GOP tax bill would bring huge cut to Medicare

Huffington Post -  GOP leaders have done their best to sweep an ugly – politically toxic  secret under the rug: under current Congressional rules, their tax plan would force a quarter-trillion dollar cut in Medicare starting next year.

In 1990, Congress passed the “Pay As You Go” rules. They require that if Congress passes a law that will increase the deficit, the same amount will be cut from government spending – automatically – beginning immediately.

The Republican plan to cut taxes for millionaires, billionaires and wealthy corporations would increase the deficit by about $1.5 trillion dollars over the next decade. That would mean that if it passes, there would be mandatory, automatic spending cuts of at least $150 billion in each of the next ten years, including $25 billion per year from Medicare.

Over ten years that amounts to a quarter-trillion dollars of Medicare cuts right at the same time that the baby boom generation is demanding more and more from Medicare.

Of course the GOP leadership says that Congress will likely not allow such cuts to proceed and would – at some point – lift the “paygo” requirement. But that would require the Senate to pass such a waiver with a bipartisan super majority of 60 votes at some time in the future – well after the tax cut bill is signed into law.