Yes we know Social Security and Medicare if not reformed .Both are at least mostly funded through the payroll tax

But that what is really a budget buster is the growth of welfare in all it's forms . Since the war on poverty ;welfare pay outs have exploded (medicaid, food stamps, refundable tax credits, Supplemental Security Income, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, federal housing subsidies and too many other programs to mention . ) It is stunning .

When it started it was averaging $7,352 in inflation adjusted $$$ . Today (sit down for this ) $64,700 This a 780% increase since inception. Now get this . This is almost 10% higher than the increase in American household income.

How does this compare to the rest of the socialist libtard world ? France is considered a generous nation in giving monopoly francs . Indeed they top the list at redistributing GDP at 30.1% . But the US is not far behind . We spend 29.4% of GDP on gimmees.

Expenditure for Social Purposes | Compare your country

If you consider these transfer payments as income and reduce the income of those who work and pay the taxes for these programs ;the average incomes are roughly the same whether someone works or not.

Why would you work then ? Many people have gotten out of the grind and are riding the gravy train. Just look at the prime age labor participation rate.
Since 1965, labor force participation for prime-age men has fallen every year, with a total decline of 8.2 percentage points as of October 2017.
Working harder or finding it harder to work: Demographic trends in annual work hours show an increasingly fractured workforce | Economic Policy Institute (epi.org)

One of the greatest successes of the Bubba-Newt team was work requirements .

"All Americans, without regard to party, know that our welfare system is broken, that it teaches the wrong values, rewards the wrong choices, hurts those it was meant to help,"

Remarks to the National Governors' Association Conference | The American Presidency Project (ucsb.edu)

But those have been scrapped. They should be reinstated asap.

One easy and painless way to begin budget cutting would be to scale back Medicaid to pre-covid spending levels .

Feb 2020 it was at $602 billion. It is now $963.8 billion . It was expanded during the pandemic and continued to increase.

Medicaid is a bigger freebee than Obamacare ever was . At least with Obamacare there are co-pays and deductibles . All those are covered by the taxpayers in Medicaid .

Repubs want to starve children and deny pregnant moms . Why not make that false claim . It worked in 2018 . Repubs lost control of the House of Reps with the 'throw granny over the cliff ' smear.

It was a lie then and a lie now.

The Dems are salivating over the prospect of calling out the recently passed Resolution bill .
The narrative is set Tax cuts for the wealthy ;Benefit cuts for the needy.

Is it true ?
Medicaid was passed in 1965 to help the needy......poor children....pregnant women.... the elderly ....the disabled. Dems have expanded it into a budget busting gimmee for able bodied, working-age adults with lower incomes. As a percent of the budget it has exploded ;especially after Obamacare where Medicaid eligibility expanded to up to 138% of the federal poverty level . Medicaid spending as a share of spending rose to 10% from 7% between 2007 and 2023 The share of Social Security and Medicare remained stable.

The budget passed yesterday does NOT cut Medicaid .The typical Dem lie is that reducing the growth of spending is a draconian cut.

The CBO estimates a growth in Medicaid spending by $2.35 trillion in a decade . The Repub plan shaves $880 billion from that total. That means that Medicaid would still grow by over $1 trillion by 2035.
They want a 2% reduction in the growth of spending. It is only draconian if you consider Clueless Joe was increasing it by over 9% a year.

National Health Expenditures 2022 Highlights | CMS

Here's a fact . Dem states have used Federal Medicaid allotments as a slush fund to the state's spending.
Joe's HHS gave waivers for non-medical related spending like homeless shelters and to illegal immigrants

Quote:

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Fourteen states now offer Medicaid or Children’s Health Insurance Program benefits to at least some people living in the United States illegally, and 12 of those states have an approved Medicaid waiver. Five states with waivers cover illegal immigrants of all ages and categories.
State dollars fund Medicaid coverage for illegal migrants, not federal subsidies.

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Trump Should End Medicaid for Illegal Immigrants

As I said ;the Federal outlays are fungible.

States were given permission to pay for housing and food with Medicaid funds that were designed for health care. They even gave California the go ahead to spend it on "activity stipends "

Medicaid Scam Delays Budget Deal – AGF Perspectives

So it should be a simple thing to make the proposed budget goals and even deeper ones. California plans to milk it and receive more Federal Medicaid funds than the entire Florida budget.
𝙿𝚊𝚞𝚕 𝚆𝚒𝚗𝚏𝚛𝚎𝚎 on X: "“California’s budget this year anticipates getting $119 billion in federal Medicaid spending, which is more than Florida’s entire state budget.” cc: @RonDeSantis @brian_blase https://t.co/apElSpIUyI" / X

It's not even like people on Medicaid are getting gold plated care . In fact their care sucks . But Medicaid is one of those 3rd rails that Repubs are scared to touch. Maybe RFK Jrs reforms can correct that.

But be prepared for Hakem Jeffries' minions to hit the streets ;and for Schmuck Shumer to bore you with talk of Repubs killing people.

People have, incredibly, just become too stupid to understand that fantasy dollars sooner or later run out, and then there's the devil to pay.

It's started . Jeffries is saying patients will lose benefits

Jeffries: ‘Republicans are lying’ about Medicaid cuts

Democrats dust off 2018 playbook with attacks on potential Medicaid cuts - Roll Call

HEADLINES: Republicans Are Scrambling for Cover After Voting to Slash Medicaid Funding By Nearly $1 Trillion — Protect Our Care

It does NOT cut Medicaid by $1 trillion The Energy and Commerce Committee wants $880 billion in cuts of which some of it would come from Medicaid. Nothing in the bill is set in stone. There will be a conference committee with the Senate before a final bill is passed.


Repubs are already balking.

Threat of Medicaid cuts looms over Republican lawmakers in Congress - The Washington Post

The real elephant in the room is unfortunately the GOP . Musk explained in Trump's cabinet meeting why there is DOGE ,and what is at stake.

Elon Musk: I received death threats after firing federal workers

The left has taken to using the Judicial System in a desperate attempt to stop or at least delay .

The GOP in Congress claims to love DOGE . But actions speak louder than words . Their proposed budgets do not say they want to trim the deficit . It slightly slows the rate of increase while continuing to increase the debt .(and Lindsey Grahams Senate version is even worse ) We are running out of time .
Americans say incomes not keeping up with inflation — CBS News poll - CBS News

Quote:

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The lone Republican dissenter Tuesday night was Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), who was concerned about the bill adding $20 trillion to the national debt.

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'Hell no': MAGA senator suggests House GOP budget bill will go through major changes - Alternet.org


WSJ exposed the GOP in Congress for the frauds they are.

Quote:

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The firestorm over President Trump’s alleged executive overreach—and most of the court cases challenging it—could be largely extinguished if a single sentence were added to the soon-to-be-passed reconciliation bill: “Notwithstanding any other provision of law, for fiscal years 2025-26 the president is hereby authorized and directed to identify and eliminate at least $500 billion of waste, fraud and abuse in federal spending by auditing expenditures, discharging employees or officers, canceling grants and reducing or eliminating agencies and departments.”
Most of the challenges to Mr. Trump’s executive orders and the actions of the Department of Government Efficiency don’t involve constitutional rights. Instead, the plaintiffs claim that Mr. Trump is violating statutes or exercising authority Congress hasn’t granted him. That’s the core claim behind the court cases attacking Mr. Trump’s firings, grant freezes, dismantling of the U.S. Agency for International Development, decision to give Elon Musk access to agency data and so on. (His executive order on birthright citizenship does involve an alleged violation of constitutional rights.) Such claims would be made moot if Congress gave the president express power to take these actions.

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Congress Can Easily Green-Light DOGE - WSJ
Why only $500 million ?

That single sentence would make all the court cases moot. All the cases say that DOGE infringes on Congressional power . That sentence says Congress is delegating that power to the President and giving their stamp of approval. Will they add it ? Hell no . They really don't want spending curbed . Spending is the source of their power. Don't want the heat of making the cuts ? Trump will do them for you .

He is saying go ahead pass your bills that authorize more spending . I don't have to spend it . I don't have to print the monopoly bucks for you .You are funding programs I am eliminating .

But they do need to add that language into the spending bill.

Back to the Dems . Part B of their plan is in effect. Part A was getting friendly judges to throw monkey wrenches .

Part B is called in the the political world as astroturfing .

Quote:

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organized activity that is intended to create a false impression of a widespread, spontaneously arising, grassroots movement in support of or in opposition to something (such as a political policy) but that is in reality initiated and controlled by a concealed group or organization

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ASTROTURFING Definition & Meaning - Merriam-Webster

In this case they are packing Repub town halls and disrupting them. Then the compliant press reports that Repubs are getting buyer's remorse to cutting the bureaucracy.

Here is the lib version

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After town hall confrontations between liberal protesters and Republican members of Congress in Georgia and Wisconsin went viral, the comparisons between 2025, the spring of 2017 and the summer of 2009 became obvious. In both 2009 and 2017, raucous town halls focused on the unpopular legislative agenda of the party in power were forerunners of a massive midterms backlash.

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Speaker Johnson told the truth

Quote:

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House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) blamed "paid protesters" that he says were funded by Democrats for showing up at GOP town halls to voice their concerns.

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Video: Kaitlan Collins asks House Speaker Mike Johnson about protesters at GOP town halls | CNN Politics

Red-District DOGE Protests, Cited As Proof of Broad Musk 'Backlash,' Were Organized By Left-Wing Groups


Here is the mobilization call by the Soros funded . 'Indivisible '

Musk or Us Recess Toolkit | Indivisible

Then the compliant press chimes in with "responsible " journalism
GOP lawmakers confronted by constituents angry with Trump-Musk cuts - CBS News

Republicans Face Angry Voters at Town Halls, Hinting at Broader Backlash - The New York Times

Mary Meeker is a former Wall Street financial analyst ; and a venture capitalist . Back in 2011 she created and published 'USA Inc. : a basic summary of America's financial statements.' She analyzed the state of our finances as if the country was a corporation. Her conclusions were a clarion call to the nation to get it's financial affairs in order. She said it was on a course towards bankruptcy .

Mary Meeker's Definitive Guide to the American Public Debt Crisis - Business Insider

She has revisited her 2011 report .

Here is the intro to her new report

Quote:

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Over the last 14 years, the state of our country’s finances has profoundly deteriorated. Metrics that we analyzed in our 2011 report USA Inc., A Basic Summary of America’s Financial Statements show – as we had feared – a dramatic decline in America’s ability to handle many of the social, economic, and international challenges that lie ahead. Beneath the surface, financial “results” – treating the government as if it were a corporation – conceal a buildup in structural weakness that can jeopardize our country’s standing in the world. The growth and general inefficiency in public spending (and regulation) of all sorts – but especially related to entitlements and interest expense – appears unsustainable. Paying for the debt we have collectively assumed is increasingly likely to crowd out future opportunities. Simply put, the abnormally low interest rates prevailing in the early years of this century allowed our elected and appointed leaders to avoid making the difficult decisions needed to restore our finances to long-term stability. Had effective interest rates remained at their longer-term average, America’s annual net interest payments would have been nearly $1 trillion higher. Adding state and local government debt adjusted to include the real long-term impacts of public retirement costs, the “net worth” of our country is deteriorating rapidly – leaving our flexibility to handle real national crises greatly diminished.

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BOND | BOND

Add to this a report that says most large cities in the nation are deeply in the red (and I don't mean red -conservative).

The total debt for all 75 cities was $300.7 billion at the end of the 2023 fiscal year.*
Financial-State-of-the-Cities-2025.pdf

When the dung hits the fans cities call on the Federal Government for bailouts. Whoa to the elected leader who doesn't comply.

Ford to City: Drop Dead

Ford lost NY state narrowly in 1976 . That cost him the election

1976 Electoral College Results | National Archives

Carter Victor In Tight Race; Ford Loses New York State; Democrats Retain Congress

But the Federal Government is in no position to bail out a local grocery store let alone a city or a state.
Biden says federal government to cover 100% of costs for initial LA fire recovery - ABC News

House moderate Repubs are going to kill the so called Big Beautiful Bill . The House conservative Repubs will be blamed
Repubs from blue states want state and local tax(SALT) deductions reinstated . This allows blue states to over tax their citizens and have the Federal government foot the bill .Since most of the people do not itemize ;this is essentially a tax break for the rich.

Medicaid .Spending is out of control since Obamacare and covid legislation. At very least spending should be brought back to pre-covid levels But any proposal to reduce it ;even asking able bodied men to go to work meets opposition. Repub moderates oppose cuts .

Ending green new steal subsidies . Even though much of the gimmees are ineffective ;Repub moderates in all states see it as reducing benefits for their own states . Even in states like Texas they want them because it brings Federal money into their district .

Barring some miracle I predict the Repub budget will go down in flames or some watered down version that does nothing to reduce the debt will pass.

Congress looks like it is punting on the budget .

Moody's sees the writing on the wall and down graded the US credit to double A . This was the last ratings service that had the US so high. More risk means the US will have to pay higher interest to attract investors to purchase monopoly bucks.

The government has a choice to downgrade voluntarily . Short of that it will be forced onto them

U.S. Loses Last Triple-A Credit Rating - WSJ

The Repubs are not serious about the debt crisis . The bill being advanced through the House of Reps increases the deficit and debt. Even worse ;what they are proposing is right out of the Clueless Joe brand of monetary policy and spending.

It is getting so bad that some Repubs want to increase taxes on the rich ;not to reduce the debt mind you . They think that with reintroducing State and Local Tax deductions (SALT) there will be more $$$ in the Federal pool to transfer to the Blue States they reside in. Schmuck Shumer approves this message .

Then the ones who's districts benefit from the green new steal want to extend it rather that eliminating it. They are making the preposterous claim that eliminating the green subsidies would increase energy prices . uh yeah and Gavin Newsom has a high speed rail he wants to sell them . Ask Texas how the green new steal worked for them .

There are few Repubs who are serious about the debt anymore even as the nation's credit rating rapidly approach junk bond status.

Mortgage rates climbed above 7% . Great job ! And yet the lowest priority of our Reps is balancing the budget.

Brookings Institute says 'what me worry ?'

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We recognize there is great uncertainty about the repercussions of debt as a share of GDP rising to levels far exceeding historical precedents, and an analysis benchmarked to historical relationships in the macroeconomy may understate the risks of a fiscal crisis. That said, our analysis suggests that, so long as the U.S. maintains its strong institutions and a fiscal trajectory that isn’t vastly worse than the one currently projected, the chance of a severe and enduring fiscal crisis over the next few decades from debt accumulation appears quite low.

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Assessing the risks and costs of the rising US federal debt

They are nuts . The debt should be the number 1 concern

Cato correctly says that the Repubs are going to permanently cement some of the worse Green New Steal subsidies into the budget .

House Tax Bill Doesn’t Kill Green New Deal Subsidies Fast Enough | Cato at Liberty Blog

The markets reacted predictably to the Moody's downgrade and the Big ugly bill being debated in the House that is likely to increase the debt by $3 -$5 trillion.
U.S. dollar skids on concerns about implications of Trump tax bill
I'm hoping the bill fails but so far the only no votes I know of are Dem votes.

Meanwhile Trump's tariffs are only on pause subject to change suddenly on one of his whims . The only thing the markets ever really hope for is predictability . It reacts very negatively to chaos . Chaos appears to be Trump's working model this term.

The absurd presumption in the big ugly bill is that the economy will grow sustainably over 3 % due to the combined tax cuts and spending cuts . Most projections have the US economy struggling to get above 2% . Public debt crowds out private investment. Increased government borrowing leads to higher interest rates, which discourages private firms from borrowing and investing.

House just passed their version of the bill 215-214 Only 2 Repubs voted no .Reps. Thomas Massie of Kentucky and Warren Davidson of Ohio . House Freedom Caucus chair Andy Harris of Maryland voted present. I think it was one of those you have to vote for it to find out what is in it . Changes were made to it all night.

As predicted the SALT deduction was raised in the bill. This will primarily benefit rich people in Blue states. The bill raises the SALT deduction to $40,000 with a 1% annual inflation adjustment over 10 years. The deduction would be phased out starting at $500,000 of income for couples. Most American's incomes don't reach that level and most Americans use a standard deduction. What this does for the Dems is it allows them to raise taxes in Blue states and have the Federal Government foot a lot of the bill.

I'm with Senator Ron Johnson

TheBlaze on X: "GOP Senator Ron Johnson rips Trump's "Big, Beautiful Bill": "I couldn't care less if he's upset. I'm concerned about my children and grandchildren. $37 trillion in debt and we're going to add to it? There is no way I'm going to vote for this bill in its current form." https://t.co/uTFyi7JK8m" / X

The caretaker of SS and Medicare gave us a staggering forecast . Forget 2035 . We have 8 years left .SS is expected to be insolvent in 2033, where a 23 haircut in benefits will be required . The Medicare hospital fund will run out the same year, requiring an 11% spending cut.

Medicare and Social Security go-broke dates pushed up | AP News

Trump campaigned that he would not touch SS and Medicare .

As catastrophe approached like a runaway train . The nation sticks their heads in the sand .
https://www.starnewsonline.com/gcdn/...pjpg&auto=webp

The swamp critters in DC could not fix the country if they tried (and they don't try ) . The Senate today passed a budget busting bill designed to fix the budget . Enough said

Let's get that Article V Convention going !!!

Restore American Power – Sign the Petition! - COSAction