The unofficial start of summer is approaching. Just smell the sunscreen, chlorine and burgers on the grill.
Also, our Republican heroes will be coming home from Congress.
What will they be serving up?
No doubt, tortured explanations for why they support “The Big, Beautiful Bill.” With lots of ketchup, which hides a multitude of sins.
The Big Beautiful Bill, as it’s been dubbed by our president, isn’t all that complicated. The bill sets out to make Trump income tax permanent income taxes, as well as cutting taxes on tips and overtime, to the tune of $5 trillion over the next decade. Also eliminated is a tax on gun silencers.
Republicans want to cover the tax cuts by cutting Medicaid health coverage by $625 billion over 10 years and raise the burden on states to pay for food assistance. Sorry, sick and hungry Americans.
They’re also ending a bunch of green energy tax incentives including a credit for people who buy an EV. Sorry, victims of climate change.
Much of the Medicaid savings come from requiring “able-bodied” Medicaid recipients ages 19-64 to work 80 hours each month. The requirement, along with adding bureaucratic obstacles to eligibility, will trim the nation’s Medicaid rolls by at least 7.6 million people, according to the Congressional Budget Office. The bill would also get rid of simplified eligibility and renewal processes. Medicaid cuts would total $635 billion.
So, voting for the Big Beautiful Bill could harm their constituents.And hard line House conservatives want deeper and more immediate cuts.
“The intent of Medicaid is to protect those with disabilities, seniors and single mothers with children,” Hinson said last week in a call with reporters. “It’s not there for “29-year-old men playing video games on their mothers’ couch in the basement.”
But what if aging gamers have mental health issues? Don’t judge the player until you’ve driven a mile with him in a stolen car on “Grand Theft Auto V.”
Hinson says cuts will “eliminate waste, fraud and abuse.” And that is a totally new and never-heard-of argument for budget cuts.
According to health care researchers at KFF, 75% of Medicaid recipients in Iowa are working. The bill’s changes would reduce Iowa’s Medicaid roles by between 64,000 and 107,000. Iowa has the highest percentage of nonelderly recipients who need Medicaid to pay for mental health care.
KFF says the changes will push 10 million Americans off Mediciaid.
People won’t lose coverage because they’re lazy. In states where work requirements were tried, most people who lost coverage simply got tangled up in a bunch of new red tape and reporting hurdles.
People with health coverage are more successful at holding down jobs and getting training. If they get bumped off the roles, an untreated illness might knock them off the job.
But cuts will make Medicaid better, Republicans argue.
"My priority is to make Medicaid stronger, more efficient and more responsive for those who depend on it,” Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks said in a statement.
What about the strength of Iowa’s health care system, which depends on Medicaid dollars, especially in rural areas where providers are hanging on by a thread?
But we will find the bucks to finish the border wall, at $46.5 billion. And the $45 million needed to pay for the president’s military parade on his birthday.
Even with all the spending cuts, The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget says the bill will add $3 trillion to the national debt over 10 years.
American-British author Henry James said “summer afternoon” are the two most beautiful words in the English language. “Big, Beautiful Bill” could be the three most misleading.
(319) 398-8262; todd.dorman@thegazette.com
www.thegazette.com
Also, our Republican heroes will be coming home from Congress.
What will they be serving up?
No doubt, tortured explanations for why they support “The Big, Beautiful Bill.” With lots of ketchup, which hides a multitude of sins.
The Big Beautiful Bill, as it’s been dubbed by our president, isn’t all that complicated. The bill sets out to make Trump income tax permanent income taxes, as well as cutting taxes on tips and overtime, to the tune of $5 trillion over the next decade. Also eliminated is a tax on gun silencers.
Republicans want to cover the tax cuts by cutting Medicaid health coverage by $625 billion over 10 years and raise the burden on states to pay for food assistance. Sorry, sick and hungry Americans.
They’re also ending a bunch of green energy tax incentives including a credit for people who buy an EV. Sorry, victims of climate change.
Much of the Medicaid savings come from requiring “able-bodied” Medicaid recipients ages 19-64 to work 80 hours each month. The requirement, along with adding bureaucratic obstacles to eligibility, will trim the nation’s Medicaid rolls by at least 7.6 million people, according to the Congressional Budget Office. The bill would also get rid of simplified eligibility and renewal processes. Medicaid cuts would total $635 billion.
So, voting for the Big Beautiful Bill could harm their constituents.And hard line House conservatives want deeper and more immediate cuts.
“The intent of Medicaid is to protect those with disabilities, seniors and single mothers with children,” Hinson said last week in a call with reporters. “It’s not there for “29-year-old men playing video games on their mothers’ couch in the basement.”
But what if aging gamers have mental health issues? Don’t judge the player until you’ve driven a mile with him in a stolen car on “Grand Theft Auto V.”
Hinson says cuts will “eliminate waste, fraud and abuse.” And that is a totally new and never-heard-of argument for budget cuts.
According to health care researchers at KFF, 75% of Medicaid recipients in Iowa are working. The bill’s changes would reduce Iowa’s Medicaid roles by between 64,000 and 107,000. Iowa has the highest percentage of nonelderly recipients who need Medicaid to pay for mental health care.
KFF says the changes will push 10 million Americans off Mediciaid.
People won’t lose coverage because they’re lazy. In states where work requirements were tried, most people who lost coverage simply got tangled up in a bunch of new red tape and reporting hurdles.
People with health coverage are more successful at holding down jobs and getting training. If they get bumped off the roles, an untreated illness might knock them off the job.
But cuts will make Medicaid better, Republicans argue.
"My priority is to make Medicaid stronger, more efficient and more responsive for those who depend on it,” Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks said in a statement.
What about the strength of Iowa’s health care system, which depends on Medicaid dollars, especially in rural areas where providers are hanging on by a thread?
But we will find the bucks to finish the border wall, at $46.5 billion. And the $45 million needed to pay for the president’s military parade on his birthday.
Even with all the spending cuts, The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget says the bill will add $3 trillion to the national debt over 10 years.
American-British author Henry James said “summer afternoon” are the two most beautiful words in the English language. “Big, Beautiful Bill” could be the three most misleading.
(319) 398-8262; todd.dorman@thegazette.com
Opinion: Big, Beautiful Bill backers come home for a grilling
Senate Democrats, from left, Sen. Ben Ray Lujan, D-N.M., Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., Sen. Ron …
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