Trump Promises Republicans Will Not Cut Social Security, Medicare: Will Not Be ‘Read My Lips’

President Trump is promising that his “one big beautiful” bill to push through his agenda will not touch Social Security or Medicare and Medicaid.At the first Cabinet meeting of his second term, Mr. Trump was asked about a budget resolution passed by the House that would extend his 2017 tax cuts, increase the debt limit, and aim to cut $2 trillion in federal spending. Democrats and multiple news outlets have suggested Republicans would have to make deep cuts to programs like Medicaid to accomplish their goal.However, Mr. Trump insists Republicans will not be touching those social safety net programs. When asked for an assurance that Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security will not see cuts, he said, “I’ve said it so many times you shouldn’t be asking me that question.”“This will not be ‘read my lips,’ it won’t be ‘read my lips,’” he said in reference to the infamous 1988 promise by President George H.W. Bush, “Read my lips: No new taxes.”Instead, Mr. Trump said officials will look for “fraud” in such programs. He told reporters there are “people that are 200 years old” who are receiving Social Security checks.The budget resolution Republicans passed on Tuesday allows for up to $4.5 trillion in new deficits to extend Mr. Trump’s 2017 tax cuts. It also calls for $300 billion in new spending for border security, a $4 trillion debt limit increase, and a target of $2 trillion in spending cuts.The resolution directs the Energy and Commerce Committee to slash $880 billion in federal spending. That committee has jurisdiction over Medicaid, which has fueled concerns that Republicans will have to make major cuts to the program to hit their spending cut goal, something that would likely not go over well with more centrist members of the party. However, Republican leaders have pushed back on the claim that they will have to make cuts to Medicaid. Instead, they insist they will be able to do so by eliminating “fraud, waste, and abuse” in Medicaid.During the meeting, Mr. Trump also made some news as he said he plans to implement a 25 percent tariff on the European Union. He did not provide a detailed list of imports that would be subject to the tariffs, aside from cars, but said it would be applied “generally.”“I love the countries of Europe. I’m from there at some point, a long time ago, right? But indirectly. Pretty directly, too, I guess…The European Union was formed in order to screw the United States. And they’ve done a good job of it, but now I’m president,” he said. He also said he would implement 25 percent tariffs on Mexico and Canada on April 2 and repeated his suggestion that “Canada should be our 51st state.”Additionally, Mr. Trump suggested there could be another email sent to federal employees telling them to share what they accomplished last week or lose their jobs.“It’s a good idea because those people are on the bubble. You’ve got a lot of people that have not responded, so we’re trying to figure out, do they exist? Who are they? It’s possible that a lot of those people will be actually fired,” Mr. Trump said. “And if that happens, that’s okay because that’s what we’re trying to do. This country has gotten bloated and fat and disgusting and incompetently run.”He said there are about 1 million people who did not respond to the first email. Several agencies, such as the FBI, told employees not to respond due to national security concerns, which Mr. Trump acknowledged. “Those million people that haven’t responded, though Elon [Musk], they are one the bubble,” Mr. Trump said.He said the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, Lee Zeldin, said he aims to cut “65 percent of the people” working at his agency.

Trump Promises Republicans Will Not Cut Social Security, Medicare: Will Not Be ‘Read My Lips’

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