The federal deficit surpassed $1 trillion in the first 11 months of fiscal 2019, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) said Monday.
The deficit presently stands at $1.068 trillion, though it is likely to be reduced in September as quarterly tax payments are paid.via The Hill.
Related Reading:
See more posts like this on Tumblr
#politics #health care #budget #social security #medicare #healthcare #p2 #elderly #older americans #seniors #retirement #retirees #retirement crisis #deficit #tax cutsMay is Older Americans Month, but the Trump administration and Congressional Republicans are putting a serious damper on the celebration. Yes, candidate Trump promised not to touch Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid.
But his administration has been actively undermining those pledges. Budget Director Mick Mulvaney — who once called Social Security a Ponzi scheme — questioned the legitimacy of Social Security Disability Insurance — and wouldn’t promise a Presidential veto of legislation to privatize Medicare (a pet project of House Speaker Paul Ryan).
President Trump champions the GOP’s American Health Care Act, which guts
Medicaid, undermines the solvency of Medicare, and allows insurers to
charge older Americans up to five times as much as people in their 20s.
These are significant sums, Kaufman says. Still, when he hears Republican lawmakers denounce Medicare and propose reducing benefits, he becomes livid and cites a statistic he saw on the website of the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare. Already, he reports, 45 percent of retirees spend more than one-third of their Social Security benefits on health care, from co-pays for care, to premiums, deductibles and out-of-pocket fees for services – such as going to the eye doctor, dentist or audiologist – that are not provided. “We should be on the offensive, pushing for something better,” he says. “What we need is a single payer or socialized health care system.”
via Truth-Out.
New Poll Shows Majorities Do Not Support GOP Proposals for Social Security and Medicare.
The Democratic majority taking power in the U.S. House this week is cause for cautious optimism among older Americans. The incoming majority can function as a firewall against harmful cuts to Social Security and Medicare, which fiscal hawks have been threatening. But our allies in the House can also do more. The champions of Social Security and Medicare elected in November have an opportunity to expand both programs for the benefit of tens of millions of older Americans.
This can be achieved by working across the aisle to enact legislation that helps, rather than hurts, seniors. Committee oversight in the new Congress will also be crucial. Advocates for seniors’ financial and health security will seize the gavel in key House committees, including House Ways and Means, Energy and Commerce, and Education and Labor. They will be able to highlight legislation to boost Social Security and Medicare — and to hold the Trump administration’s feet to the fire where these programs are concerned.
Mulvaney, who supports Social Security and Medicare reforms, told CNBC ‘we’re working on’ persuading Trump to embrace entitlement reform, including changes to Social Security Disability Insurance.
Related Reading:
Our nation needs his leadership, vision and determination to fight for working families and older Americans. Conor Lamb understands and supports the critical roles that Social Security and Medicare play in the lives of our nation’s older citizens and their families.
Do older Americans want bigger Social Security checks and expanded Medicare coverage – or do they want their benefits cut?
That is the fundamental question for seniors and their families with less than two weeks until the mid-term elections. The majority party in Congress has proposed time and again to slash Social Security and Medicare benefits under the guise of ‘entitlement reform.’ Leader Mitch McConnell just attributed the swelling federal debt to retirees’ earned benefits – when the real culprit was the 2017 tax package that mainly benefited the wealthy and big corporations.
The majority party’s 2018 and 2019 budgets would have taken a $500 billion bite out of Medicare and $64 billion from Social Security. And make no mistake – conservative tropes like raising the eligibility age, imposing a more meager inflation formula, and means testing are benefit cuts.
We roundly reject Trump’s 2019 budget. After signing off on tax cuts for billionaires and big corporations, the president proposes to cut Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security Disability Insurance – and myriad other programs that help older Americans.
Harwood: Retirement age?
Stivers: We need to come together. I think we need to say, “You give a little, we give a little,” and figure out how to sustain Medicare and Social Security into the future. The other thing on Medicare is we have to bend the cost curve on health care.
via CNBC.
Related Reading:
Did you miss Behind the Headlines earlier today?
