Tag Archives: Medicare

Raw Story: ‘Treating him like a moron who can’t read’: Expert fed up with excuses for Trump

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Democratic strategist Julie Roginsky is losing her patience with people trying to give President Donald Trump an “out” to blame others for what some view as bad policies in his “big, beautiful” budget legislation.

Speaking to MSNBC’s Chris Jansing on Monday, Roginsky said, “Why Republicans are killing healthcare for millions doesn’t really matter. What really matters is what they’re doing.”

“They’re cutting health care to about 12 million Americans in the next several years. They’re shutting down rural hospitals. They’re getting rid of the social safety net. They’re ballooning the deficit to the point that it will imperil Medicare, Social Security and so on,” she said. “They’re getting rid of food assistance. They’re getting rid of every single aspect of the safety net and the social net that Donald Trump promised to keep. And don’t forget, he promised that he would not touch Medicaid, and he promised he wouldn’t touch Medicare. And he’s touching both of those.”

Jansing asked if Roginsky thought Trump knows what’s going on, implying he’s being lied to about what’s in the bill.

“Why do we keep treating him like a moron who can’t read?” ranted Roginsky. 

‘Treating him like a moron who can’t read’: Expert fed up with excuses for Trump

https://www.rawstory.com/trump-budget-2026

Daily Beast: John Oliver Dismantles MAGA’s Best Defense of Trump Budget Bill

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The late-night host argued why the Trump administration’s claims make no sense.

As the U.S. Senate continued to debate late into the night Sunday over President Donald J. Trump’s massive tax and spending bill, John Oliver poked massive holes in claims by the president and his Republican loyalists.

In Oliver’s monologue during his final episode of Last Week Tonight before his annual summer break, the Emmy-winning HBO host played clips of House Speaker Mike Johnson alleging on Meet The Press that the bill actually “strengthens Medicaid for the people who actually need it and deserve it,” a talking point echoed by, among others, Kansas Republican Sen. Roger Mitchell on Newsmax. Trump, for his part, said in a February interview with Sean Hannity while sitting alongside Elon Musk that: “Medicare, Medicaid, none of that stuff is going to be touched.”

“But there’s a few problems there,” Oliver said. “Starting with the fact that following through with a promise not to touch something has never exactly been one of Trump’s strong suits. Also the math just doesn’t support those claims.”

Oliver cited congressional budget analysis estimating more than 16 million Americans would become uninsured by 2034 should Congress pass Trump’s bill, and that rural hospitals and community services also would lose their funding as a result.

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The Republican bill, which would still need to go through reconciliation procedures with the House should it pass the Senate, would force low-income Medicaid recipients to prove they’d worked, volunteered or attended school for 80 hours a month. Oliver cited a November 2024 report by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, however, that found two-thirds of people on Medicaid already work, while most of the remainder are busy in school, functioning as family caretakers or living with a disability.

“And yet Republicans won’t stop painting lurid scenarios of Medicaid freeloaders,” Oliver said. 

John Oliver Dismantles MAGA’s Best Defense of Trump Budget Bill
The late-night host argued why the Trump administration’s claims make no sense.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/john-oliver-dismantles-magas-best-defense-of-trump-budget-bill

Newsweek: Iranian woman who has lived in US for four decades detained by ICE

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Mandana Kashanian, a 64-year-old Iranian woman who came to the United States at 17 years old just ahead of the 1979 Iranian Revolution, was arrested by U.S. Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE) on Sunday and is being in detention in Louisiana.

Newsweek has confirmed her detention in the ICE detainee database.

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Kashanian came to the U.S. on a student visa on July 24, 1978 and “gained authorization to remain in the U.S. until May 31, 1983 by changing her status to that of a spouse of a nonimmigrant student” according to documents from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit reviewed by Newsweek.

She eventually applied for asylum, but her claim was denied, according to the 2001 court documents. Her family told MSNBC that she applied for asylum and was denied multiple times. Kashanian has appealed several court decisions relating to her status as well as filing a motion to reopen appeals.

She married early on and then divorced. She then married Russ Milne, a U.S. citizen, in 1990 and the couple share a 32-year-old daughter together, who is also a U.S. citizen. Part of the complication of Kashanian’s status is due to her first marriage, which the court reported as “improper” and fraudulent, and subsequently interfered with her green card application once married to Milne.

Her father had worked as an engineer for the Shah in Tehran, according to Nola.com, and she claimed she would “experience extreme hardship if deported,” per court documents.

The local outlet said she was granted a stay of removal on the basis that she comply with immigration requirements, which her family says she has always met. Her husband told MSNBC on Friday that she has no criminal history.

She has lived in the states for almost 50 years, setting down roots in New Orleans. She shares Persian recipes on a YouTube channel, was involved in her daughter’s parent-teacher association, volunteered after Hurricane Katrina, and helps out family and neighbors, her husband told MSNBC.

On June 22, she was arrested by officers in unmarked vehicles, her neighbor Sarah Gerig, told Nola.com, noting that the arrest was less than a minute.

Kashanian is currently held in South Louisiana ICE processing center, according to the ICE database. The GEO Group runs the 1,000-person capacity facility located in Basile, Louisiana.

Iranian woman who has lived in US for four decades detained by ICE
Mandana Kashanian, who came to the U.S. as a teenager on a student visa in 1978, has been arrested by immigration officials and is in an ICE detention facility.

https://www.newsweek.com/iranian-woman-who-has-lived-us-four-decades-detained-ice-2092082

Associated Press: California senators demand Trump immigration officials stop using Medicaid data

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California’s two U.S. senators demanded on Wednesday that the Trump administration stop using personal data of millions of Medicaid enrollees — including their immigration status — as part of its sweeping deportation campaign.

In a letter to top administration officials, Democratic Sens. Adam Schiff and Alex Padilla expressed alarm over an Associated Press report last week that detailed how deportation officials had obtained the sensitive data over the objections of career health officials. They wrote that health officials needed to stop sharing the information and that the Department of Homeland Security should “destroy any and all such data” it had obtained.

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The AP reported that CMS transferred the data last week to DHS officials. Internal CMS records obtained by the AP showed the Medicaid agency fought the request, arguing that sharing the data would violate rules and federal law. Trump appointees overruled them, giving CMS a 54-minute deadline to share the information with DHS, according to emails obtained by AP.

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“We are deeply troubled that this administration intends to use individuals’ private health information for the unrelated purpose of possible enforcement actions targeting lawful noncitizens and mixed status families,” the senators wrote.

California senators demand Trump immigration officials stop using Medicaid data
The Trump administration’s decision to provide deportation officials with personal data — including the immigration status — on millions of Medicaid enrollees prompted two California U.S. senators on Wednesday to demand that the data sharing “cease” and for Homeland Security officials to “destroy” t

https://apnews.com/article/immigration-medicaid-trump-deportation-padilla-schiff-california-a7a701026de1f954cfbdf545a7d91cb8

New York Times: Trump Pardoned Tax Cheat After Mother Attended $1 Million Dinner

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Paul Walczak’s pardon application cited his mother’s support for the president, including raising millions of dollars and a connection to a plot to publicize a Biden family diary.

As Paul Walczak awaited sentencing early this year, his best hope for avoiding prison time rested with the newly inaugurated president.

Mr. Walczak, a former nursing home executive who had pleaded guilty to tax crimes days after the 2024 election, submitted a pardon application to President Trump around Inauguration Day. The application focused not solely on Mr. Walczak’s offenses but also on the political activity of his mother, Elizabeth Fago.

Ms. Fago had raised millions of dollars for Mr. Trump’s campaigns and those of other Republicans, the application said. It also highlighted her connections to an effort to sabotage Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s 2020 campaign by publicizing the addiction diary of his daughter Ashley Biden — an episode that drew law enforcement scrutiny.

Mr. Walczak’s pardon application argued that his criminal prosecution was motivated more by his mother’s efforts for Mr. Trump than by his admitted use of money earmarked for employees’ taxes to fund an extravagant lifestyle.

Still, weeks went by and no pardon was forthcoming, even as Mr. Trump issued clemency grants to hundreds of other allies.

Then, Ms. Fago was invited to a $1-million-per-person fund-raising dinner last month that promised face-to-face access to Mr. Trump at his private Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Fla.

…

trump-pardon-paul-walczak-tax-crimes.html

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/27/us/politics/trump-pardon-paul-walczak-tax-crimes.html

Snopes: Clarifying claim that DOGE, RFK Jr. found 8M people fraudulently on Medicaid

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The numbers appeared tied to estimates on the number of people who may be cut from Medicaid under U.S. President Donald Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill.”

Snopes has a lengthy discussion of claims by F’Elon Musk (DOGE) and Robert “Brainworm” Kennedy Jr. that they found 8M people fraudently on Medicaid. Their conclusion:

These numbers don’t add up to 8 million … 

Like almost everything else involving DOGE, the math doesn’t work out.

You can click the link below to read the article:

Clarifying claim that DOGE, RFK Jr. found 8M people fraudulently on Medicaid
The numbers appeared tied to estimates on the number of people who may be cut from Medicaid under U.S. President Donald Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill.”

https://www.snopes.com/news/2025/05/24/medicaid-doge-rfk-jr

MSNBC: Trump made a promise not to touch Medicare. His megabill just broke it.

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The House bill, as of now, would trigger massive cuts to the program.

As many Americans were still sleeping Thursday morning, the House of Representatives passed a bill whose text they hadn’t read, Donald Trump’s so-called One Big Beautiful Bill Act. The bill’s sweeping cuts to Medicaid, contributing to 14 million fewer people having health coverage by 2034, have received wide coverage. Less well known, however, is the bill’s dire implications for Medicare recipients. If the House version of the bill becomes law, Medicare payments to medical providers would be slashed by more than $500 billion over the next 10 years. This would have serious implications for tens of millions of older adults and providers and may even cause hospitals to close.

The explanation of how these automatic cuts to Medicare spending would work:

Though the GOP bill doesn’t explicitly call for Medicare cuts, it would trigger them under the Statutory Pay-As-You-Go Act. Congress passed Stat PAYGO in 2010 to discourage policymakers from enacting tax cuts and spending that would increase federal deficits.

Under Stat PAYGO, the Office of Management and Budget must keep “PAYGO scorecards” for five-year deficit impacts and 10-year deficit impacts. PAYGO stipulates that when any legislation is enacted, the average cost of the legislation for the next five years is entered into each year of the five-year scorecard and the average cost for the next 10 years is entered into each year of the 10-year scorecard. At the end of each session of Congress, if there is a cumulative deficit in that fiscal year on either scorecard, there is an automatic spending reduction (sequestration) to offset the larger of the two deficits. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that the House Republican bill, if enacted, would increase the deficit by $2.3 trillion over 10 years, and trigger sequestration.

And as for social security:

Some types of funding, including many mandatory spending accounts like Social Security, are exempt from the automatic cuts, but Medicare provider payments are not. 

So …

In short, though Trump and House Republicans promised this bill would not touch Medicare, at the moment that promise is broken.

Opinion | Trump made a promise not to touch Medicare. His megabill just broke it.
The House bill, as of now, would trigger massive cuts to the program.

https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnbc-opinion/trump-made-promise-not-touch-medicare-megabill-just-broke-rcna208518

MSNBC: It’s not just Medicaid: Why the Republicans’ bill would likely force Medicare cuts, too

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The CBO said the GOP’s megabill would lead to $500 billion in cuts to Medicare. Two days later, 215 House Republicans voted for it anyway.

As the fight over the Republicans’ so-called One Big Beautiful Bill Act unfolded, much of the focus turned to Medicaid, and for good reason. Despite Donald Trump’s promise not to cut the health care program, the GOP legislation would cut roughly $700 billion from Medicaid in the coming years, and with just hours remaining before the bill reached the floor, party leaders added new and punitive Medicaid provisions to shore up support from far-right members.

But as important as the future of Medicaid is, the legislation’s impact on Medicare matters, too.

If people were to dig into the 1,000-page bill to look for the provisions related to Medicare cuts, they won’t find them. But there’s a difference between the literal text of the legislation and the practical effects of the legislation.

In fact, as The Washington Post reported, the Congressional Budget Office found that the Republicans’ megabill would add so many trillions of dollars to the national debt, “it could force nearly $500 billion in cuts to Medicare” — with some cuts taking effect as early as next year. As the Post noted, the higher deficits would force budget officials “to mandate across-the-board spending cuts over that window that would hit the federal health insurance program for seniors and people with disabilities.”

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But that doesn’t change the bottom line: The CBO told the House that the Republicans’ reconciliation package would lead to $500 billion in cuts to Medicare, and two days later, 215 House Republicans voted for it anyway.

It’s not just Medicaid: Why the Republicans’ bill would likely force Medicare cuts, too
The CBO said the GOP’s megabill would lead to $500 billion in cuts to Medicare. Two days later, 215 House Republicans voted for it anyway.

https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/medicare-cuts-medicaid-republicans-reconciliation-bill-rcna208484

Musk Watch: Musk promised budget cuts. He delivered a panopticon.

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The Department of Government Efficiency, the secretive White House initiative founded by Elon Musk, was sold to the American public under the guise of cost-cutting. In this regard it has failed. After more than 110 days of austerity theater, DOGE has shaved just a few billion dollars from annual federal spending. Musk, who is poised to “significantly” reduce his involvement in the project, had promised $2 trillion.

DOGE has had much more success expanding the executive branch’s domestic surveillance capacity.

Citing whistleblower complaints, Rep. Gerald Connolly divulged last month that DOGE is building a “master database,” a single exhaustive repository containing personal data held by numerous federal agencies, including the IRS, the Social Security Administration, and the Department of Health and Human Services.

“The DOGE team is reportedly engaged in an unprecedented effort to build a massive database using data from SSA and across the federal government,” the Democratic lawmaker wrote in a letter to the SSA Office of the Inspector General.

Efforts to build the database are part of a Trump executive order dictating the elimination of the federal government’s “information silos.” In signing the executive order in March, Trump tied it to DOGE’s nominal mission of “stopping waste, fraud, and abuse.”

But in action, amalgamating federal data is part of the White House’s push to deport and intimidate undocumented immigrants, including by falsifying SSA death records to prevent undocumented immigrants from accessing housing and banking services. DOGE employees are also using data from the Department of Housing and Urban Development to remove undocumented immigrants from housing, even if they are living with family members who are legal residents.

The DOGE master database is being built and housed at the Department of Homeland Security and includes the use of biometric data to track immigrants, according to Wired. “They are already cross-referencing immigration [data] with SSA and IRS as well as voter data,” one DHS official told the outlet. FedScoop reported last week that members of DOGE have been spotted at a DHS border security office that houses fingerprint, facial, and iris records.

China would be so proud!

Musk promised budget cuts. He delivered a panopticon.
The Department of Government Efficiency, the secretive White House initiative founded by Elon Musk, was sold to the American public under the guise of cost-cutting.

https://www.muskwatch.com/p/musk-promised-budget-cuts-he-delivered

Raw Story: ‘Pay for Trump’s golf trips’: Observers call out ‘Orwellian language’ in Republican budget

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“The GOP budget has $0 for FEMA’s emergency management funding, yet provides $300M to pay for Trump’s golf trips,” complained Rep. Dan Goldman (D-N.Y.). “Extreme weather doesn’t discriminate between red and blue districts. The GOP is choosing Trump’s golf over the safety and security of their constituents.”

‘Pay for Trump’s golf trips’: Observers call out ‘Orwellian language’ in Republican budget
President Donald Trump released his 2026 budget proposal on Friday in a document that says he’s cut $163 billion from federal spending so far. Fox News reporter Edward Lawrence said that this was a “skinny” topline budget request, but it “does not include Medicare and Medicaid spending. Represents an increase of 13.4%, for the military,” Lawrence s…

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/pay-for-trump-s-golf-trips-observers-call-out-orwellian-language-in-republican-budget/ar-AA1E42tw