Trump threatening our Medicaid, Medicare, Social Security — again
Lip service at campaign rallies and desperate tweets do not help our loved ones receive the care they need. President Donald Trump thinks he’ll get away with proposing major cuts to Social Security, Medicaid and Medicare and then turning around to pretend like he is “protecting” those very programs — he’s wrong.
When Trump ran for president, he repeatedly promised us he would not cut Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security. In May 2015, he tweeted, “I was the first & only potential GOP candidate to state there will be no cuts to Social Security, Medicare & Medicaid ...”
It wasn’t just tweets: Trump made this promise directly to Floridians. In Panama City in 2016, he said, “Believe me, we’re going to protect our Medicare. We’re going to protect our Social Security.” He proclaimed the same thing in Ocala and Pensacola.
He lied to our faces.
As soon as he came into office, Trump set about reneging on his promise to protect these critical and popular programs. He immediately nominated Mick Mulvaney to lead the Office of Budget and Management, who had a long history of advocating to cut Medicare, Social Security, and Medicaid. Trump then set about repealing the Affordable Care Act with a bill that also proposed an $800 billion cut to Medicaid over 10 years. He has since gone to court to overturn the ACA.
Last Monday, he released a budget proposal that proved just how extreme his cuts of earned benefit programs would be if it was up to him. He proposed slashing hundreds of billions of dollars in funding for Medicaid, Medicare, and Social Security.
Trump knows that cutting Social Security, Medicaid and Medicare is deeply unpopular — which is why he immediately lied about it on Twitter, tweeting, “We will not be touching your Social Security or Medicare in Fiscal 2021 Budget.”
These programs are popular for a reason — they help many millions of people receive the care and support they need to survive. In Florida, more than 4.5 million people rely on Medicare and 4.6 million Floridians rely on Social Security. That’s roughly 20% of our population that benefits from federal programs that Trump is determined to shrink.
His attack on Medicaid similarly hits home Florida — 4 in 7 nursing home residents, 3 in 7 children, 1 in 9 adults, and 1 in 3 people with disabilities rely on Medicaid in Florida.
These are more than just statistics — we all know someone we care about who relies on these programs, and it is our job to ensure they get the care they deserve.
Budgets illustrate a president’s priorities and values, and this one tells us that Trump just isn’t all that concerned with the wellbeing of our seniors, our children or the poor. Trump’s budget not only cuts these important social services, but also offers another handout to the ultra-rich. He is using these cuts to pay for an extension of the more than $1 trillion in tax breaks he gave the richest Americans and corporations.
He is putting Floridians at risk so that Mar-a-Lago millionaires can keep hosting fundraisers for his reelection.
Trump is going to keep lying to us about protecting Medicaid, Social Security and Medicare, but we are going to keep telling the truth about his agenda: Trump cannot be trusted with our health care. Florida is the largest battleground state, and it is up to us to hold this president accountable for his broken promises at the ballot box this fall.