Well, howdy there, Internet people, it's Bell again. So today, we're going to talk about the

GOP opening to cutting Medicare. You heard that right. Medicare, not Medicaid. The Republican Party

is trying to frame the potential cuts as going after waste. So expect to hear that term over and over again.

But also remember all the things they called waste during the Doge cuts.

That turned out to be things like security for nuclear weapons.

Okay, so what's going on?

They still can't figure out how to pay for their tax cuts.

The CBO report on the deficit increase has them shook.

And they're worried about Trump crashing the economy, reducing the GDP, and therefore tax revenue.

So, do they look at reducing tax breaks for the rich? Nope. They look at

Medicare. Senate Majority Leader John Thune said quote, the focus as you know has been on

addressing waste, fraud, abuse within Medicaid. And, but right now, we're open to suggestions that people have them about

other areas where there is you know clearly waste fraud and abuse that can be

rooted out in any government program let's be clear there has been nothing new

popping up on the Medicare fraud waste and abuse front to bring this about.

They need to make cuts, so they're looking at Medicare.

Not because they've identified some way to cut down on waste, but because Medicare has a big pot of money they can pull funds from to balance the tax cuts. They'll probably get a

figure on improper payments, which isn't necessarily fraud waste or abuse. Or some other such number

they can frame as the waste they're targeting. Then they'll use that as the dollar amount they want to cut, but there will be no movement

to address the improper payments or whatever they use as the shiny keys to dangle for their

base.

Whatever problem within Medicare they latch onto will still exist, but Medicare and therefore the beneficiaries will lose out.

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