Equality & Rights For All Show: Politics

Cuts To Medicare, Medicaid, & SNAP Benefits. Plus ACA Subsidies Issues

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:16):
Hey, everybody, welcome to today's show. Welcome to Equality and
Rights for All. I'm your host Anthony La Rio Duke,
and we have a very important topic for today's show,
in which it is the touts two Medicare, Medicaid and

(00:38):
the ACA subsidies. So let's get right into this. I'm
going to read you guys a few things. First. This
was an article back in June, on June twentieth of
this year, twenty twenty five. And this is when the Republicans,

(01:05):
the Republicans did the cuts to medic hair, okay, And
these were the Republicans in the United States Senate. This
was when that Uh Trump's one big Beautiful bill was

(01:26):
being created, and this is when the Republicans started to
do the cuts to medic hair. Okay. And so let

(01:53):
me let me read you something here. This was from
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, a Republican from South Dakota,

(02:14):
for the first time acknowledge that Medicare, which covers about
twenty percent of the United States population, mainly seniors, maybe
looked at and he said, I think anything we can
do that's waste, fraud and abuse are open to discussions.

(02:39):
Fune said when asked about whether Medicare cuts are on
the table, and this was also at the same time
the Republicans, we're doing talks about cuts to Medicaid as well,

(03:00):
and Medicaid is a joint federal state health insurance program
for lower income Americans. Soon said, we're open to suggestions
that people have about other areas where there is clearly
waste fraud and abuse that can be rooted out in
any government program. Okay, this waste fraud thing that they're

(03:26):
talking about is completely false, ladies and gentlemen, false false.
They're using these terms of waste, fraud and abuse because
of the fact that the Republicans want to have enough

(03:47):
money to cover the fact that the Republicans are the
ones who gave permanent tax breaks. They gave permanent tax
breaks to the filthy rich, the top one percent, and
in order to cover that part, okay, in order to

(04:09):
cover that, they want to take away from poor people.
They want to take away and do puts to Medicare,
Medicaid SNAP formerly known as food stamps, and so on
and so forth. So since starting June twentieth or twenty

(04:32):
twenty five, when the Big Beautiful Bill was being created,
this is when they started to do the cuts out
of the Medicare. Now here's another thing, here's another article.

(04:53):
This was June twenty ninth. Senate Republicans United State Center
Republicans restore Medicaid cuts to Trump's tax package. Okay, now,

(05:18):
that was on June twenty ninth of this year, twenty
twenty five, Senate Republicans restored major Medicaid cuts to Donald
Trump's signature economic legislation, that one big beautiful bill, refashioning
a key revision to overcome a procedural obstacle. Spending cuts

(05:41):
to health insurance program for poor and disabled, partially offset
revenue losses from tax cuts in the measure. And our
crucial and our crucial demand of GOP fiscal conservatives. Okay,
this is going hand in hand on what I just said,

(06:02):
because of those tax rates, the permanent tax rates that
the Republicans gave to the filthy rich. Now they have
to cover that in order to pay for that, So
they're doing the cuts to Medicare, Medicaid and so on. Now,

(06:26):
and since we're on this topic, ladies and gentlemen, I
want you to know that Senate Republicans were saying this
slogan to justify the Medicaid cuts. That slogan that they
were saying, as we all die, everybody dies. That was

(06:55):
the slogan that the Republicans in the United States Senate
were saying to justify Medicaid cuts. Okay, now here's another thing, Republicans.

(07:17):
Republicans were coining a new term for Medicaid cuts to
mislead voters. Okay, Republicans are rolling out a new way
to talk about the Medicaid cuts, and they're counting on
voters not noticing. Instead of calling it what it is,

(07:42):
they mean, the Republicans are using a softer label titled
reducing growth. That's what they're using. Senator Lindsey Graham, the
Republicans from South Carolina, leaned on the phrase in an

(08:03):
interview on ABC's program titled This Week defending Donald Trump's
so called Big Beautiful Bill, which reigns in Medicaid spending
over time. Seriously, Okay, here's another thing. Vice President JD.

(08:38):
Vance with the deciding vote to cut medicaid across the country.
He made the deciding vote to do this. Seriously, here's
another thing. The United States Megabill, that Big Beautiful Bill

(09:04):
marks the biggest the biggest medicap cuts in the United
States history. Okay, in the United States history, ladies and gentlemen.
And now because of these cuts, states are scrambling around

(09:29):
to try to fight funding. Because of these cuts to
health coverage and even snap snap is formerly known as
food stamps. Furiously, here's another thing. Here's another thing I

(09:53):
wanted to do the guys to know, all right, now,
with three cards to the ACA, the Affordable Care Act,
when Democrats created that, Okay, first of all, I have
to say this, all right, humans create anything. We're not

(10:14):
made perfect. First of all, Okay, we have our flaws.
Nobody's perfect. And with that being said, so whenever we
create anything, there's going to be flaws to it. So
there is no perfect system. There is no one perfect system.
But the ACA was created and had helped a tremendous

(10:38):
amount of people. Now, granted, there are some flaws to
the ACA. So now what really needs to happen is
for the Republicans and the Democrats to put their differences aside, okay,
and work on fixing the flaws of the ACA and

(11:00):
also to help adjust the ACA subsidies. Now, the Republicans
gave tax breaks, permanent tax rates to the filthy rich.
They can really do the same thing to help fix

(11:20):
the ACA subsidies in all honesty, So it's both sides
of the aisle, both major political parties, the Republicans and
the Democrats. They need to put their differences aside, lay
out all the cars, lay out all the cars out
on the table, and fix these things. The Republicans really

(11:45):
screwed up Medicare Medicaid, okay, and yes, the Democrats when
they created the ACA, they're off laws and there too.
So please Republicans and Democrats in cong risk, please put
your differences aside, be mature, be professional, and fix all

(12:08):
these things seriously. All right. And since we're on this topic, okay,
and I mentioned about SNAP formally, which is a program

(12:29):
formerly known as food stamps. All right, here's the thing.
This was in July of this year, twenty twenty five.

(12:52):
In July twenty twenty five, Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson
voted in faith of a bill that one big, beautiful
bill with the projected one hundred and eighty six billion dollars.

(13:15):
That's a billion with a B like Bob. The projected
one hundred and eighty six billion dollars in cuts to
the SNAP program, which provides federal food benefits to roughly
forty two million. That's a million with an M like mom,

(13:39):
American people. Okay, So I want all my fans out
there to know to know these things, all right, And

(13:59):
so all these cuts that the Republicans did, they did
the cuts to Medicare, Medicaid, and food stamps. They did that.
They really ruined the healthcare coverages of Medicare Medicaid, and

(14:20):
they also really ruined the food stamps. They did one
hundred and eighty six billion thousand cuts to the SNAP program.
I want people to really listen and understand that. And yes,
when the Democrats created the ACA, the Affordable Care Act,

(14:42):
it's not a perfect program. It has its flaws, but
it can be fixed. So again, if the Republicans and
the Democrats have put their differences aside and fix the
uh ACA subsidies, and I really realize the damage that

(15:15):
that uh the Republicans really did to the Medicare and
Medicaid and the food stamps, all to really pay for
the permanent tax breaks that they gave to the filthy
rich in the top one percent. Okay, now they say

(15:38):
you know, there was fraud, There was this, there was that,
and it was just an excuse really for the cuts
that they that they did. Okay, Now with regard to

(16:03):
quote unquote fraud that uh the Trump administration is saying
that they found with uh the SNAP program in which
they were saying that, uh that there were people who

(16:25):
have died and that they're collecting uh SNAP benefits. Though
and you know the lie that the Republicans said about
immigrants still uh collecting uh A, c A and stuff.

(16:46):
First of all, let me get into this. Immigrants cannot
collect the AC benefits. They cannot be on the AC
benefits because it's uh, there's federal that prohibits them from
being on there. So that's false information that the Republicans

(17:07):
were stipulating. Now in regards to the part to where
Trump administration is talking about like people who have died
and they are still collecting uh SNAP benefits, that is
really because of the fact that the government workers are

(17:35):
not doing their jobs. And it's if a person in
one state, for example, if a person who lives in
the state of New York collects benefits my SNAP benefits
and let's say, if they go to visits visit a

(17:56):
friend or family member in another state, like let's say Florida. Right, Well,
there in Florida, if something happens to them, like if
they pass If the person who lives in New York
passes away in Florida, the state government of Florida is
the one that writes out the death certificate and sends

(18:17):
it to the ssay, the Social Security Administration, okay. And
you know, it's really really there's no communication among the

(18:40):
government agencies. A lot of government workers keep saying, it's
not my job. It's not my job. The government agency
for whichever state that these people pass away and should
contact the federal government. They do, you know, more than

(19:01):
just the Social Security Administration, but they should also contact
the state government for which that person resides in and say, hey, listen,
this is what happened. Okay, because here I'm gonna explain
something to you. When the death certificate goes to the SSA,

(19:24):
the Social Security Administration, the workers there at the Social
Security Administration is supposed to send that information, that death
certificate to the state government agency where that person lives
and say, hey, listen, here's a situation. Here's a person's

(19:44):
death certificate and they're not supposed to be given, you know,
any more food stamps because they passed away. And then
that state government agency is supposed to send it to
the local city agency through the city where that person resided,

(20:08):
and they're supposed to say, hey, listen, this is the situation.
This person passed away, and so do not send out
snap benefits for that person. But that's not what happens.
There's little to no communication among government workers. So if

(20:31):
you really want to really lower the error rates, okay,
if the states really want to lower their error rates,
they need to get on well, the governors of each
state need to get on their state government agencies and
the mayors of each state need to get on their

(20:53):
city government agencies. That's how you lower the error rate.
That's how you lower that part of the fraud to
the when they're saying about people who have died, but
food stamp money is still going off to them, you know, seriously,

(21:14):
that's how you lower that part. And it's really the
government workers that are not doing their jobs. And if
there are immigrants that are collecting benefits that they shouldn't
be collecting, that's because these government workers are not doing
their damn jobs. Now one of the suggestions that the

(21:41):
Secretary of Agriculture, which is part of Trump's administration, she's
saying that there's an idea floating around that, oh that
just shut down SNAP and then restarted again. And everybody's
got to reply, No, that's the most stupidest, idiotic, dumb
jackass thing that could be even mentioned. If you want

(22:06):
to fix this fraud thing, then it has to be
the governors have to get on their state government agencies,
and the mayors of each city have to get on
their government workers of the city as well. And since

(22:31):
we're on this topic of what the Secretary of Agriculture
are stipulated as a suggestion, first of all, she cannot
do that. She does not have the power nor the
authority to do that because it's Congress. The United States
Congress is the one that created the snap of the

(22:52):
food stamp program, and it is Congress that funds the
snap the food stamp program. All right, So now I
get it, you know, and they're saying, and you know,
to fix these programs. You know, I understand that. But

(23:14):
here's another thing, okay, And the Secretary of Agriculture doesn't
comprehend us into our brain is that people who are
alive and who collect benefits like SNAP benefits, the food
stamp benefits, they have to recertify periodically, okay, And so

(23:44):
trying to say, oh, shut shut, shut the SNAP program down,
and that's the most idiotic thing ever to even come
out of a person's mouth. Seriously, people have to recertify periodic,
all right. So people in the Trump administration and Congress,

(24:09):
they got to use their effing brains for once in
their lives. They really really do, okay, they really really
really do, and they need to stop the nonsense. We
start to act intelligently variously, honestly. So if Congress wants

(24:30):
to get on the governors and the mayors of each
state and say, hey, all the governors of each state,
get on your damn state government agency rukers and force
them to do their jobs accurately. And then do the

(24:51):
same thing to the mayors of each city government agency
and say, hey, listen, get on your government workers and
get them to do their jobs accurately, because, like I
said before, these government workers are a bunch of damn
screw ups. They are, and why are they screw ups?

(25:14):
Because they are unionized and they can get away with
doing screw ups and that needs to stop. So if
the governors of each state and the mayors of each
city get on their government workers and say listen, do
your jobs or you do not have a job, all right,

(25:37):
you'll see the error rates go down drastically. And don't
be afraid of their union representatives. Furiously, that's how you
fix the error rates, and that's how you fix the
broken parts like the quote unquote fraud part for the

(25:58):
Snap program and stuff. Seriously, that's how you fix it.
And so with that, ladies and gentlemen, I want to
remind all my fans out there about my website, Advocate
Information Highway. The link to there is a I h
n Y dot com. Again, that's ai h n y

(26:20):
dot com. You guys could check out all the pages
on there, and so if that, take care everybody. Bye,