Supplemental Security Income - programs that U.S. workers are not guaranteed to qualify for, like the federal Medicaid program and/or supplemental food assistance income - is under fire with each new presidency...
And this time around, with more uncertainty than is typical.
That's because when it comes to Donald Trump on SSI, very little is known about the president-elect's position.
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While Donald Trump has mentioned that he'd like to leave Social Security alone, he has also thrown about the idea of targeting programs that currently practice, in his opinion, "waste, fraud, and abuse."
And it looks like Medicaid in particular could be one of the first programs on the real estate mogul's fiscal chopping block. That's because Trump, along with several members of GOP Congress, believe the Medicaid program is a hotbed for fraud.
Here's a look at what we've pieced together so far about Trump's SSI/Medicaid plan...
Donald Trump on SSI
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Trump stated numerous times on the campaign trail that Congress must repeal the Affordable Care Act.
Here's what the president-elect suggested doing with government medical care funding instead...
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He'd leave it up to the states to decide what to do with the money.
Specially, Trump proposed allotting each state a lump sum of federal funds, or what's known as a "block grant," for programs like Medicaid and food stamps.
So, in other words, it will be each individual state's government that ultimately decides what should be done with SSI funding, as opposed to a blanket federal rule.
Trump's idea contrasts completely with sitting President Barack Obama's intention to expand Medicaid, which is something Congress passed legislation to block on Jan. 4 of this year.
Obama vetoed the measure right away.
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Ever since, House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WS) has repeatedly promised to put similar legislation on a Republican president's desk in the future.
And that Republican president, as we all know, officially arrives on Jan. 20, 2017.
But Congress likely won't even wait for federal legislation to be drafted to start pushing to halt Medicaid expansion programs, reported The New York Times on Tuesday. "Without even waiting for legislation," the outlet stated, "the Trump administration is almost certain to give states more leeway to run their Medicaid programs as they wish, federal and state officials say."
And it looks like a number of states "wish" to install the following restrictions on Medicaid, according to The New York Times:
- Copayments on all visits, regardless of a participant's income. Currently, there is a limit to how much a participant has to cough up for a copay, based on his income (or lack thereof).
- Work requirements (of which there are none at the moment), though what "work requirements" would entail has not yet been made clear by anyone in Congress.
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Love or hate him, Trump's priority is to make this country secure again - be it with a tight control on government spending, immigration reform, or economic trends.
As far as Money Morning Chief Investment Strategist Keith Fitz-Gerald is considered, all of the president-elect's ideas spell one word out with undeniable clarity: g-r-o-w-t-h.
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