Vice President Kamala Harris made a claim during a recent speech that former President Donald Trump had attempted to cut Medicare funding every year he was in office. However, a fact-check of this statement has revealed that it is entirely false.
According to NBC News, Trump’s White House budget proposals did not include any cuts to Medicare benefits. Instead, they targeted providers and suppliers, which is a similar approach to the one taken by Democrats in the Affordable Care Act.
In reality, it is the Biden-Harris administration that has taken steps to cut Medicare Advantage, a popular program that is used by over 50% of Medicare beneficiaries. This program is preferred by many seniors over traditional Medicare, with roughly 33 million people choosing it as their healthcare option.
Furthermore, the Biden-Harris administration has had to intervene to bail out Medicare Part D, using billions of dollars to prop up the program and prevent a significant increase in premiums for seniors. This move was seen as a desperate attempt to placate seniors just 100 days before the presidential election.
Joe Grogan, who served as the director of Trump’s Domestic Policy Council, has criticized the Biden-Harris administration’s approach to Medicare, saying that their efforts to bail out the program are like “putting a tourniquet on a mortal wound.” This suggests that the administration’s actions are merely a temporary fix, rather than a long-term solution to the program’s underlying problems.
