Members of Congress may have decamped Washington to campaign for reelection, but in nondescript buildings near Capitol Hill, federal budget gnomes continue their work. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) recently released two reports illustrating how billions of taxpayer dollars get spent on the wrong priorities.
The two reports to the House Budget Committee quantified Medicaid payments made for the care of illegal immigrants and recent changes in Medicare spending due to a bill Democrats passed two years ago. The analyses demonstrate how the Inflation Reduction Act has proved anything but and how the border nightmare on Joe Biden and Kamala Harris’ watch has increased spending.
Migrant Spending Skyrockets
The first report totaled spending on “emergency” Medicaid services provided to migrants since 2017. Under federal law, only qualified aliens — including people like legal permanent residents (i.e., green card holders), refugees, and parolees into the United States — are eligible for full Medicaid benefits, and only then after a five-year waiting period. In other cases, CBO notes that individuals who otherwise would qualify for Medicaid but for their immigration status can receive “care for medical emergencies that require immediate attention to prevent serious harm, disability, or death; they may also qualify for emergency labor and delivery services.”
As this table from the report demonstrates, federal spending on such services more than tripled over the relevant period, from $900 million in fiscal year 2017 — the first year of Donald Trump’s administration — to over $2.7 billion in the fiscal year that
