Yet Bush ultimately broke his promise and raised taxes, and Trump may also find it difficult to keep his pledge not to touch the three entitlement programs that provide benefits to more than 130 million Americans.
Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid represent more than 40 percent of the federal budget — and a major focus of the Trump administration’s operation to cut government spending, with billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk saying that the three programs represent major sources of waste, fraud and abuse. Republicans also concede that Medicaid, the safety-net health program that provides coverage to more than 70 million lower-income Americans, is likely to face the brunt of potential cuts under a House budget resolution that passed last week and instructs GOP lawmakers to find $880 billion in federal savings.
But Trump officials across the administration have been instructed to avoid any perception of actions cutting Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security, according to two people who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal conversations.
“I can only tell you what President Trump has told me, which is that he wants me to make Medicaid, Medicare and Obamacare better,” Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Trump’s pick to lead the nation’s health agencies, told a Senate panel in January in response to repeated questions about congressional Republicans’ potential efforts to cut Medicaid.
The post by WashingtonPost.com appears on South Florida Reporter.