On Monday’s Balance of Power on Bloomberg, Rep. Byron Donalds (R-FL) said what a lot of us are thinking: it’s high time we stopped handing out gold-plated Medicaid to able-bodied adults who could be working and earning their own way.
First, Donalds laid it out plain and simple—Medicaid is full of waste, fraud, and abuse. And guess what? His team’s got plans to clean it up.
Then he got to the juicy part. Right now, because of Obamacare (surprise, surprise), poor kids and people with disabilities only get about 50% of their Medicaid bills covered by the federal government. But if you’re a healthy adult who could totally hold a job? You’re getting 90% covered. NINETY. That’s nearly double—and it makes zero sense.
Donalds isn’t having it. He says it’s time to bring those able-bodied freeloaders down to earth and in line with the folks who actually need the help—like struggling families with disabled kids. “That’s just basic common sense,” he said. And he’s right.
He declared, “We do have a situation where, currently, under Medicaid, because of Obamacare, poor children, people who are disabled, they actually only get about a 50% reimbursement with state money from the federal government. But if you’re an able-bodied adult who can go into the economy, get a job, earn money, and have your own health care, we reimburse at a 90% clip from the federal government. That doesn’t make any sense. So, it’s about actually bringing that able-bodied population to be closer to be in line with poor children in America, people who are disabled and are hurting in America.”
But he didn’t stop there. Byron dropped a truth bomb on D.C.: This kind of reckless spending is pushing America deeper into debt. All this borrowing is jacking up interest rates and crushing small businesses and working families. Washington can’t keep living on a credit card—and Donalds says it’s past time to get our fiscal house in order.
The Florida Rep added, “That’s just basic, common sense. I think, on a broader level, it is about lowering the cost curve here in Washington, D.C. We can’t continue to borrow at the same velocity of federal bonds, because that is driving up interest rates and borrowing costs on families and on small businesses. It’s not sustainable, Washington has to get the fiscal house in order.”