Today, President Trump revealed a budget that cuts billions from programs like Medicare, Social Security Disability Insurance, the Children’s Health Insurance Program, and Medicaid, despite saying his budget “will not be touching” Social Security or Medicare. The budget “will serve as a blueprint for Mr. Trump’s priorities if he wins a second term,” especially if subservient senators like Thom Tillis will rubber stamp his every move.

Senator Tillis continues to show he will blindly support the President’s agenda. He recently refused to stand up to the president’s plan to “take a look at” cutting Medicare and Social Security and said he supported “anything” that takes the ACA “off the table,” including a reckless lawsuit that would gut protections for pre-existing conditions. At every step, Senator Tillis has shown that “allowing no daylight between his positions and Trump’s is Tillis’ only calculation, his only concern and his only ambition.”

“Senator Tillis has made it clear that he will blindly support anything the President announces in a desperate attempt to save his skin, even if it ends up costing our military communities and middle class families,” NCDP spokesman Robert Howard said. “Now, President Trump is proposing cuts to critical programs such as Medicaid, Social Security, and the Children’s Health Insurance Program. Will spineless Senator Tillis stand up to the President’s plan to impose ‘steep cuts’ on benefits North Carolinians’ rely on, or will he again put blind, partisan loyalty to the president ahead of what’s best for our state?”

Washington Post: Trump proposes $4.8 trillion election-year budget with big domestic cuts
By Jeff Stein and Erica Werner 
February 10, 2020

Key Points:

• The White House is proposing a $4.8 trillion election-year budget Monday that would slash major domestic and safety net programs, setting up a stark contrast with President Trump’s rivals as voting gets under way in the Democratic presidential primary.

• The budget would cut Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program and also wring savings from Medicare despite Trump’s repeated promises to safeguard Medicare and Social Security.

• Even with all the proposed spending cuts, the budget would fail to eliminate the federal deficit over the next 10 years, missing a longtime GOP fiscal target.

• The budget aims to cut spending on safety-net programs such as Medicaid and food stamps, cutting food stamp spending by $181 billion over a decade. It proposes to squeeze hundreds of billions of dollars from Medicare over a decade through cost-saving proposals such as reforming medical liability and modifying payments to hospitals for uncompensated care. Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program are also targeted for “reforms” that yield billions in cuts.

Read the full article online here.

New York Times: Trump to Propose $4.8 Trillion Budget With More Border Wall Funding
By Jim Tankersley, Alan Rappeport, Zolan Kanno-Youngs and Margot Sanger-Katz
February 10, 2020

Key Points:

• President Trump is expected to propose on Monday a $4.8 trillion budget that will include billions of additional dollars for his wall along the southern border and steep cuts to safety net programs like Medicaid, disability insurance and housing assistance, according to senior administration officials and documents reviewed by The New York Times.

• But this year’s budget will serve as a blueprint for Mr. Trump’s priorities if he wins a second term. And some of the proposals can be achieved without the approval of Congress.

• The president’s plan includes what officials described as $4.4 trillion in spending cuts over the next decade, with about $2 trillion coming from changes to safety net programs and student loan initiatives.

• Those reductions encompass new work requirements for Medicaid, federal housing assistance and food stamp recipients, which are estimated to cut nearly $300 billion in spending from the programs. The budget will also cut spending on federal disability insurance benefits by $70 billion and on student loan forgiveness by $170 billion.

Read the full article online here.