I have previously written in these pages that conservatives shouldn’t buy into the “leftist trope” when talking about “massive Medicaid cuts.” But it’s worth dissecting this issue in detail to explain how Democrats distort rhetoric and reality regarding government spending, and how conservatives can avoid falling into that trap.
There are numerous reasons why conservatives shouldn’t talk about a budget reconciliation bill as “cutting” Medicaid — and those reasons go far beyond the fact that the House-passed budget resolution itself mentions “Medicaid” not at all. The resolution calls for the House Energy and Commerce Committee to find $880 billion in deficit reduction over 10 years. While the text does not mention Medicaid, the list of programs within the committee’s jurisdiction suggests that much of those savings will end up coming from Medicaid and/or Medicare.
Rather than playing semantic games that “Medicaid” doesn’t appear in the budget resolution, which will only come back to bite conservatives when they have to outline specific deficit reduction proposals, policymakers should instead make an affirmative case for reform. The policies being envisioned would not “cut” Medicaid but rather slow the growth of a program that has exploded beyond recognition over the last several years.
Medicaid Spending Will Keep Growing
The most recent Congressional Budget Office (CBO) economic baseline, released early this year, tells the story. According to CBO, federal spending on Medicaid will total $656 billion in the current fiscal year, which ends on Sept. 30. Over the upcoming decade (2026 through 2035), federal Medicaid spending will total nearly $8.6 trillion.
Simple math indicates that, if federal Medicaid spending remained at current-year levels over the decade, it would total $6.56 trillion. Instead, CBO says federal Medicaid spending over that period will total $8.6 trillion, or over $2 trillion more than if program spending remained flat. […]
— Read More: thefederalist.com
