Responsible Government Spending
Federal spending and our growing national debt are serious challenges which must be addressed for the long-term fiscal health of our nation. By enacting our tax cut and family security package (H.R. 1) in July, Republicans took significant strides to eliminate waste, fraud, and abuse in federal programs such as Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. The appropriations process provides another important opportunity to ensure taxpayer dollars are spent responsibly.
With the end of the fiscal year rapidly approaching, this week I voted for a clean continuing resolution to fund the government and ensure the Trump administration can continue confronting our nation’s greatest challenges while we continue working to reach a fiscally responsible agreement on funding federal agencies for the coming year.
Rather than produce responsible spending bills, Democrats in the House and Senate have demanded we attach unrelated policies to a continuing resolution thereby expanding irresponsible healthcare spending. In H.R. 1, Republicans took action to address high rates of Medicaid payment errors, eliminated a Biden-era nursing home staffing rule which burdened 90 percent of facilities in Nebraska with risk of closure, and delivered the largest ever single investment in rural healthcare through the Rural Health Transformation Fund, of which the Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services launched implementation this week. In their funding proposal, Democrats instead want to reverse important spending reforms while extending expensive COVID-era policies which ballooned federal spending.
Through historic investment in rural hospitals, the Rural Health Transformation Fund will boost rural healthcare workforce development, improve sustainability for rural health providers, and promote innovation to improve health outcomes. As H.R. 1 will save an estimated $911 billion over a decade in improper and misguided Medicaid spending, the Rural Health Transformation Fund will provide meaningful support to sustain rural healthcare providers at a cost of just $10 billion annually for five years.
Biden administration initiatives passed with only Democrat votes in Congress eliminated income caps on premium tax credit (PTC) eligibility and expanded Obamacare subsidies. Unfortunately, this opened the door to massive fraud and subsidization of premiums for high-income earners.
The Government Accountability Office, Congressional Budget Office, and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services have confirmed 6.4 million individuals are improperly enrolled in Obamacare plans, costing taxpayers $27 billion. Compounding matters, 100 percent of premium subsidies combined with little to no oversight or accountability opened the door to people fraudulently being enrolled in Affordable Care Act (ACA) plans without even knowing about it. In 2024, 12 million Obamacare enrollees submitted no medical claims in 2024. This is up from 3.5 million before the expansion took effect.
To end waste, fraud, and abuse, H.R. 1 required those with ACA premium subsidies to annually verify income and other qualifying information and eliminated tax credit eligibility for illegal immigrants. Sadly, Democrats are demanding the repeal of these reforms and instead have put forth a proposal which would add approximately $1.5 trillion in debt over the next ten years. Nothing in their proposal would fundamentally improve healthcare affordability or bring down the cost of insurance premiums by encouraging competition in the marketplace.
As we work to get our fiscal house in order, partisan and unreasonable demands leave us at serious risk a government funding crisis. Nebraskans deserve sound solutions which reduce government spending while ensuring families have access to care as we did in H.R. 1. It is disappointing some are insisting on a shutdown instead of working together to bring down costs for taxpayers and improve healthcare affordability.
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