Alarms are being raised about new details of Republicans' new plan to keep the government open that experts say will inevitably involve cuts to Social Security and Medicare.
Punchbowl News' Jake Sherman reported on Friday that Republican leaders were floating an agreement "that House Republicans will raise the debt limit by $1.5 trillion in the 'first reconciliation package' alongside a promise to CUT $2.5 trillion in 'net mandatory spending in the reconciliation process.'"
Journalists and political insiders who know how congressional budget math works quickly reached the same conclusion: The $2.5 trillion in cuts will be impossible to achieve unless the GOP takes an ax to Social Security and Medicare, two programs President-elect Donald Trump vowed not to touch.
"They're coming for your Social Security," warned American Prospect executive editor David Dayen on Bluesky.
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"If this is the Republican plan to pass a short term govt funding bill in parts now dangling a raise of debt ceiling through mandatory cuts via reconciliation in 2025 -- this pretty much means the Republicans under Musk/Trump are coming after your Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid," argued Murshed Zaheed, a former senior leadership aide for the late Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV).
"Translated: Trump and the Republicans are planning on cutting taxes for corporations and paying for it with cuts to Social Security and Medicare," observed Pod Save America host and former Barack Obama adviser Dan Pfeiffer on Twitter.
Andrew Heineman, the legislative director to Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY), laid out the budget math in simple terms..
"Mandatory outlays were $3.8 trillion last year," he noted. "$2.2 trillion of that were Social Security and Medicare. You can't cut $2.5 trillion without cutting into that."
Rep. Maxwell Frost (D-FL) hammered the GOP for not only planning to slash popular government programs but then using that money to fund tax cuts to the ultrawealthy.
"My parent’s social security check should not be cut to pay for President Elon Musk’s massive billionaire tax cuts," he wrote on Bluesky.
Republican insider Liam Donovan, however, expressed skepticism that any attempt to slash $2.5 trillion in mandatory spending would come to pass but still said that even making such a promise would come back to bite Republican leaders.
"I can't think of a worse idea than indulging your problem children with promises you can't keep without creating even bigger headaches," he wrote on X.
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