Donald Trump ran on an absolute promise not to cut entitlement and social safety net programs. On Wednesday, he said he hopes to do just that — and soon. Asked by CNBC if entitlement cuts were something he would consider, Trump said he would “toward the end of the year.”
In 2011, Trump tweeted that a “robust growing economy is how to fix Social Security and Medicare—not cuts on Seniors.”
Throughout his 2016 campaign, he used it to differentiate himself from the rest of his party and even Democrats.
“Every Republican wants to do a big number of Social Security. They want to do it on Medicare, they want to do it on Medicaid,” Trump said in an April 2015 speech, not long before launching his White House bid. “And we can’t do that. And it’s not fair to the people that have been paying in for years.”
Well, “Mandatory programs like Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security actually make up about half of the federal government’s spending each year.” Says the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.
So, “mandatory programs are outside the annual budget process that governs discretionary spending”. “The government expects to spend $4.746 trillion in 2020. Almost 60% of that pays for mandated benefits such as Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid—the mandatory spending category.” The budget estimated that mandatory spending would be $2.841 trillion in FY 2020. This category includes entitlement programs such as Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid, unemployment compensation, and others. [Entitlement program?: Social Security costs are currently 100% covered by payroll taxes and interest on investments.] Until 2010, there was more coming into the Social Security Trust Fund than being paid out.
Point of interest: “The taxation of Social Security began in 1984 following passage of a set of Amendments in 1983, which were signed into law by President Reagan in April 1983.”
So, ‘mandatory spending vs discretionary spending”?
“The discretionary budget for 2020 is $1.426 trillion. More than half goes toward military spending, including the Department of Veterans Affairs and other defense-related departments. The rest must pay for all other domestic programs. The largest of these programs are Health and Human Services, Education, and Housing and Urban Development.
There is an emergency fund of $200.1 billion held in reserve. Most of this fund goes to Overseas Contingency Operations to pay for wars or continuing military actions.
A growing portion of the discretionary budget is set aside for disaster relief such as hurricane and wildfire relief.”
So, it would seem to me, what we are talking about is Trump cutting benefits to a Mandatory Spending program which is already paid for with our income, Social Security and Medicare premiums (call them taxes if you like). Think Trump needs to go.
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