{"id":2648816,"date":"2026-08-24T09:16:57","date_gmt":"2026-08-24T13:16:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/utm_sourcerssutm_mediumrssutm_campaigndemocrats-spin-their-medicare-spending-explosion-into-a-narrative-about-gop-cuts\/"},"modified":"2026-08-24T09:19:44","modified_gmt":"2026-08-24T13:19:44","slug":"utm_sourcerssutm_mediumrssutm_campaigndemocrats-spin-their-medicare-spending-explosion-into-a-narrative-about-gop-cuts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/utm_sourcerssutm_mediumrssutm_campaigndemocrats-spin-their-medicare-spending-explosion-into-a-narrative-about-gop-cuts\/","title":{"rendered":"Dems Spin Medicare Spending Spree Into Story About GOP &#8216;Cuts&#8217;"},"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\">20<\/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%2Futm_sourcerssutm_mediumrssutm_campaigndemocrats-spin-their-medicare-spending-explosion-into-a-narrative-about-gop-cuts%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=2648816&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 <a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3YuVZYV\" >article discusses significant recent miscalculations<\/a> and hidden spending increases related to U.S.healthcare programs, particularly Medicare and Medicaid. It highlights the Congressional Budget Office\u2019s (CBO) correction of its earlier projections, revealing that the actual costs associated with the Democrats\u2019 Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) and administrative actions have been far higher than initially estimated. The CBO&#8217;s revised reports show that drug pricing reforms and inflation rebates did not deliver the expected savings, and the actual increase in drug and Medicaid spending has been substantial, largely due to unforeseen factors and regulatory changes. Despite this, public discourse often portrays these increases as partisan \u201ccuts\u201d by Republicans, ignoring the fact that much of the surge in spending was unanticipated and enacted through stealth or administrative measures.The piece criticizes the media\u2019s lack of coverage on these developments and questions how proposed policy reversals, like repealing certain drug pricing provisions, would be received politically given the undisclosed scale of ongoing expenditures. the article underscores a broader issue of underestimated and hidden goverment spending, facilitated by political maneuvering and media silence.  <\/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<div>\n<p>I recently <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2026\/08\/05\/why-the-trump-administration-was-right-to-end-the-medicare-part-d-insurer-bailout\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">explained<\/a> how Democrat <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/CA_Dem\/status\/2082518283711107346\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">attacks<\/a> on the Trump administration for ending a <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2024\/08\/12\/medicare-agency-just-gave-kamala-harris-an-in-kind-contribution-with-your-tax-dollars\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">bailout<\/a> of Medicare Part D insurers have no merit. But the political and policy problems go far deeper than that.<\/p>\n<p>In late July, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released an analysis outlining how the agency got its estimates horribly wrong when predicting the cost of the drug pricing changes Democrats passed in the Inflation (Reduction) Act. The report is part and parcel of a trend among the left: inflate spending on government programs beyond all measure without anyone noticing and then <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2025\/03\/20\/republicans-dont-buy-democrats-lies-about-medicaid-cuts\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">attack Republicans for \u201ccuts\u201d<\/a> when they attempt to scale back these stealth spending increases.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Medicare Mess-Up<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>The opening paragraphs of the CBO <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbo.gov\/system\/files\/2026-07\/62549-Medicare-Part-D.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">report<\/a> introduce what amounts to an 18-page <em>mea culpa<\/em> by the budget office:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>In September 2022, following the [IRA\u2019s] enactment in August, CBO projected that enacting those [drug pricing] provisions would lead to combined deficit reductions of $129 billion over the 2022\u20132031 period. \u2026<\/p>\n<p>Since then, on the basis of new information, CBO has revised its projections. Evidence now indicates that the spending reductions attributable to drug price negotiation and inflation rebates have been smaller than CBO originally estimated. The costs of the Part D redesign have been significantly larger because of greater-than-anticipated increases in spending because of greater use of prescription drugs. As a result, the agency now projects that those provisions will combine to increase deficits over the 2022\u20132031 period.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>The rest of the report details the various ways the original estimates missed the mark. Drug price \u201cnegotiation\u201d failed to deliver an estimated 50 percent reduction in net prices; inflation rebates didn\u2019t materialize because inflation has remained persistently high (instead of receiving a projected $2.3 billion in Part B rebates in 2023 and 2024, the federal government received only $136 million, or about 6 percent of the original projection); plans \u201canticipated a 35 percent increase in annual costs per enrollee\u201d this year, compared to CBO\u2019s estimate of only a 5 percent rise.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Higher Spending Estimates<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>The July CBO report is consistent with recent estimates from the budget office. Last November, CBO <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbo.gov\/publication\/61824\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">stated<\/a> that the so-called Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) could raise Part D spending by <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2025\/12\/10\/medicare-prescription-drugs-could-cost-500-billion-more-than-expected-over-the-next-decade\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">as much as $500 billion over a decade<\/a>. In February, it <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbo.gov\/system\/files\/2026-07\/62549-Medicare-Part-D.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">raised its estimates<\/a> of Part D spending in the coming decade by $700 billion, $550 billion of which largely came from the IRA redesign.<\/p>\n<p>The explosion in spending also comports with <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2026\/04\/08\/how-bidens-so-called-inflation-reduction-act-screwed-taxpayers-with-massive-medicare-bailouts\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">analyses<\/a> from the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.medpac.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Mar26_MedPAC_Report_To_Congress_SEC.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Medicare Payment Advisory Commission<\/a> (MedPAC) and the Medicare actuary\u2019s office. As I <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2026\/06\/26\/democrats-fix-for-a-5-trillion-medicare-spending-increase-is-the-same-proposals-that-caused-it\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">noted in June<\/a>, this year\u2019s Medicare <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cms.gov\/oact\/tr\/2026\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">trustees report<\/a>, compiled by staff from the Medicare actuary, raised the long-term (i.e., 75-year) cost of the Part D program by <em>$5 trillion<\/em>, or roughly one-third, compared to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cms.gov\/oact\/tr\/2025\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">last year\u2019s report<\/a>, due in large part to the effects of the IRA changes.<\/p>\n<p>Set aside for a moment the question of why CBO and other budget gnomes got their estimates so wrong at the time of the IRA\u2019s passage. Regardless of the reasons or intent, the changes amount to trillions of dollars in long-term spending that lawmakers didn\u2019t know about when the IRA passed.<\/p>\n<p>This dynamic raises two obvious questions: Has the press reported on this explosion in unanticipated spending? And if Republicans propose repealing the IRA\u2019s drug pricing provisions, on the grounds that Congress didn\u2019t know the bill would cost so much when lawmakers voted for it, do you think they would get attacked for wanting to \u201ccut\u201d Medicare? I think we all know the answers to both questions.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Explosion of Medicaid Spending<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>The same explosion in spending happened during the Biden years regarding Medicaid. Except in the latter case, the spending explosion occurred almost entirely due to unilateral regulatory actions by the Biden administration, rather than legislative actions passed by Congress.<\/p>\n<p>Between June 2024 and January 2025, CBO <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbo.gov\/publication\/61172\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">increased<\/a> its projections for Medicaid spending over the coming decade by $817 billion. As I <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wsj.com\/opinion\/congress-can-rein-in-medicaid-spending-cbo-medicaid-e8233d8d\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">outlined at the time<\/a>, most of that growth in projected spending came from administrative actions taken by the Biden administration: <a href=\"https:\/\/blog.ssa.gov\/social-security-to-remove-barriers-to-accessing-ssi-payments\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">expansions<\/a> of <a href=\"https:\/\/blog.ssa.gov\/social-security-to-expand-ssi-rental-subsidy-policy-agency-continues-to-remove-barriers-to-accessing-ssi-payments\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Medicaid<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/blog.ssa.gov\/social-security-to-expand-access-to-ssi-program-by-updating-definition-of-a-public-assistance-household\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">eligibility<\/a>; a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.govinfo.gov\/content\/pkg\/FR-2024-04-02\/pdf\/2024-06566.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">rule<\/a> that limited states\u2019 ability to enforce program integrity measures; another rule that allowed states to increase provider reimbursements; and higher spending on GLP-1 drugs, which the Biden administration wanted to <a href=\"https:\/\/thehill.com\/policy\/healthcare\/5010254-biden-administration-proposes-obesity-drug-coverage-medicare-medicaid\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">require states<\/a> to cover.<\/p>\n<p>Again, no one voted for this spending increase, and the press sure as heck didn\u2019t cover it. Just like the press didn\u2019t cover the fact that CBO <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbo.gov\/system\/files\/2026-02\/61882-Outlook-2026.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">increased baseline<\/a> spending for Medicaid by <em>another<\/em> $700 billion this past February, as I <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2026\/02\/20\/democrats-claim-gop-gutted-medicaid-federal-data-shows-the-opposite\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">pointed out at the time<\/a>. Even after taking into consideration the <a href=\"https:\/\/wordpress.juniperresearchgroup.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/BBB-Summary.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">policy changes<\/a> in last year\u2019s budget reconciliation bill, CBO\u2019s projections for Medicaid spending in the coming decade (specifically, fiscal years 2026-2034) are over $250 billion <em>higher<\/em> than in June 2024, the final year of the Biden presidency.<\/p>\n<p>Yet all anyone can talk about are the <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2025\/03\/20\/republicans-dont-buy-democrats-lies-about-medicaid-cuts\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">supposed \u201cRepublican \u2018cuts\u2019\u201d<\/a> to Medicaid. As with the explosion in Part D spending due to Democrats\u2019 Inflation (Reduction) Act, the political messaging is symptomatic of larger problems: Democrats\u2019 ability to pass spending increases by stealth and the knowing complicity of a corrupt media. Worse yet, it reflects conservatives\u2019 unwillingness to fight back.<\/p>\n<hr>\n<div>\n<p>      Chris Jacobs is founder and CEO of Juniper Research Group and author of the book &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/dp\/1645720020\">The Case Against Single Payer<\/a>.&#8221; He is on Twitter: <a href=\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/chrisjacobsHC\">@chrisjacobsHC<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>CBO&#8217;s estimates on drug and Medicaid spending were significantly off<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":521,"featured_media":2648817,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Prescription-Drugs-Photo.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[33651],"tags":[7375,6203,4159,5894,3834],"class_list":["post-2648816","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-western-journal","tag-criticism","tag-gop","tag-medicare","tag-politics","tag-spending"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Prescription-Drugs-Photo.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2648816","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\/521"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2648816"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2648816\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2648821,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2648816\/revisions\/2648821"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2648817"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2648816"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2648816"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2648816"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}