In the rush to cut the federal budget, Medicaid is a fat target: Overall, Medicaid spending totaled $880 billion in FFY 2023 with the federal government paying 69% ($606 billion) and states paying 31% ($274 billion).
However:
KFF Health Tracking Poll February 2025: The Public’s Views on Potential Changes to Medicaid
As Congress considers changes to the Medicaid program as part of budget conversations, the latest KFF Health Tracking Poll finds that fewer than one in five adults (17%) want to see Medicaid funding decreased, and most think funding should either increase (42%) or be kept about the same (40%). Majorities of Democrats, Republicans, independents, Trump voters, and adults living in rural areas say Medicaid funding should either increase or be kept about the same, though about one-third of Republicans want spending to decrease.
The public’s staunch opposition to Medicaid cuts likely reflects the fact that most people have a connection to the program. About half (53%) of adults, including a similar share of those living in rural areas, say they or a family member has received help from Medicaid at some point. This includes about four ten Republicans (44%) and those who voted for President Trump in 2024 (45%). Regardless of whether they have a connection to the program, nearly all (97%) adults say Medicaid is at least somewhat important for people in their local community, including three-quarters who say it is “very important.”…
Medicaid provides health care coverage to one in five people in the United States and Medicaid covers a higher share of children and adults in small towns and rural areas compared to metro areas… Medicaid covered 1.5 million births in 2023—representing 41% of all U.S. births—and financed nearly half (47%) of [births in rural areas](5 Key Facts About Medicaid and Hospitals | KFF)…
Over Nine in Ten Adults Say That Medicaid Is Important to Their Local Communities… [end quote]
Medicaid recipients are poor but they (and their extended families) vote. Many live in the underappreciated rural states that have disproportionately high representation in Congress.
Medicare is a third-rail topic but Medicaid is at least as much, if not more so. The people on Medicaid really can’t afford medical care. Almost half the children born in rural areas wouldn’t have medical care without Medicaid. (The rich get richer, the poor have children.) Not to mention the many elders who are in Medicaid-financed nursing homes.
Meanwhile, I continue to see pieces on the wire promising that, if the DOGE cuts go ahead, maybe you will get a $5,000 check. So, the question is still out there: will people sell out their neighbor, for money? The answer, over the decades, and several waves of “supply side” tax cuts, has generally been yes.
They’re “flooding the zone” (- Steve Bannon) and creating distraction, from one outrageous issue to another, away from their real intent, “to shrink government to the size it can be drowned in a bathtub.” (- Grover Norquist)
Once they get rid of government, there’s no resistence to how wealthy the wealthy can become, nor how poor others will become.
The regular Joes sell their neighbors and grandmothers because they’re selfish, scared, and ignorant.
They think they’ll get a piece of the action. They won’t. Or not for long before the exorbitantly wealthy take it from them.
You can’t pay for the last 25 years’ worth of tax cuts without deep cuts to Medicare, Medicaid and/or Defense. The people in power have consistently won elections by claiming you can keep cutting taxes and balance the budget without deep cuts to Medicare, Medicaid and/or Defense.
They now have an opportunity to prove it because they are firmly in control of all three branches of government.
Carnack the Magnificent predicts that they will keep the tax cuts and Medicare, Medicaid and Defense and massively run up deficits to new record highs at an accelerating rate. Maybe quadrillion will be the new trillion.
But what if the government is made up of millionaires and billionaires?
6/18/2024
the median minimum net worth of today’s senators and House members stood at $511,000 at the beginning of this Congress, reflecting a 16 percent rise over just two years. This figure is five times higher than the median net worth of an American household,
“The Trump administration said Friday that it’s pulling $400 million from Columbia University, canceling grants and contracts because of what the government describes as the Ivy League school’s failure to squelch antisemitism on campus.”
Yep. From a year ago…
…lawmakers from both parties are accusing President Joe Biden’s administration of taking a lax approach toward enforcement of civil rights laws, exposing Jewish students to continued harassment.
They point to a surge of complaints filed with the Education Department that have yet to be resolved, creating a backlog that effectively eases pressure on school administrators to take action needed to protect Jewish students…
Since the war began, the office opened 93 investigations into cases of discrimination against members of ethno-religious groups — about seven times the number begun in a comparable period before Hamas’ attack. The complaints involve both secondary schools and some of the nation’s most prestigious universities, including Columbia, Harvard, Princeton and Yale.
“While the evidence is often clear and convincing, many Title VI investigations have remained unresolved for months, and even years,” Gottheimer [D-NJ] wrote.
No, because Jews, including American Jewish students, were harassed on the Columbia campus and the leadership did nothing about it even after it was pointed out to them. I think the $400 million action will finally get their attention.
I agree in one sense, at least to the extent that this is a ‘less bad’ decision. The overall context is deplorable, though: to cut research grants willy-nilly and the ones we really don’t like (for whatever reason), we’ll cut altogether.
It’s a fine line between ensuring everyone on campus is treated with respect and left alone, and squelching any form of speech that the regime does not want to hear. In the present regime, any speech against Israel is defined as “antisemitic hate” and any speech in support of Pals is “support for terrorism”.
the ADC has heard from at least a dozen students who left the U.S. for winter break and were unable to return because their visas were canceled — with no explanation given.
“Two of them have no involvement at all with student activism on campus. They just happened to be from Gaza,” Ayoub says. “This should be a concern of all Americans because this opens the door to really criminalizing any speech and any expression in the nation.”
