Politics of Medicare surface again ahead of Donald Trump’s re-election bid

The politics of Medicare is gradually creeping back into the 2020 re-election bid by President Donald Trump. Donald Trump in a new proposal is requesting for a slash in Medicare spending while the Republicans are gunning for an expansion of Medicare for all Americans.  This obviously is one of the key pitches where the Republicans and the Democrats during the new campaign season will be throwing damning punches at each other.

In the new proposal, President Donald Trump had outlined a 10-year budget for which is found to have more than $845 billion in reductions for Medicare.  He said the Medicare reduction is necessitated to reduce “waste, fraud and abuse” in the Medicare program that is geared towards providing insurance to older Americans. The Medicare cut is believed by many critics of President Donald Trump as one of the numerous belt-tightening efforts of the president after deficits increased during the president’s first two years in office which was believed by many to have been fuel by his massive tax reduction to rich Americans.

The proposed cut in Medicare by President Donald Trump has taken a political dimension and the Democrats have come out with proposal of a Medicare-for-all to attack the Medicare cut by the Donald Trump, a message which Republicans are castigated as a socialists boondoggle.

The proposed cut in Medicare as proposed by President Donald Trump has been criticized by Democrats, including some seeking to challenge Trump in 2020, by calling the proposal a means to giving tax breaks to the wealthy by sacrificing Medicare for the poor and the elderly.

According to one of the Democratic Presidential Candidates  for the 2020 election, Sen. Bernie Sander, “Make no mistake about it: Trump’s budget is a massive transfer of wealth from the working class to the wealthiest people and most profitable corporations in America.”

How this is going to play out for President Donald Trump’s 2020 re-election bid is very uncertain as during his 2016 campaign, which saw him to the White House his budget calls for a cut in Medicare, Medicaid or Social Security. Whatever magic that did happen in the 2016 election is going to be put to test in the 2020 elections. But in states like Pennsylvania, Arizona and Florida with a large number of elderly population, a proposal for a cut in Medicare is obviously not a thing to be fancied by these states with a very large population of elderly.

To win his 2020 re-election bid the least set of people President Donald Trump will want to lose their support are the elderly, as it has been reported over time that Older Americans has always recorded higher voters that the younger Americans. However, as against his 2016 budget to cut Medicare, Medicaid or Social Security, Donald Trump has largely left untouched Medicare and other programs heavily used by seniors. Republicans have followed his lead, by discarding all previous proposals to raise the retirement age or impose other restrictions to save costs.

According to the acting director of the Office of Management and Budget, Russell Vought,  “He’s not cutting Medicare in this budget. Medicare spending will go up every single year by healthy margins, and there are no structural changes for Medicare beneficiaries.” But Chip Kahn, president and CEO of the Federation of American Hospitals, said in a statement that But Trump’s proposed Medicare savings are more than three times as large as those in his previous budget. “The impact on care for seniors would be devastating,”. “Hospitals are less and less able to cover the cost of care for Medicare patients, it is no time to gut Medicare.”

In politics of Medicare some Democratic presidential candidates  are coming out with different concocted versions of what they refer to as a Medicare-for-all system, which would allow most Americans to be covered under the federal program. These Medicare-for-all has come under attack by President Donald Trump and other Republicans calling the Democrats Medicare-for-all an empty political promise. They challenged the Democrats to inform the public how they would pay for the Medical-for-all and also to tell Americans whether they have to forfeit their private insurance.

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