In order for President Obama's Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement to be more politically palatable, it needs something called "trade adjustment assistance," or TAA, one more acronym in the trade agreement soup. TAA is the program intended to help American workers "displaced" by trade agreements—job training and placement, as well as health insurance. To get Democrats on board, the agreement needs this assistance to all the American workers who will lose their jobs. What comes with this particular TAA though is not at all politically palatable:
Medicare cuts. The TAA was
passed a cloture vote in the Senate last week along with Trade Promotion Authority.
So, about those Medicare cuts: it's $700 million in 2024, achieved through increasing Medicare cuts that were part of the sequester by 0.25 percent in 2024. Or in other words:
"Apparently using Medicare as a piggy bank to pay for everything under the sun has become the new legislative norm for Congress," Max Richtman, president and CEO of the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare, said in a statement to National Journal. "Rather than balancing priorities or considering a penny of new revenue, congressional leaders are proposing to once again funnel Medicare resources into unrelated programs and fixes—this time it's the trade adjustment assistance program."
Healthcare providers
agree:
"Hospitals, physicians, nursing homes and home health and hospice providers have already absorbed hundreds of billions of dollars in cuts to the Medicare program in recent years," reads a letter sent to senators on Tuesday, which was jointly signed by the American Hospital Association, the American Medical Association, American Health Care Association and the National Association for Home Care & Hospice. "Additionally alarming is the use of Medicare cuts to pay for non-Medicare-related legislation, a precedent that we believe is unwise."
Medicare is not some kind of slush fund for paying for non-related "necessities" Congress refuses to raise taxes for. Yes, assistance is absolutely necessary for people who will lose jobs as a result of trade agreements, but perhaps trade agreements should focus more on not creating jobs lost at home. Barring that, yes, go back to the traditional "pay for" for federal program: tax increases. Funding a program to help workers by cutting Medicare funding to our most vulnerable seniors is unacceptable.
Sign and send the petition: Don’t fast-track “fast-track” for TPP.