{"id":2400634,"date":"2025-02-08T10:02:02","date_gmt":"2025-02-08T15:02:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/the-looming-gop-war-over-welfare-and-medicaid-washington-examiner\/"},"modified":"2025-02-08T10:03:52","modified_gmt":"2025-02-08T15:03:52","slug":"the-looming-gop-war-over-welfare-and-medicaid-washington-examiner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/the-looming-gop-war-over-welfare-and-medicaid-washington-examiner\/","title":{"rendered":"The looming GOP war over welfare and Medicaid &#8211; Washington Examiner"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">22<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fthe-looming-gop-war-over-welfare-and-medicaid-washington-examiner%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2400634&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>The article discusses the potential government spending cuts required to fund President Donald Trump&#8217;s legislative agenda, notably \u2062as Republicans aim to make expiring tax cuts permanent, which could cost between $5 trillion to $11 trillion. The \u2063focus may shift to mandatory \u200bspending programs like Medicaid and various entitlements, which could face\u2062 eligibility\u2064 reductions and work requirements. Medicaid, which currently serves over 70 million low-income Americans, could be at risk,\u2064 while funding for programs like Social Security and Medicare is considered off-limits except\u2062 for addressing fraud.<\/p>\n<p>There\u200b is\u2063 tension within the Republican Party regarding how to manage these\u2062 budgetary challenges, especially as lawmakers\u2063 propose cuts to welfare programs in light of funding Trump&#8217;s agenda and border security initiatives. The article notes the ongoing\u200b debate among Republicans about the best approach to tax cuts and welfare reform, as \u200cwell as potential\u200b cuts to other areas like student loans. House Minority\u200c Leader Hakeem Jeffries points to these internal conflicts as indicative of \u200ca &#8220;civil \u200bwar&#8221; within the party over \u2064spending priorities.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<p><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><\/p>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><span class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-button\"><i class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-icon td-icon-mobile\"><\/i><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><span class=\"tdb-header-search-button-mob dropdown-toggle\" data-toggle=\"dropdown\"><i class=\"tdb-mobile-search-icon td-icon-search\"><\/i><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><span class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-button\"><i class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-icon td-icon-mobile\"><\/i><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<div class=\"tdb-drop-down-search\" aria-labelledby=\"td-header-search-button\">\n<div class=\"tdb-drop-down-search-inner\">\n<form method=\"get\" class=\"tdb-search-form\" action=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/\"><\/form>\n<div class=\"tdb-aj-search\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/#\" role=\"button\" aria-label=\"Search\" class=\"tdb-head-search-btn dropdown-toggle\" data-toggle=\"dropdown\"><i class=\"tdb-search-icon td-icon-search\"><\/i><\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<h1 class=\"tdb-title-text\">Paying for Trump&rsquo;s agenda could require a GOP war over welfare and Medicaid<\/h1>\n<div><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-title-line\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<div id=\"Brid_1960536\" class=\"tpd-featured-video bridtv\"><\/div>\n<p>The price tag for President Donald Trump&rsquo;s legislative agenda is quickly adding up, particularly as Republicans eye making <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/white-house\/3313087\/white-house-tax-cut-demands-funding-deal-talks\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"expiring tax cuts permanent\">expiring tax cuts permanent<\/a> that could cost <a href=\"https:\/\/www.crfb.org\/blogs\/trump-tax-priorities-total-5-11-trillion\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">$5 trillion to $11 trillion<\/a>.<\/p>\n<div class=\"article-paywall\">\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/entitlements\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"Medicaid \">Entitlements <\/a>and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/white-house\/3303279\/white-house-medicaid-payments-wont-impacted-funding-freeze\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"Medicaid \">Medicaid <\/a>could be on the chopping block by slashing eligibility with work requirements, as the White House sets its sights on funding cuts that go beyond discretionary spending and into mandatory outlays that have historically been unpopular to touch.<\/p>\n<p>Mandatory spending cost <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbo.gov\/publication\/59728\">$3.8 trillion<\/a> of the $6.1 trillion in total outlays for fiscal year 2023, with more than half for Social Security and Medicare that Trump and Republicans say are largely off limits. That leaves programs like Medicaid, which provides health insurance to more than 70 million low-income Americans, and entitlements benefits like <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/white-house-releases-list-of-president-trumps-accomplishments-and-it-is-historic\/\" title=\"White ... Releases List of President ...\u2019s Accomplishments \u2013  And It Is Historic!\">food stamps<\/a> and unemployment insurance that could be singled out.<\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/white-house\/3292730\/all-executive-orders-actions-trump-first-day\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">FULL LIST OF EXECUTIVE ORDERS, ACTIONS, AND PROCLAMATIONS TRUMP HAS MADE AS PRESIDENT<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Discretionary spending for defense and nondefense items like funding the various government agencies made up just <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbo.gov\/publication\/59729\">$1.7 trillion<\/a> and is subject to the annual appropriations process.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;Social Security benefits are a sacred cow. Medicare is probably the No. 2 scared cow. I think there&rsquo;s only two scared cows,&rdquo; Sen. Cynthia Lummis (R-WY) said. &ldquo;I think Medicaid is subject to some possible adjustments.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>The brewing war over welfare among Republicans is part of a bigger discussion on how to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/blackburn-and-tenney-team-for-doge-acts-washington-examiner\/\" title=\"Blackburn and Tenney team for &#039;DOGE Acts&#039; - Washington Examiner\">slash federal spending<\/a> to achieve Trump&rsquo;s desired outcomes on items like permanently extending the 2017 tax cuts and beefing up southern border security. Work requirements are likely to be a major component for making cuts to Medicaid and other <a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3YuVZYV\">low-income assistance programs including food stamps<\/a> under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;If you put work requirements on a bunch of these welfare programs, including SNAP and the nutrition programs, you&rsquo;d have people contributing to the workforce &mdash; God knows there&rsquo;s plenty of demand for workers &mdash; rather than just collecting,&rdquo; Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-ND) said.<\/p>\n<p>Trump has vowed to &ldquo;love and cherish&rdquo; Medicaid, but there&rsquo;s an appetite among Republicans to make it harder to qualify to reduce the program&rsquo;s cost which topped $616 billion in fiscal year 2023. Trump and Vice President JD Vance have emphasized that cuts to Social Security and Medicare are largely off the table except for fraud and abuse.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">President Donald Trump speaks during a news conference with Japan&rsquo;s Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba at the White House, Friday, Feb. 7, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo\/Evan Vucci)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>&ldquo;We&rsquo;re not going to do anything with that, unless we can find some abuse or waste,&rdquo; Trump recently said of Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. &ldquo;The people won&rsquo;t be affected. It will only be more effective and better.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Trump reiterated Friday that he was &ldquo;not going to touch [Social Security] other than to make it stronger.&rdquo; He claimed, without offering details, that there are &ldquo;people that shouldn&rsquo;t be on, and those people we have to weed out. Most of them, or many of them so far, have been illegal immigrants.&rdquo; Those in the U.S. illegally <a href=\"https:\/\/crsreports.congress.gov\/product\/pdf\/R\/R47318\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"do not qualify for\">do not qualify for<\/a> Social Security, Medicare, or Medicaid, save for some exceptions for emergency Medicaid.<\/p>\n<p>House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) sought to capitalize on the diverging views in the GOP over how to handle costly measures like tax cuts and Medicaid. <\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;They have been kind of busy fighting amongst themselves around how big the tax cuts will be for their billionaire buddies and how much they are going to cut out of Medicaid as part of their scheme to end it,&rdquo; Jeffries told reporters. &ldquo;I get it; Republicans have been busy. There&rsquo;s an ongoing internal GOP civil war.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Senate Budget Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham (R-SC) ignored the pleas of Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) to let the House take the lead on passing Trump&rsquo;s agenda by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/senate\/3314278\/graham-plows-ahead-budget-blueprint-mike-johnson-objections\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"releasing the text of a budget resolution Friday\">releasing the text of a budget resolution Friday<\/a> that would provide hundreds of billions in money for defense and border security. The measure is the first in a two-step process to passing two major bills through budget reconciliation that bypasses the filibuster and only needs a simple majority.<\/p>\n<p>As part of their diverging plan, the House wants to pass just one such bill that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/graham-plows-ahead-on-budget-blueprint-over-mike-johnson-objections-washington-examiner\/\" title=\"Graham plows ahead on budget blueprint over Mike Johnson objections - Washington Examiner\">includes tax reform<\/a> but has struggled to find agreement on spending cuts. The Freedom Caucus has been negotiating up to $2.5 trillion in offsets.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><strong><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Another potential arena for cuts under mandatory spending could be student loans, which along with Social Security and Medicare have been the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbo.gov\/publication\/58889#:~:text=Mandatory%20outlays%20by%20the%20federal,care%20programs%20and%20student%20loans.\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"largest increase\">largest increase<\/a> in mandatory spending over the past 20 years.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;When we break them out, there are several $100 billion in other types of mandatories [besides Social Security and Medicare],&rdquo; said Sen. Mike Rounds (R-SD), who sits on the Senate Appropriations Committee. &ldquo;Student loans is a part of that, and most certainly, there&rsquo;s a better way to do the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/5-reasons-making-taxpayers-pay-off-student-loans-is-a-rotten-idea\/\" title=\"5 Reasons Making Taxpayers Pay Off ... Is A Rotten Idea\">student loan program<\/a> than the way that it&rsquo;s being done now.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p><em>David Sivak contributed to this report.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p> <script data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/cdn-cgi\/scripts\/5c5dd728\/cloudflare-static\/email-decode.min.js\"><\/script><script>!function(){var g=window;g.googletag=g.googletag||{},g.googletag.cmd=g.googletag.cmd||[],g.googletag.cmd.push(function(){g.googletag.pubads().setTargeting(\"has-featured-video\",\"true\")})}();<\/script><script>var _bp=_bp||[];_bp.push({\"div\":\"Brid_1960536\",\"obj\":{\"id\":\"27789\",\"width\":\"1280\",\"height\":\"720\",\"stickyDirection\":\"below\",\"video\":\"1960536\"}});<\/script><script defer src=\"https:\/\/services.brid.tv\/player\/build\/brid.min.js\"><\/script><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Funding Trump&#8217;s agenda may spark GOP conflict over welfare<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3108,"featured_media":2400635,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/trump-republicans-spending-cuts-medicaid-entitlements.webp","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[6203,4606,11975,5894,10263],"class_list":["post-2400634","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-gop","tag-healthcare","tag-medicaid","tag-politics","tag-welfare"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/trump-republicans-spending-cuts-medicaid-entitlements.webp","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2400634","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3108"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2400634"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2400634\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2400638,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2400634\/revisions\/2400638"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2400635"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2400634"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2400634"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2400634"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}