Biden sketches a dire picture of Republicans wanting spending cuts | WGN Radio 720

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden plans next week’s release of his proposed budget to paint a picture of what happens to U.S. health care if Republicans in Congress get their way with federal spending. We aim to utilize lead-ups towards

The Democratic president is visiting Virginia Beach, Va., on Tuesday to discuss potential Republican efforts to cut healthcare spending. It’s part of a broader presidential push to draw a strong contrast between his administration’s priorities and Republican priorities this week.

Deputy Director of the National Economic Council, Aviva Arrondain, said of Biden’s planned remarks, “Here’s the gist: Republicans in Congress are counted on by tens of millions of Americans. “And the president believes he has a duty to give the American public transparency about what that means, and if they don’t provide it, he will I will.”

Biden is expected to further develop that message when he meets with House Democrats in Baltimore on Wednesday and with Senate Democrats on Thursday. The effort to highlight a significant difference with Republicans comes as Biden is expected to begin his re-election campaign this spring.

The president is set to release a budget on March 9, pledging to cut the national debt by $2 trillion over 10 years without cutting spending on Democratic priorities like Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. I promise.

Biden has asked House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-California) to come forward with his budget proposal. McCarthy argues for spending cuts to balance the budget, but doesn’t give specifics, other than excluding cuts to Social Security and Medicare.

In the absence of a concrete Republican plan, Biden administration officials are sketching out the worst-case scenario the Republican Party could do, based on past statements. This includes the White House covering about 84 million people, an increase of 20 million since January 2020, just before the coronavirus pandemic began.

“A drastic reduction in Medicaid means worse coverage, or loss of coverage,” said Arondine, which includes seniors, people with disabilities and families with children. “It’s impossible to overstate how devastating it will be,” she added of the impact it will have on the health care system as a whole.

Administration officials also said potential cuts to the Obama-era Affordable Care Act could jeopardize insurance coverage for more than 100 million people with pre-existing medical conditions, jeopardize free preventive care, and reduce prescription costs. He said it could reduce the scope of the drug.

But with the Democrats in control of the Senate and Biden in the White House, there’s virtually no chance of a major Republican health care law being enacted.

There are Republican lawmakers who want to repeal Biden’s 2022 Climate Change and Healthcare Act, known as the Inflation Reduction Act. I made it possible to negotiate the price of the medicine. It also increased funding for the IRS and created incentives to move away from fossil fuels.

According to a poll conducted last fall by the Associated Press and the NORC Center for Public Affairs, the majority of adults in the United States already said health care was poorly handled in the country.

About two-thirds of adults also believe it’s the federal government’s responsibility to make sure everyone has health insurance, and adults ages 18 to 49 say they’re 50 and older. of adults are more likely to hold that view.

And about half of U.S. adults believe Medicare and Medicaid should play a bigger role in welfare payments. But that means increasing government funding, not less.

Closing in on the budget debate are statutory limits on the government’s borrowing powers that will be violated this summer when the extraordinary accounting measures taken by the Treasury to keep the government running have been exhausted. There is a possibility.

Biden has said that while McCarthy is pushing negotiations on debt, including spending cuts, the debt ceiling should be raised without conditions because it reflects previous spending commitments.

White House officials are trying to draw attention to the Republican Party’s lack of an overall blueprint. It had distanced itself from previous proposals by Senator Rick Scott (Florida Republican). Scott has now amended plans to waive Social Security, Medicare, National Security, Veterans Benefits, and other essential services.

Biden thrashed the issue in his State of the Union address earlier this month.

___

Associated Press writers Fatima Hussain and Josh Bork contributed to this report.