WASHINGTON, D.C. – The following op-ed by Congressman Brett Guthrie (KY-02), Chairman of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, appeared in the Wall Street Journal today.
"When President Trump took the podium for his Second Inaugural Address, he promised a 'revolution of common sense' that would launch a generation of growth, health and prosperity. Today, our country faces numerous threats to that goal. Medicaid waste and abuse threatens the well-being of America’s most vulnerable as the looming expiration of important 2017 tax reforms throws a shadow over U.S. industry.
"Republicans’ best chance to secure the president’s inaugural promise is this year’s reconciliation bill. On Sunday night the House Energy and Commerce Committee will release a bill that supports the rapid innovation of American industry, strengthens Medicaid, and ends spending on Green New Deal-style waste.
"This reconciliation legislation will help raise federal revenue and limit government spending to what actually helps Americans. We will raise $88 billion by reauthorizing the Federal Communications Commission’s spectrum auction authority and provide resources to modernize federal information-technology systems. Both are crucial for maintaining and expanding U.S. technological leadership.
"Savings like these allow us to use this bill to renew the Trump tax cuts and keep Republicans’ promise to hardworking middle-class families. The 2017 cuts gave Americans earning under $100,000 an average tax cut of 16%, while increasing the share of the tax burden carried by the top 1% of earners. Without this legislation, middle-class Americans will see that windfall reversed at the end of 2025.
"In addition to raising new revenue, the bill will slash waste, particularly handouts to Democrats’ climate activist cronies. The 2024 election sent a clear signal that Americans are tired of an extreme left-wing agenda that favors wokeness over sensible policy and spurs price increases. Mr. Trump has already reversed President Biden and Democrats’ electric-vehicle mandates and natural-gas export ban; now it’s Congress’s turn.
"This bill would claw back money headed for green boondoggles through 'environmental and climate justice block grants' and other spending mechanisms through the Environmental Protection Agency and Energy Department. The legislation would reverse the most reckless parts of the engorged climate spending in the misnamed Inflation Reduction Act, returning $6.5 billion in unspent funds. The bill would also begin refilling the dangerously low Strategic Petroleum Reserve.
"Democratic extremism is threatening Americans’ access to affordable healthcare. States are struggling to manage rising Medicaid costs, which ballooned under Mr. Biden. This is particularly true in Democrat-run states such as California that use federal Medicaid funding to subsidize health insurance for illegal aliens through state insurance programs. This policy puts undue budgetary pressure on Medicaid, thereby endangering the healthcare access of the vulnerable Americans the program was designed to help. Just as Mr. Trump is working to end sanctuary cities, congressional Republicans will reduce federal aid to states that give welfare to illegal immigrants.
"The Biden administration is responsible for this problem, too, having imposed burdensome regulations on Medicaid that jeopardize the program’s long-term health. The last president stripped away guardrails against fraud by making it more difficult for states to remove ineligible people from Medicaid enrollment and expanded coverage such that capable but unemployed adults could take resources meant for people in need. In total, these Biden rules will cost $172 billion over the next 10 years if they aren’t reversed—as our bill would do. Republicans will also reverse other nonsensical government rules that undermine access to care, such as the one-size-fits-all Nursing Home Minimum Staffing Rule that threatens to close thousands of nursing home facilities.
"Undoubtedly, Democrats will use this as an opportunity to engage in fear-mongering and misrepresent our bill as an attack on Medicaid. In reality, it preserves and strengthens Medicaid for children, mothers, people with disabilities and the elderly—for whom the program was designed.
"When so many Americans who are truly in need rely on Medicaid for life-saving services, Washington can’t afford to undermine the program further by subsidizing capable adults who choose not to work. That’s why our bill would implement sensible work requirements. Every other capable adult works to afford healthcare. Half of all Americans get insurance through work, seniors on Medicare get coverage because they paid into the trust fund, and veterans earned their care through their service to our country.
"The Republican bill also prohibits Medicaid from funding 'gender reassignment' surgery for children, instead recommitting the program to essential care for our most vulnerable Americans. The federal government shouldn’t be subsidizing these procedures in any form, and I am proud that we will be protecting all our children from the lasting, harmful effects of these procedures.
"Without Republican solutions, Washington risks a complete collapse of Medicaid. Even with these simple steps to eliminate waste and abuse, Medicaid spending will continue to rise every year for the foreseeable future. All who worked on this bill—from my congressional colleagues to the White House—designed it to renew the American dream for families across the country. What could be more common sense than that?”
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