The Quiet War on Medicaid – The New York Times

David Silenus
December 27, 2016 at 12:58am

This piece by Gene Sperling — head of the National Economic Council for both Clinton and Obama —

shows why it will be so easy for Trump and the RPBs to steamroll the Democrats …

Substantively, the RPB war on Medicaid is both real and destructive …

They already have a sophisticated game plan to impose serious cutbacks

while masking the significant costs, both economic and health-wise, to society at large …

So this is a key issue, from every point of view …

At the same time, this veteran policy “professional” can’t seem to write about it in any kind of clear way,

let alone one that can mobilize the kind of campaign he correctly calls for to fight the Trump / RPB effort …

The Dems in general have problems both formulating robust pro-people policies AND communicating them effectively …

As Sperling points out, all they have to do here is preserve a program that is working as intended —

which they can do by shearing off just a few RPB votes in the Senate …

But if they can’t find better spokespeople on their core issues,

it’s not at all evident they’ll be able to secure even those few Senate RPB votes …

This is why they seem unlikely to be able to stop Trump and the RPBs from basically doing whatever they want —

even on what should be a slam-dunk issue like preserving Medicaid …

Donald Trump may not have the stomach to attack Medicare, but trouble is certainly brewing for millions of poor and working-class families.

Source: The Quiet War on Medicaid – The New York Times