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Report: House GOP Eyes $2.5 Trillion in Spending Cuts — Social Security, Medicare at Risk

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House Republicans on Friday presented a proposal during a closed-door meeting to implement President-elect Donald Trump’s directive to raise the debt ceiling. The plan proposes increasing the limit on debt by $1.5 trillion, followed by cutting “net mandatory spending” by $2.5 trillion, according to a report from Punchbowl News co-founder Joe Sherman.

Mandatory spending consists largely of programs including Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid, which the government by law is required to fund. These programs are often referred to as “entitlements.” It also includes spending on interest on the national debt, according to the Government Accountability Office (GAO), and programs like SNAP, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program that helps feed over 40 million participants — including families — each month.

Sherman reported Friday afternoon, amid the impending government shutdown crisis, that “IN THE GOP MEETING — GOP leadership has a slide up that has an ‘agreement’ on the debt limit.”

“The ‘agreement’ says that House Republicans will raise the debt limit by $1.5T in the ‘first reconciliation package’ alongside a promise to CUT $2.5T in ‘net mandatory spending in the reconciliation process.'”

READ MORE: ‘What Constitution Is He Reading?’: Republican’s Interpretation of Role of Congress Stuns

Axios’ Juliegrace Brufke shared what appears to be a photograph of that slide:

A recent, somewhat cryptic remark by President-elect Donald Trump seems to echo Sherman’s and Brufke’s reporting, and that of others: “The United States will cut Hundreds of Billions of Dollars in spending next year through Reconciliation!” Trump wrote on his Truth Social website, early Thursday evening.

Adding more details, and referencing “reconciliation,” The Hill’s Emily Brooks reports Friday afternoon: “The spending cuts-for-debt-limit-increase agreement being presented to GOP members includes a plan to cut mandatory spending. Mandatory spending includes Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, veterans benefits, and more.”

“The agreement being eyed would raise the debt ceiling by $1.5 trillion in exchange for $2.5 trillion in net cuts to mandatory spending, done through a reconciliation package, two sources confirmed to The Hill,” Brooks added. “It is not clear which programs would be cut. The reconciliation process is a special procedure that gets around the Senate filibuster, allowing Republicans who will have trifecta control of government to push through their priorities without needing Democratic support.”

Brooks also explained that “Republicans have long been planning to use this process to advance an ambitious legislative agenda that includes extending Trump’s 2017 tax cuts and addressing border security. The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, however, notes that while reconciliation can be used to address most mandatory spending program, the Budget Act prohibits using it to change Social Security.”

The executive editor of The American Prospect, David Dayen, wrote: “They’re coming for Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid.”

“Mandatory spending cuts is Republican swamp speak for gutting your hard-earned Medicare,” commented U.S. Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR).

READ MORE: ‘Sick’: Dems Slam Johnson’s Refusal to Negotiate as Government Hurls Toward Shutdown

“Republicans are planning to rob you of your retirement & health care,” observed U.S. Senator Martin Heinrich (D-NM).

What could this mean?

Bobby Kogan, Senior Director of Federal Budget Policy for The Center for American Progress writes that Republicans “have been open about wanting to gut Medicaid and SNAP. $2.5 trillion in cuts could mean: -cutting Medicaid 32% -cutting Medicaid & SNAP 28% -entirely eliminating SNAP, TANF, SSI, and the Child Care entitlement to states.”

TANF, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, helps “families with children experiencing low-income achieve economic security and stability.”

SSI, also known as Supplemental Security Income, helps “people with disabilities and older adults who have little or no income or resources.”

“If the cut fell entirely on Medicaid,” Kogan added, “it would mean on average about 32 million people were kicked off of Medicaid (depending on how they structured the cuts).”

U.S. Rep. Diana DeGette (D-CO) remarked, “House Republicans just proposed slashing Medicare and Medicaid. I’ll stay in Washington until Hell freezes over to stop them.”

READ MORE: Why Aren’t More Democrats Speaking Out Against RFK Jr.’s HHS Nomination?

Trump during the campaign promised to cut “entitlements” and promised to never cut Social Security or Medicare.

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Melania Trump Hails Herself as a ‘Visionary’ at Women’s History Month Event

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First Lady Melania Trump, in remarks at a White House Women’s History Month celebration, hailed herself as a “visionary” as she gave advice to guests.

“As a visionary, I know success is not born overnight, but rather takes shape after long, and sometimes challenging process,” the First Lady said. She also described herself as “a mother, humanitarian, philanthropist, and entrepreneur.”

Mrs. Trump also mentioned her new film, “Melania,” saying that she “shaped its creative direction, served as a producer, managed post production and activated the marketing campaign.”

Noting that “curiosity is a core value” that keeps her “ahead of the curve,” she said that her “unrestricted mindset” has led her to “build across very different sectors,” including, “fashion, digital assets, publishing, accessories, skincare, commercial television, and of course, filmmaking.”

Sharing advice and personal experience, Mrs. Trump told the audience, “Often alone at the top, I follow my passion. Listen to my instincts, and always maintain a laser focus.”

She also declared that the “strength of America is closely tied to the role women play in shaping their children’s character, education, and morals. The values cultivated within our communities shape the voice and vision of our next generation.”

“A woman’s influence strengthens our democracy, capital markets, and time-tested business institutions,” she said. “Across the country today, women are finding unique ways to balance career, ambition, and family.”

Image via Reuters 

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‘Seems to Be No Plan’ Expert Says on Trump Securing Iran’s Nuclear Material to End War

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President Donald Trump says he is bombing Iran so it “does not obtain a nuclear weapon,” but a veteran nuclear policy expert is blasting his war strategy, warning there appears to be no plan to secure Iran’s nuclear stockpile — a failure that could leave the U.S. in the “worst of all worlds” while Iran is “holding all the nuclear cards.”

“This may be the worst planned war in history,” Joe Cirincione told Mother Jones. “I see no sign that they knew what they were doing. It seemed to be just literally bomb, bomb, bomb. There didn’t seem to be a plan for how you were going to get at that particular material. If there is one, it hasn’t emerged.”

He warns, “there seems to be no plan for how to end this war.”

“Almost all wars end by some sort of negotiation,” Cirincione says. “If you project forward several weeks, it’s going to have to end. Usually there’s some sort of arrangement that’s made to end a war.”

But, he says, President Trump “seems to be flying by the seat of his pants and making this up as it goes along,” so “we just don’t know.”

READ MORE: Trump Has ‘No Idea’ If Iran War Will Win Him Nobel Peace Prize

Cirincione warns that “it’s possible that Trump has put us into the worst of all possible worlds. He’s made it impossible for us to have a negotiated solution to this. And we can’t use any military means to solve the problem. So we’re left in this worst of all worlds, which is Iran is holding all the nuclear cards at the end of this war.”

Mother Jones reports that “with his war in Iran, Trump has created a big, possibly catastrophic problem: A half-ton of highly enriched uranium, which can be made bomb-ready, is somewhere…out there—available for use by Iran’s new regime or perhaps not fully secured and susceptible to theft or expropriation.”

So, what are the options?

“The United States either has to conduct some high-risk military maneuver where we would land people from the 82nd Airborne or an Israeli commando unit into the site at Isfahan and try to find the uranium, go down hundreds of meters underground, retrieve the uranium and pull it out or perhaps destroy it on site,” says Cirincione. He calls it “a high risk proposition.”

“What you’re left with is really the only other solution where we started: a negotiated deal.”

President Barack Obama signed one with Iran. Trump tore it up during his first term.

With a negotiated deal, “You have to get Iran’s agreement to secure that material, declare it, allow inspectors, and then either secure it under inspection or downblend it—the process in reverse, bring it down to a 3-percent or 4-percent level. That’s the only two solutions to this problem.”

READ MORE: ‘Trying to Look Cool’: Patel Roasted for Inviting UFC Stars to Train FBI Agents

 

Image via Reuters 

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Trump Has ‘No Idea’ If Iran War Will Win Him Nobel Peace Prize

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President Donald Trump says not only does he not know if his war against Iran will help win him the Nobel Peace Prize, he also doesn’t care, and doesn’t want to talk about it.

“Trump claimed to have ‘no idea’ if Operation Epic Fury will ‘get him over the finish line’ with committee members,'” the Washington Examiner reported on Thursday, after a telephone call with the president.

“I don’t know,” Trump told the Washington Examiner. “I’m not interested in it.”

“No, I don’t talk about the Nobel Prize,” Trump also said, when asked if the topic came up in his recent talks with foreign leaders.

The Examiner’s Christian Datoc, who spoke to the president, reported via video that Trump “appears to be having a massive about-face about winning the Nobel Peace Prize amid his war with Iran.”

“He told me over the phone that he’s not sure if he’s deserving of this award anymore,” Datoc added. “This is a massive change in the president’s rhetoric from really anything he’s said over the past thirteen months.”

READ MORE: ‘Trying to Look Cool’: Patel Roasted for Inviting UFC Stars to Train FBI Agents

 

Image via Reuters 

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