🏳️‍🌈✝️ Trump Administration Spending Cuts Met with Chilly Reception in Congress

NEVER FORGET it is this EVIL BILLIONAIRE who is causing the DOWNFALL of ALL things that make AMERICA GREAT!!! HE only cares about the RICH WHITE AMERICANS!!!

AIDS UNITED

May 11th, 2018 

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After weeks of speculation, President Trump finally unveiled his proposed rescissions package that aims to clean up unspent or unnecessary Congressional spending. Unlike earlier versions of the proposal that had been floated by Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Director Mick Mulvaney, this rescissions package would not eliminate funding the recently passed Fiscal Year 2018 spending deal, but from previous appropriations bills going back several years. At $15.4 billion, President Trump’s rescission package is certainly substantial, but is much less than the up to $60 billion in rescissions that OMB had discussed as a possibility last month. 

On Wednesday afternoon, the President’s rescission package was formally introduced in the House as the Spending Cuts to Expired and Unnecessary Programs Act by House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA-23). Of the $15.4 billion in cuts, nearly half were to the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), a low blow to a program which is indispensable in providing care for youth living with or affected by HIV in the United States and has unfortunately become a political football in the past year. $5.1 billion of the CHIP cuts would come from unobligated balances where Congressional authority to distribute funding to the states had expired and a further $1.9 billion would be cut from FY18 funding made available through the Child Enrollment Contingency Fund. 

The remaining $8.4 billion in rescission cuts were spread out among a variety of programs, with $800 million being taken from the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation and—in a terrifyingly ironic twist—$252 million from the emergency fund set up by the Obama administration to the address the 2015 Ebola outbreak on the day it was reported that 17 people had been killed by a new Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Unlike previous rescission packages, the funding cut from programs like CHIP would not be reinvested in similar programs but would be sent directly to the U.S. Treasury in an attempt to reduce the massive national debt that will see a $1.9 trillion increase over the next decade due to the GOP tax bill that was passed late last year. This did not sit well with many members of Congress, particularly appropriators who feel the Trump administration is trying to score political points by raiding programs that they greatly value.

“Cutting children’s health insurance without reinvesting in other vital health care programs will cause serious pain for American families,” said Representative Nita Lowey (D-NY-17), who is the ranking member of the House Appropriations Committee. “Likewise, slashing investments in rural infrastructure, medical innovation, and community development robs the American people of opportunities for better jobs and better futures.”

Despite the protestation of Rep. Lowey and many of her colleagues, the rescissions package is expected to pass the House when it is brought up for a vote. The package’s path through the Senate is far less certain. With Senator John McCain (R-AZ) recovering from his most recent round treatments, the GOP only has a 50-49 majority in the Senate. This very slight majority means that the Trump administration cannot afford to have a single Republican Senator vote against their rescission bill if it is to pass and, given the doubts professed by Senate Appropriations Chair Richard Shelby (R-AL) and others, that is looking less and less likely.

The very real possibility of legislative defeat has not seemed to dampen the ambitions of the Trump administration officials, who are reportedly considering issuing further, more aggressive rescissions packages in the event of this first one passing. A date has not yet been set for the House vote on the Spending Cuts to Expired and Unnecessary Programs Act, but AIDS United will keep you up to date on the goings on concerning the rescissions process and all things related to Congressional budget and appropriations and HIV.

Posted By: AIDS United, Policy Department - Friday, May 11, 2018