On June 5, members of the Senate announced that Trump is open to cutting Medicare.
“The president is willing to eliminate any waste, fraud and abuse anywhere,” Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wisc.) told Axios about the White House meeting Wednesday night that he attended, “which opens up Medicare, as well,” he added.
Axios
White House spokesman Kush Desai reiterated that Trump only wanted to reduce “waste, fraud, and abuse.” However, in reality, there is very little of it, especially in entitlement programs such as Medicare, Social Security, and Medicaid.
Senators Bill Cassidy and Jeff Merkley are cooperating on a bill that would extract savings from Medicare Advantage, which sees insurers defrauding the government by classifying patients as sicker than they are. However, even if the practice is completely eradicated, it would cut spending by a mere fraction of what some Republicans in Congress want.
As is consistent with his style of governance, Trump’s relationship to the policy substance of his so-called “big, beautiful bill” is minimal. However, he has applied enormous pressure on Congress to get it passed.
