Steve Bannon to the left of NPR on Medicaid cuts.
Medicaid funding is a foundation of a great deal of Northeastern Pennsylvania, but we can't be complacent that our politicians won't take marching orders from tycoons like Elon Musk.
The fact that those advocating for abolishing Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid feel comfortable talking openly about it on Fox News, should signal to everyone that they’re only interested in manufacturing consent for what they believe they can push through now under the Trump regime despite widespread opposition and disapproval to such a move.
The New Republic - Malcolm Ferguson/ February 20, 2025 Trump’s Commerce Secretary Confirms Plan to Gut Medicare—and More Howard Lutnick has revealed Donald Trump’s true plans. “Back in October … I flew down to Texas, got Elon Musk to [set up DOGE], and here was our agreement: that Elon was gonna cut a trillion dollars of waste fraud and abuse,” Lutnick told Jesse Waters of Fox News Wednesday night. “We have almost $4 trillion of entitlements, and no one’s ever looked at it before. You know Social Security is wrong, you know Medicaid and Medicare are wrong. So he’s gonna cut a trillion and we’re gonna get rid of all these tax scams that hammer against America and we’re gonna raise a trillion dollars of revenue.”
More uninsured people racking up medical debt they can never ever pay off never made anything better in America for those people or anyone else. And once the damage is done there will be no way to convince people materially harmed that it was a good idea.
NPR - Why many Republicans think shrinking Medicaid will make it better February 10, 2025 7:00 AM ET From TRADEOFFS By Ryan Levi Many conservatives and libertarians have long believed that a smaller Medicaid program that covers fewer people would be a better Medicaid program. "Medicaid is not working for Americans," said Robert F. Kennedy Jr. last week at his confirmation hearings to become Trump's secretary of health and human services.
The people who get kicked off Medicaid sure won't like it, even if they're unaware of it right now because most people don’t pay attention to what Republicans say in Congress, and Trump promised not to touch Medicaid while campaigning… even if he’s doing an about face in a fit of senility.
Trump Endorses Sweeping Medicaid Cuts—to Give Tax Cuts to Rich - Remember when Donald Trump promised not to touch Medicaid? He’s already flipped. Malcolm Ferguson / February 19, 2025 - The New Republic “We need both Chambers to pass the House Budget to ‘kickstart’ the Reconciliation process, and move all of our priorities to the concept of, ‘ONE BIG BEAUTIFUL BILL.’ It will, without question, MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!” But the House bill Trump endorsed breaks his promise to never touch Medicaid, instead levying a whopping $2 trillion dollar cut to the critical program in order to pay for tax cuts for the rich.
Even Steve Bannon recognizes this affects MAGA too. I suppose very privileged out of touch people might not realize this though.
Newsweek - Steve Bannon Issues Medicaid Warning to Elon Musk -Published Feb 14, 2025 "I think it's generally confusion and mayhem on Capitol Hill. But hey, maybe I'm wrong. Maybe there's some logic here. Maybe they're making some progress on this. But until we see the math—and I mean hundreds of billions of dollars of cuts—and stop whining about entitlements, get into that discretionary spending, get into the Pentagon, get into Medicaid. Medicaid, you've got to be careful with because a lot of MAGA is on Medicaid. If you don't think so, you are dead wrong. Medicaid is going to be a complicated one. You just can't take a meat ax to it, although I would love to."
What a lot of people don't realize is that many middle class and yes even upper class people have elderly family members who rely on Medicaid Long Term Care in nursing homes. They do what's called Medicaid "half loafing" to preserve family inheritable money, and then Medicaid picks up the bill for the rest of the person's life in a nursing home when their legally countable assets run out while giving the rest of their assets to family. Even the wealthy with max Social Security income and private income could still only cover a portion of the gargantuan price of nursing home care which is often topping $10,000 per month. If Medicaid funding is cut these nursing homes will turn into even bigger shitshows than they've already been, where staffing is so tenuous that at times they've had to use National Guard as pinch hitting in the nursing homes during respiratory virus surges since the start of the pandemic, and of course nursing homes close left and right here in Pennsylvania, and likely elsewhere too. These nursing homes are already screaming out that the increases in funding aren't enough. Not sure what is the Republican plan for seniors might be once they wipe out funding of nursing homes.
TribLive - Some say 7% boost in Pa. Medicaid funding is not enough for nursing homes; Sen. Kim Ward agrees - Joe Napsha | Saturday, July 27, 2024 5:00 a.m. As an example of the challenging conditions for long-term care nursing home operators in Pennsylvania, two nursing homes in the past few months have announced planned closures, there have been two bankruptcies and two emergency evacuations of the residents, according to the state health care association. One of those bankruptcies — South Hills Operations LLC — has affected 13 nursing homes in Southwestern Pennsylvania, including ones in North Huntingdon, Monroeville, Murrysville and Cheswick.
Of course nursing home flipping is a problem that goes unaddressed and exacerbates the problems. I don't expect Republicans to be doing anything about this because they usually side with business self-dealing schemes and the like. I'd been hearing about people in this nursing home flipping business as far back as 2015 but I only saw it started getting covered outside of niche news outlets years later. And the horrendous situation in nursing homes brought on by the onset of the pandemic overshadowed a lot of other egregious problems in nursing homes.
The Guardian - Seniors and staff caught in the middle of nursing homes' quest for profit - The cycle of buying and selling care homes has led to shortcuts, closures, even fraud – and imperiled vulnerable residents’ health - Ann Neumann Thu 30 Jul 2020 01.00 EDT In the spring of 2018, Shelly Robinson came down with a case of the flu serious enough to send her to the emergency room. “The lady was like, ‘Your insurance is no good,’” she told me, “and I was like, ‘What do you mean my insurance is no good? They’ve been taking money out of my paycheck.’” But Robinson, a certified nursing assistant at Lancaster Care and Rehab in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, operated by Skyline Healthcare, ended up having to pay the $3,500 out of pocket. She didn’t know at the time that her issue at the hospital would become the subject of a federal class-action lawsuit alleging fraud, theft and other illicit conduct by a multimillionaire in the business of flipping nursing homes for profit. Robinson reported the problem to her union representative, Chris Sloat, who was fielding various complaints from Robinson’s colleagues and staffers at other Skyline facilities including a pregnant woman who found out she had no insurance right before giving birth. At a facility in Rosemont, the elevator went unrepaired for weeks so staff carried patients, food, supplies and trash up and down the stairs. For other staffers, dental bills began to pile up. Some couldn’t afford to stay at their jobs.
It appears pretty obvious that Republicans are moving to wipe out federal funding of Medicaid since $880 billion is pretty much the budget of Medicaid. It makes no sense, but Republicans have always had this on their agenda, and it was spelled out fairly clearly in their Project 2025 document, which I've been complaining about for ages, but which a lot of people last year told me they thought it was just a liberal conspiracy theory to fundraise or get votes for Democrats. Apparently there were people spreading this propaganda minimization in so-called left media.
Healthcare Dive - GOP calls for $1.5T in cuts, much of which could come from healthcare - House Republicans unveiled their budget wish list on Wednesday, which directs the Energy and Commerce Committee — which oversees Medicare, Medicaid and the ACA — to find $880 billion in savings. Published Feb. 13, 2025 Rebecca Pifer House Republicans unveiled a budget resolution on Wednesday that asks the Energy and Commerce Committee, which oversees Medicare and Medicaid, to find $880 billion in savings. The Trump administration has said it won’t cut Medicare, so the brunt of cuts would likely be in the safety-net Medicaid program, which provides health insurance to almost 80 million low-income Americans.
My letter to reps:
The Musk-Trump administration obviously is moving to wipe out Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid to do tax cuts for tycoons. If Lutnick is willing to just say on Fox News that programs are “wrong” it’s clear Musk & Trump intend to push this agenda through no matter how unpopular or damaging and they manufacture consent or just bully seniors in the Fox News audience into accepting demise. I am against cuts to Medicaid Medicare Social Security, I want them expanded by taxing the ever loving crap out of tycoons, moguls, billionaires, and corporations to do it. And I know this sentiment is popular and the only question is how soon it happens and how hard the hammer comes down. Truth will out. I am already aware of how important all this is for the healthcare system and the functioning of our region – patients for our healthcare, doctors for their income and also residency training, hospital and nursing home revenue, healthcare worker jobs, state and federal workers and the entire private business economy propped up by it — it all will come crashing down with even minor cuts. So when are you going to stand up to the Trump Musk administration and put this agenda to bed?
Shorter version:
The Musk-Trump administration obviously is moving to wipe out Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid to do tax cuts for tycoons. If Lutnick is willing to just say on Fox News that programs are “wrong” it’s clear Musk & Trump intend to push this agenda through no matter how unpopular or damaging and they manufacture consent or just bully seniors in the Fox News audience into accepting demise. I am against cuts to Medicaid Medicare Social Security. I am aware of how important all this is for the healthcare system and the functioning of our region – patients for our healthcare, doctors for their income and also residency training, hospital and nursing home revenue, healthcare worker jobs, state and federal workers and the entire private business economy propped up by it — it all will come crashing down with even minor cuts. So when are you going to stand up to the Trump Musk administration and put this agenda to bed?
Please feel free to copy or repurpose the contents of my letter for your own letters to reps.
In the interim since writing my reps about this before, the member of Congress for PA's 8, Rep. Rob Bresnahan has come out promising to vote no on cuts to Medicaid, Medicare, Social Security, or food stamps.
River Reporter - Bresnahan comments on proposed Medicaid cuts Posted Friday, February 14, 2025 12:35 pm WASHINGTON, DC — On February 13, Representative Rob Bresnahan (PA-08) released the following statement in response to current budget reconciliation negotiations. According to NBC News, the House Republican party released a budget resolution that, in part, calls for a reduction by $2 trillion of "mandatory spending," which includes Medicare, Medicaid and SNAP benefits. “I ran for Congress under a promise of always doing what is best for the people of Northeastern Pennsylvania,” said Bresnahan. “If a bill is put in front of me that guts the benefits my neighbors rely on, I will not vote for it. Pennsylvania’s Eighth District chose me to advocate for them in Congress. These benefits are promises that were made to the people of NEPA and where I come from, people keep their word.” Pennsylvania’s Eighth Congressional District is home to more than 200,000 Medicaid recipients, amounting to 25% of the district, according to Bresnahan's office. Additionally, it is home to 66,000 Medicare recipients, and 190,000 Social Security recipients. (emphasis added)
I saw this news item last month and can confirm that these ads have been running on the Roku Youtube account at my house.
WisPolitics - Protect Our Care: Launches new ads calling on lawmakers to oppose Republican plans to slash Medicaid - January 23, 2025 As part of its new $10 million dollar “Hands Off Medicaid” campaign, Protect Our Care is releasing new ads across 10 key House districts to sound the alarm on Republican threats to Medicaid. News reports reveal that Republicans in Congress are writing budgets that slash trillions of dollars from Medicaid in order to pay for another round of tax giveaways for the wealthy and big corporations. If they cut Medicaid, millions – including working folks, children with disabilities, expectant mothers, and seniors in nursing homes – could lose critical health care coverage. This first rounds of ads will run in the following districts: David Schweikert (AZ-1), David Valadao (CA-22), Young Kim (CA-40), Ken Calvert (CA-41), Nick LaLota (NY-01), Andrew Garbarino (NY-02), Mike Lawler (NY-17), Ryan Mackenzie (PA-07), Rob Bresnahan (PA-08), and Dan Newhouse (WA-04).
Rep. Rob Bresnahan may indeed be sincere in understanding the importance of Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid (including LTC) in a region that's known to be above average in senior citizen population. He may be well aware that Matt Cartwright had been re-elected many times based on his strong affinity with seniors in the area. Bresnahan I'm sure knows he squeaked by in winning his election, and that well-connected Cartwright has already expressed intent of running against him in 2026. That said, we know that Elon Musk wants Medicaid gutted, and we see the evidence that Elon Musk controls Trump, and Trump controls the Republican Party, so much so that a republican senator doctor who clearly understood the risks of anti-vax hysteria was somehow pressured to confirm walking embarrassment animal carcass obsessed public health threat RFKJr. All Republican senators voted to confirm RFKJr except for the wealthy powerful and extremely elderly polio survivor, Mitch Mcconnell. Rob Bresnahan is young. We have no idea what aspirations for Republican leadership he has his sights set on, nor what potential weaknesses he has that might be exploited by MAGA influence operations.
So I'm keeping my eye on Rob Bresnahan, and not assuming he will keep his word, since so many politicians often fail to do so. And that includes Democrats, never mind to trust a Republican in the age of Elon Musk Dark MAGA.