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PHIL KERPEN: Biden-Harris Using Medicare as “Piggy Bank” for Green New Deal

Posted on Friday, November 1, 2024
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by The Association of Mature American Citizens
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11 Comments
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On AMAC’s Better for America podcast this week, Committee to Unleash Prosperity President Phil Kerpen issued a dire warning to AMAC CEO Rebecca Weber about the hidden costs in the Biden-Harris “Inflation Reduction Act” – including the threat of rising Medicare premiums for seniors. Kerpen called the IRA “maybe the most misnamed bill since the Affordable Care Act,” explaining how it actually made inflation worse and stole billions from Medicare to fund Democrats’ Green New Deal ambitions.

The IRA “really was an attack on Medicare,” Kerpen said, “and it’s quite shameful that AARP endorsed it and supported it and pushed for it.” AMAC notably strongly opposed the IRA and organized a member-led effort to urge members of Congress to vote against the bill.

As Kerpen explained, the Biden-Harris administration paid for the IRA in two main ways. The first was massively expanding the size of the IRS by hiring 87,000 new agents to “go shake down and harass and audit people – and Democrats said that’s about going after the rich, but the rich have tax lawyers and accountants.”

The second way, he said, was to use Medicare as a “piggy bank” by “slashing prescription drug spending in Medicare by about 260 billion.” While some people might believe price controls for drugs are a good idea, he continued, “I think 90 percent plus of people can agree on is if you’re going to cut Medicare prescription drug spending by 260 billion, that money should have been kept in Medicare.”

Instead, it was funneled to Democrats’ climate change agenda and Green New Deal subsidies.

“The thing that drives me completely insane,” Kerpen said, “is the Democratic politicians who voted to do this – You are out there every day attacking Republicans for wanting to cut Medicare, and it’s you that actually did it.”

As a result, seniors were expected to be hit with notices of significant premium increases this fall – somewhere in the neighborhood of 50 to 100 percent. But instead, in order to avoid that political disaster so close to the election, the Biden-Harris administration effectively paid off insurance companies to avoid any premium rate hikes until after the election.

“They really abused their legal authority to do this,” Kerpen said. “They called it a demonstration program. I don’t know what they’re trying to demonstrate, except that, when you bribe companies to hide the cost of your own policies, they’ll say, yes, thanks.”

Essentially, Kerpen said, the Biden-Harris administration is now “spending tens of billions of dollars basically to cover up the harm that their bill did when they pulled all that money out.”

“All of this is bad,” Weber responded. “Everything from price controls and price fixing. It’s bad in the long run.”

“We see fewer drugs coming to market when that kind of thing happens, and we don’t let the free enterprise system work. The Congressional Budget Office, they report that this cost shifting policy is going to push Medicare costs onto taxpayers. Can you elaborate on the long term financial repercussions this could have, especially on future Medicare beneficiaries?”

“First of all, the price controls will definitely result in fewer new drugs being developed, fewer cures being developed,” Kerpen responded. “It really changes the incentive for research because now you don’t want that huge blockbuster drug. Maybe that cures a disease or is a really good game-changing drug, but if your drug is too successful you’re gonna get whacked with the price control and you’re not gonna get a return on investment.”

“And in the long term, that’s actually very negative for Medicare finances because if you have fewer new drugs being developed, new cures being developed, you’re going to spend a lot more on long term care.”

“However,” Kerpen continued, “I think the biggest problem from my perspective, in what they’re doing is if you can get away with using Medicare as a piggy bank for unrelated government spending, you’re going to go back to that again and again.”

“And they’re not going to stay with just price controlling ten drugs. They’re going to post price controls on more drugs. They’re going to expand this over time. They’re going to say, if we can get away with it, every time we need to pay for the next round of giveaways to whatever industry it is”

As Kerpen explained, Medicare beneficiaries are already seeing the negative consequences of the IRA. “We’ve seen a lot of the Medicare Advantage plans say, we’re not covering provider networks that we used to cover last year. And so you’ve got a lot of people right now that are getting letters in the mail, finding out, hey, the way that they’re dealing with the changes in Inflation Reduction Act, the way that they’re trying to save costs to deal with those changes, is I can’t go to the health system that I’ve been going to forever on the insurance plan that I’ve been on.”

Importantly, the Biden-Harris administration eliminated the rebate rule that the Trump administration implemented. As a result, seniors will end up paying more for prescription drugs.

Kerpen concluded by warning about “the malign influence of AARP,” which he called “the biggest problem that we have on all of these health care policy issues.”

“AARP has become basically an advocacy arm of the health insurance industry,” Kerpen said. “They exclusively only sell United Health plans and they skim five percent off the top of every monthly premium of every AARP branded United Health plan for the whole time you’re in it. And, by the way, this is the only junk fee that Biden and the Democrats allow because so much of that money goes into Democratic politics and advocacy and goes to feeding the cycle and they’ve become the main outside group supporting policies that are actually harmful.”

“We’ve got to support the politicians who opposed the Inflation Reduction Act. We’ve got to punish the ones who voted for it. There’s got to be some political accountability. These people deserve to lose,” Kerpen said.

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DDS
DDS
1 month ago

Neither Biden nor Harris are running this country. Each and every citizen who buys that they are, or ever have been, are fools. Ask yourself, why did Obama fall into the Presidency so easily? Why did he choose Biden as Vice President? Likely no politician in the last 40 years has more side-deals buried in history than Biden. No other politician has been more usable in making deals with foreign countries. Obama proved not so much to be a savior as something far from such a thing. He used Biden, just as Biden used any usable person, country, or office for years. Keep in mind the words Obama said about his VP pick regarding how he could “F” up anything bigtime. And, with two-year term limits for the Presidency used up Obama maneuvered Biden back into power. In the meantime, Obama turned to Hollywood, the stars, the lifestyle of the rich and famous. So what have we been left with. Very rich actors, with very want-a-be puppets. And what are the puppets, but a pair of absolute losers who Obama and his sort want to keep in office as what? Puppets, at the proven expense of all that’s left of this illegal-alien over run country of honest tax payers. Actors all, the Democratic headliners are while the average legal citizens cut corners to feed their families. Tell me I’m wrong and I will tell you your blind.

David Millikan
David Millikan
1 month ago

Excellent article telling the Truth.

Michael J
Michael J
1 month ago

Probably the only thing Pelosi was right about is ” We have to pass it to find out what’s in it.” I’m paraphrasing this, but nothing can be more true. Politician’s adding their conditions to get a bill passed is slight of hand.

Theresa Coughlin
Theresa Coughlin
1 month ago

this is appalling! If a republican president had done this, democrats would have impeached him.

Jeanette
Jeanette
1 month ago

Not surprised…wasn’t it Obama’s administration that had been stealing from Social Security

R.Lee
R.Lee
1 month ago

I’m not surprised, Kammie is a Kommie Marxist!

uncleferd
uncleferd
15 days ago

The “democrats” must be officially disallowed to participate in any more governmental activities or processes, as they simply do not possess the integrity or personal maturity to refrain from engaging in unethical and illegal acts. They feather their own nests at every turn, and this must be stopped.

Brenda
Brenda
1 month ago

This is real.They are the worst criminals ever, evil,slime balls.

Cs
Cs
1 month ago

Disgusting and deceitful. Wish this was shown on main stream media, but guess who owns them. IMHO if KH wins, the U.S. and us with it, are screwed.

hgk
hgk
1 month ago

AARP has been only dem propoganda for ?? decades maybe ?? Certainly many years.

Smike
Smike
1 month ago

It’s too bad that AMAC didn’t pay attention to the Social Security Act of 2024 where survival spouse benefits were eliminated and replaced with a complicated new formula to ensure this benefit was eliminated. It’s all smoke and mirrors – Democrats, Republicans, AARP and AMAC all talk about how they’re protecting Social Security but in fact they’re just sitting there and letting this happen – no body’s fighting for seniors or social security.

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