This will only hurt a little
It’s a universal truth they don’t teach in seminary or in epistemology: There’s never money enough for helping people, but always enough for killing them. War is like Jell-O that way.
Just ask any Republican (Axios):
Republicans are considering reductions in federal health spending to help pay for a budget bill containing as much as $200 billion to fund the Iran war and immigration enforcement.
Why it matters: New efforts to rein in health programs are sure to be controversial and open the GOP up to election-year attacks that they’re cutting health care to pay for an unpopular war.
Driving the news: Top House Republicans are looking at health care offsets addressing fraud in federal programs, as they did during last year’s debate over the budget law that made deep cuts to federal Medicaid spending and imposed first-time work requirements.
Also, wind and solar are unreliable sources of energy. Solar, when it’s dark. Wind, when it doesn’t blow. Just ask any Republican (who’s never heard of battereies).
But if you want an inexhaustible source of on-demand federal funding for a war that’s not a war (it’s an “excursion”), your Republican go-to is waste, fraud and abuse.
Just ask House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.): “There’s other items we’re looking at right now, especially in the areas of fraud and waste and abuse that we’re working through with our members.”
Donald Trump blew off concerns that fallout (not the real thing) from his war against Iran might cause some short-term pain for Americans at the gas pump. Trump allies in Congress who lack the fortitude to demand that Trump seek congressional approval for his not-a-war are ready to jump through hoops to find him money for it. They’re not shy about asking 300,000 Americans to share gas-users’ pain.
House Budget Committee chairman Jodey Arrington (R-Texas) is reviving an idea that was considered last year to fund Affordable Care Act payments known as cost-sharing reductions.
- The Congressional Budget Office previously found the move would lower overall benchmark ACA premiums by 11% but result in 300,000 more uninsured people.
- It would cut the subsidy amount that some enrollees receive, thereby increasing out-of-pocket premium costs, while saving the government over $30 billion.
Arrington said in the House, “there is a boatload of waste and fraud.” Enough to power a war, apparently. But unless you’re MAGA, don’t be sucker enough to believe waste, fraud, and abuse can power your home. Unless Dear Leader tells you it can.