Medicaid: Trump’s budget proposal will not pass congress

It is that time of the year, when the White House is to put forward a proposal to congress underlying the US budget for FY2018 which is to set itself up for the next ten years. It is the first budget submission since Donald Trump took up presidency and there has already been speculation regarding his gloomy views on previous policy that aimed to benefit the less fortunate citizens of America. With the Affordable Care Act (nicknamed Obamacare) set up to help millions of Americans at potential danger of further funding cuts, Medicaid & Medicare (US healthcare programs) is said to also feel the significant expenditure cuts in the years to come even though Trump stated he would not harm these benefits in his campaign trails leading up to the election. This budget will almost certainly, as the familiar Washington cliché has it, be dead on arrival on Capitol Hill.

The budget proposal drawn up by Trump’s administration was submitted to congress on Tuesday May 23. With a very optimistic plan severely differing from previous submissions under Obama’s government and before him – it is highly unlikely that this budget submission will be accepted.

Trump has developed a reputation for proposing policies that are not just heavily ideological, but also very unrealistic. There was nothing less expected of this proposal and there is certain intention from Trump’s administration to push all the buttons possible to see which ones actually stay in place. Many Americans who have relied on Obama’s scheme to insure the poor are likely to be affected over the years to come if the proposal was to be accepted, resulting in square one with uninsured volumes reaching what they once were before the Affordable Care Act post 2010.

There is a large difference between this submission and the last one, clearly pointing out Trump’s priorities and his aims while in the seat of the White House. Significant cuts in healthcare plans such as Medicaid and Medicare, which are there to help the poor in America who struggle to afford insurance, are proposed. Obamacare’s additional funding is set to be wiped out by 2021 under Trump, leaving America with its initial problem of more uninsured citizens.

Trump’s administration argues that the budget is for the better of the American economy, for which it predicts a large boom in the economy with GDP accelerating along with a large reduction in the deficit. These are targets that have not been achieved in years and therefore seem wildly optimistic. Signs of expenditure going onto nuclear waste schemes and national defense provide America with further security, but the citizens with fewer resources are more at risk at being hit by Trump’s plans and therefore congress must factor in this proportion of American citizens.

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