I like how you try to ratchet it down by showing per capita growth instead of just real growth, but are still left showing a significant increase......
.....and somehow think that this answers the point that, in fact, the proposed budget
continues to expand spending, just doing it more slowly.
That would be awesome if true, as we desperately need to reduce federal spending now and in the future on those programs. But it is not.
Your claimed "CUTS TO MEDICAID" look like
this.
View attachment 67220124
Yeah. That's basically getting rid of the program, right there :roll: Total Austerity, man.
On using per capita growth: The important thing to realize, when looking at the history of federal spending, is that they tend to grow over time even if there is no change in policy. One reason is inflation; another is a growing population. To get any meaningful (e.g. honest) understanding of spending growth, one has to adjust for these. (Yes, we spend more over time on health related items because we have more people to cover over time.) Fortunately, it’s easy to correct for the inflation and a growing population.
Medicaid is really, really, truly not getting cut: Politifacts addressed this: No, Medicaid gets less money than under current law, as the below graph states.
Moreover, "rolls back who is eligible. Before Obamacare,
Medicaid covered low-income children, pregnant women, elderly and disabled individuals, and some parents, but excluded other low-income adults. Under the Affordable Care Act, 31 states and the District of Columbia exercised the option to make Medicaid available to anyone making up to 133 percent of federal poverty. For a family of three, that would be about $27,000 a year. The Senate bill eliminates that option as of January 2018.
This shuts out the Medicaid option for
over 2.5 million people in states that didn’t expand eligibility.
The bill also makes federal payments to expansion states less generous. Under Obamacare, Washington covers at least 90 percent of the cost of covering people in the expansion group. That’s a better deal than the regular match, which can be anywhere from 50 to about 70 percent. The Senate bill phases out the higher rate for expansion states and by 2024, the match falls back to the regular rate.
The bill further ends Medicaid’s days as an open-ended promise to cover a certain percentage of a state’s costs. Instead, the bill shifts the program to a capped amount. The cap might apply on a per-person basis, or states might opt to take their money as a block grant. In either case, the amount would rise each year, but using a lower inflation factor than is used today."
Basically, as more and more Americans get older and need Medicaid for their nursing homes, the Republicans slow the growth in nominal figures, and fewer Americans will get Medicaid. Not accepting what's really going on is smoke screens and mirrors.
