Republicans Want to Raise Debt Ceiling by $4.5 Trillion with cuts of $2 Trillion to mandatory spending such as Medicaid and Farm Subsidies. Source
The $4.5 trillion level means that Republicans could only do a straight extension of Trump’s 2017 tax cuts. To make any other tax code changes — eliminating taxes on tips, or fulfilling any of Trump’s other campaign pledges — they’d need to find spending cuts or tax increases to offset the cost. Source
The TCJA enacted by President Trump in 2017 increased the standard deduction and eliminated personal exemptions. It lowered marginal income tax rates across the scale. It imposed a $10,000 cap on the deductibility of state and local taxes (SALT). It increased the tax credit for each child under 17 from $1,000 to $2,000. It provided a 20 percent deduction for small businesses and also hiked the AMT exemption. And, most importantly to ultra-high-net-worth wealth planners, it doubled the estate tax exemption to $28.6 million from $14.3 million for married couples.
Also included in raising the debt ceiling–$175 billion for border security, $150 billion for defense and $20 billion for the Coast Guard.
Additionally, besides raising the deb limit, it also calls for $1.4 Trillion in spending cuts over the next decade. On the spending side, the largest cuts would be at least $880 billion from Energy and Commerce which includes Medicaid. Additionally, cuts of $230 billion in Agriculture including SNAP (food for low income families). Source
In 2025, there were 79.4 Million people getting Medicaid of which 36 million were CHILDREN, 27 Million adults and 10 million with disabilities. There are 65 million people getting Medicare. 25% of Medicare payments were made in last year of life- better end of life management should be explored as as preventive care, drug pricing.
Also, raising age of social security- sliding scale, raising income level on social security payroll deducations, not providing corporations with lower tax levels, taxing wealthy and eliminating loop holes. Such as 43% of Tesla’s Net income came from selling energy credits- $10.7 billion. And on February 13- Trump is set to purchase $400 million worth of armored Teslas. You might have seen them around-SO UGLY so nobody would buy them except our government….maybe we should feed our poor first. And, get this–as of later in the day on Feb 13 -the State Dept revised its wording from Armored Tesla to Armored Electric Vehicles (of course, only Tesla makes them). Really??? Source
And, while we applaud Elon Musk’s/Trump’s desire to reduce waste in spending, they need to think before they act as right now there is $489 million worth of food at risk of spoilage after USAID pause. Phasing out programs should be done instead. And, as for the tariffs- what a nightmare- prepare to pay more, shortages. Source for Tesla’s credits.
Children, Older Adults, Low Income, Healthcare—these should be priorities in one of the wealthiest countries in the world. The US ranked last in healthcare compared to nine other high-income countries.
All of this is now being discussing by Congress.
