favor of work requirements for able-bodied working-age adults on Med...
Preventative care was a game-changer, but now the Supreme Court could take it away
Amid the Trump administration’s scorched earth approach to governing — which includes threatening hundreds of billions of dollars in Medicaid funding — a serious threat to health care has gone under the radar. It could undo years of progress toward preventing disease and making Americans healthier and more secure.
In Kennedy v. Braidwood, a case being heard today at the Supreme Court, a lawyer with a long history of attacking fundamental...
Send in the clown: Bill Maher turns pro-Trump
There’s a maxim that the difference between a comedian and a comic is that a comedian says funny things, and a comic says things funny. Then there are clowns — like Bill Maher. He traded his red nose for a big brown one the second he eagerly walked into President Trump’s gaudy White Fun House of deception.
Maher, the comic who once fancied himself a fearless political truth-teller, is now wobbling under the weight of his own ego. His recent televised monologue — an ex...
Medicaid cuts jeopardize the right to age at home
If you or someone you love wants to age at home — and nearly 90 percent of older Americans do — there’s a number you should know: $2.3 trillion.
That’s how much could be cut from Medicaid under current budget proposals. And while headlines often focus on how these cuts would affect nursing homes, what’s less understood but equally devastating is what they would mean for home-based care.
These cuts would strike at the heart of the support system that allows millions ...
Medicaid cuts jeopardize the right to age at home
If you or someone you love wants to age at home — and nearly 90 percent of older Americans do — there’s a number you should know: $2.3 trillion.
That’s how much could be cut from Medicaid under current budget proposals. And while headlines often focus on how these cuts would affect nursing homes, what’s less understood but equally devastating is what they would mean for home-based care.
These cuts would strike at the heart of the support system that allows millions ...
Trump’s right that the system is rigged, but he’s not helping
I’m a Black woman with a Ph.D. in cell and molecular biology, spent 10 years working for Congress. I now work for a philanthropy that believes diversity, equity and inclusion are among this nation’s greatest strengths.
So President Trump and I don’t have much in common, except for two things. First, we’re both from Queens, so we’re not afraid to say what’s on our minds. Second, we both agree that the government as it’s currently constructed isn’t working for everybody.