BCT Editorial – 5/9/05

This page was last updated on May 9, 2005.

Salutes & Boots; Editorial; Beaver County Times; May 9, 2005.

Below is a detailed critique of the subject editorial.

“Boot: To Congress for approving a federal budget for next year that trims Medicaid by $10 trillion over the next five years while finding a way to provide for $106 billion in tax cuts. While most people think of welfare recipients whenever Medicaid comes up, the bulk of it goes to help the elderly in nursing homes, the disabled and the blind. These are real people with real needs.”

[RWC] There are two factual errors in this editorial. First, federal budgets are approved only for one fiscal year, not five. Budgets provide forecasts for multiple years, but the only one approved is the one for the next fiscal year.

Second, it would be tough to cut “Medicaid by $10 trillion over the next five years” given that we currently spend “only” about $190 billion ($0.19 trillion) per year. Even if we completely eliminated Medicaid spending for the next five years, the most we could “trim” would be less than $1 trillion. Where are those Times fact checkers when they’re needed? <g>

It will be interesting to see if the Times corrects its errors.

What was the real cut? Approximately $8.6 billion for 2006, or less than 5%. As I understand it, the “cut” will be borne by people who use loopholes in Medicaid to get benefits for which they should not qualify.

It should be noted that President Bush’s budget proposal actually had a small Medicaid increase.