Highlights:
VIDEO: Trump On Entitlements: “Oh, We’ll Be Cutting.” According to remarks by Trump at a Fox News Town Hall via YouTube, “MARTHA MCCALLUM: If you don’t cut something in entitlements you’ll never really deal with the debt. TRUMP: Oh, we’ll be cutting. But we’re also going to have growth like you’ve never had before.” [Fox News via YouTube, 3/5/20]
Center On Budget Policy Priorities: Trump’s FY 2021 Budget Would Cut $500 Billion From Medicare Over 10 Years. According to the Center on Budget Policy Priorities, “President Trump’s 2021 budget proposes about $500 billion in net Medicare spending reductions over ten years (see table), most of which would come from reducing payments to health care providers and not affect beneficiaries directly.” [Center on Budget Policy Priorities, 2/13/20]
Center On Budget Policy Priorities: Budget Proposed Medicare Spending Cut $756 Billion Over 10 Years, But Cuts Reduce To $501 Billion After “Accounting For The General Revenue Payments For GME And Uncompensated Care.” According to the Center on Budget Policy Priorities, “In two cases — payments to hospitals for graduate medical education (GME) and for uncompensated care — the budget proposes to move spending from Medicare’s trust funds to new, smaller grant programs funded by general revenues. While the budget would cut Medicare spending by $756 billion over ten years, the cuts amount to $501 billion after accounting for the general revenue payments for GME and uncompensated care.” [Center on Budget Policy Priorities, 2/13/20]
Washington Post: Trump FY 2021 Budget Cut Medicaid By About $920 Billion Over 10 Years. According to the Washington Post, “The budget cuts Medicaid spending by about $920 billion over 10 years, a change Democrats and administration critics warn would lead to reductions in benefits and the number of people on the health care program.” [Washington Post, 2/10/20]
New York Times: Trump FY 2021 Budget Sought $70 Billion Cut To Federal Disability Benefits Over 10 Years. According to the New York Times, “The president’s plan includes about $2 trillion in cuts to safety net programs and student loan initiatives. Those reductions encompass new work requirements for Medicaid, federal housing assistance and food stamp recipients, which are estimated to cut nearly $300 billion in spending from the programs. The budget would also cut spending on federal disability insurance benefits by $70 billion and on student loan programs by $170 billion.” [New York Times, 2/10/20]
Trump FY 2021 Budget Accounted For Savings From Panel That Would Be Tasked With Producing Recommendations To Decrease Disability Insurance (DI) And Supplemental Security Income (SSI) Outlays By 5% By 2032. According to Donald Trump’s FY 2021 Budget Proposal Major Savings and Reforms, “Test New Approaches to Increase Labor Force Participation—This Budget promotes greater LFP of people with disabilities by expanding demonstration authority that allows the Administration to test new program rules and requires mandatory participation by program applicants and beneficiaries. This proposal calls on the Congress to establish an expert panel that will identify specific changes to program rules that increase LFP and reduce participation on disability programs based on the results of successful demonstrations and other evidence. This panel would be responsible for making recommendations to reduce participation levels that would be directly tied to reaching a five percent reduction in Disability Insurance (DI) and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) projected outlays by 2032.” [Trump FY 2021 Major Savings and Reforms, Accessed 8/18/23]
Trump FY 2021 Budget: “Improve SSI Youth Transition To Work” Line Item Sought To “To Promote Greater Self-Sufficiency For Transition-Age Youth” By More Closely Tracking Medical Progress And By Increasing Incentives For SSI Youth Recipients To Work. According to Donald Trump’s FY 2021 Budget Proposal Major Savings and Reforms, “Improve SSI youth transition to work—To promote greater self-sufficiency for transition-age youth, the Budget would implement several SSI reforms. First, the Budget would better identify medical improvement at the earliest point to increase oversight and signal the importance of SSI youth investing in their education and development by instituting initial disability reviews at age six and 12. Second, the Budget would improve SSI youth work incentives by disregarding all earned income and eliminating income reporting requirements through age 20, providing a higher disregard of earnings with a gradual phase-down for SSI recipients between ages 21 and 25, and eliminating school enrollment reporting requirements. In addition, the Budget would improve access to vocational rehabilitation services for SSI transition-age youth by allowing the Social Security Administration (SSA) to make referrals to these services.” [Trump FY 2021 Major Savings and Reforms, Accessed 8/18/23]
Trump FY 2021 Budget Sought To Reduce 12 Month Retroactive Disability Benefits To Six Months. According to Donald Trump’s FY 2021 Budget Proposal Major Savings and Reforms, “Revise 12 month retroactive DI benefits to six months—New DI beneficiaries are eligible for up to 12 months of benefits before the date of their application, depending upon the date they became disabled. This proposal would reduce retroactivity for disabled workers, which is the same policy already in effect for individuals receiving retirement benefits. This proposal would not modify retroactivity for Medicare eligibility. Create a sliding scale for multi-recipient SSI families—Currently, multi-recipient SSI families are eligible to receive an equal full benefit amount for each SSI child recipient. However, economies of scale in some types of consumption such as housing reduce per capita living expenses so that two children generally do not need twice the income as one child. Federal poverty guidelines and other means-tested benefits take into account these efficiencies. The Budget proposes to create a sliding scale family maximum for SSI disability benefits that considers the number of additional family recipients, keeping the maximum benefit for one recipient the same, but reducing the maximum amount for all eligible children and parents in the same family for each additional recipient.” [Trump FY 2021 Major Savings and Reforms, Accessed 8/18/23]
Trump FY 2021 Budget Proposed To Reduce Maximum Benefit To Families With Multiple Children Who Qualified For SSI. According to Donald Trump’s FY 2021 Budget Proposal Major Savings and Reforms, “Create a sliding scale for multi-recipient SSI families—Currently, multi-recipient SSI families are eligible to receive an equal full benefit amount for each SSI child recipient. However, economies of scale in some types of consumption such as housing reduce per capita living expenses so that two children generally do not need twice the income as one child. Federal poverty guidelines and other means-tested benefits take into account these efficiencies. The Budget proposes to create a sliding scale family maximum for SSI disability benefits that considers the number of additional family recipients, keeping the maximum benefit for one recipient the same, but reducing the maximum amount for all eligible children and parents in the same family for each additional recipient.” [Trump FY 2021 Major Savings and Reforms, Accessed 8/18/23]
Trump FY 2021 Budget Proposed To Eliminate Ability Of Individuals To Receive Both Unemployment Insurance And Disability Insurance By Offsetting Disability Insurance. According to Donald Trump’s FY 2021 Budget Proposal Major Savings and Reforms, “Offset overlapping unemployment and disability payments—The Budget proposes to close a loophole that allows individuals to receive unemployment insurance (UI) and DI for the same period of joblessness. UI is intended to compensate individuals for short-term bouts of unemployment while they look to return to work while DI is intended to compensate individuals who cannot return to work on a long-term basis due to a disability. The proposal would offset the DI benefit to account for concurrent receipt of UI benefits.” [Trump FY 2021 Major Savings and Reforms, Accessed 8/18/23]
Trump FY 2021 Budget Sought To Allow SSA To Offset Disability Insurance Benefits If A Worker Had Received Worker’s Compensation Or Public Disability Benefits.” According to Donald Trump’s FY 2021 Budget Proposal Major Savings and Reforms, “Eliminate Workers’ Compensation (WC) and Temporary Disability Reverse Offset—In most States, if an individual concurrently receives WC or Public Disability Benefits (PDB) and DI, SSA may offset his or her DI benefits. Currently, some States instead have “reverse offset,” whereby the WC or PDB is reduced due to the receipt of DI benefits. This proposal would eliminate reverse offsets in these States, allowing SSA to consistently offset DI benefits because of WC or PDB receipt (when needed) regardless of the State in which the WC is being paid, and require all States to provide SSA with State WC and PDB information.” [Trump FY 2021 Major Savings and Reforms, Accessed 8/18/23]
Trump FY 2021 Budget Accounted For Approximately $12.6 Billion Savings From Reductions In Improper Payments. According to Donald Trump’s FY 2021 Budget Proposal Major Savings and Reforms, “In addition, the Budget includes legislative proposals that would avert approximately $12.6 billion in improper payments in Social Security over 10 years. Detailed information on each proposal, as well as administrative actions to reduce improper payments that result in $11 billion in outlay savings over 10 years, is available in the Payment Integrity chapter in the Analytical Perspectives volume.” [Trump FY 2021 Major Savings and Reforms, Accessed 8/18/23]