The Queen of Social Welfare returned, but with the video game console on hand

Ronald Reagan and his Republican colleagues protested what they referred to as “welfare queens”, as they formed social spending in the 1970s and eighties of the last century, where they drew a picture of non -conscience women to finance the lifestyle.

Now while trying to justify the discounts to Medicaid, Republicans in Congress focus on a different sticker child: male video games without turning around the house associated with his control unit with free health care that should go to more people who deserve.

The pictures have changed, but the political tactic of the Republican Party is still the same. By making wide generalizations about the types of people who can benefit inappropriately from federal benefits, they make the idea of ​​reducing it appears virtuous, not stingy.

Through the new restrictions requirements for medical aid and other measures to reduce the emerging costs as major disagreement points in the political debate on the draft unpleasant local policy law, Republicans have sought to reduce the repercussions of potential Americans on the poor health care program. They say no one really deserves help will lose benefits.

To support their case, they confirm that ridicature of Medicaid lists of uninterrupted immigrants and immigrants who should not get taxpayers assistance will fly billions of dollars without touching benefits to the needy. Their message is that the necessary savings can be achieved by following up the old standing of waste, fraud and abuse.

“You don’t want workers able to the body in a intentional program, for example, for single mothers and have two young children just trying to do this,” spokesman Mike Johnson said in CNN. “That’s what medicaid is, not for 29 -year -old males sitting on their sofas playing video games.”

Lauren Boubert representative, Republican Colorado, is stacked for the fascinating sofa potato community.

“If you are able to work in America, you shouldn’t sit at home playing video games and collecting a check.” She said last month.

Other Republicans, Democrats, and Data Data say that most of the Medicaid beneficiaries are already working. They notice that even if there is an abundance of players who have installed, cutting them from the insurance provided by the government will not save much money, because they do not use much health care.

“They are not on the medicaid program because they are summaries,” Senator Josh Holie, the Republican in Missouri, said about his 1.3 million components. “They are on Medicaid because they cannot afford private health insurance costs.”

But Republican supporters of the discounts say that their argument has been emphasized through a modern analysis from the American Institute. By applying the American use of time and current survey of the population, the report estimated that the capable Medicaid recipients who do not work about 4.2 hours a day watching TV or playing video games, which is the second most common activity after sleep. He said that the beneficiaries of Medicaid workers spent about 2.7 hours watching TV or games.

The spokesman said that the results proved that Mr. Johnson point was that some of the beneficiaries were playing the system while they were thrown at home.

The spokesman said in a press statement: “The next time the Democraticer has made false claims about” Midikid discounts “, just remember that what they really say is that they want illegal foreigners and adults with the body who are able to play video games at home to continue stealing resources from those who need them.”

However, a new analysis of the Brookings Foundation questioned the potential impact of the new home base, which requires adults without children without physical restrictions to show that they worked, volunteered, or going to school for at least 80 hours a month before registration in Medicaid.

The analysis said that even if the new requirements are now reviewed in the Senate, some players have taken inactivity, it may not be large savings. The study, which number 4.3 million people, recorded that the study was limits for activity, recorded the lowest average Medicine spending, while 40 percent did not use medical services at all. The authors said that their data showed that only 300,000 beneficiaries reported that they were not working just because they did not want a job.

“The young Johnson speakers who hang on the lower floors play video games are not common as they might imagine, and do not use many health care services,” said the Brookings report, written by Sherry Gilded and Dong Ding. They added: “Getting rid of this group would only generate modest federal savings, which is much less than what is required to make up for a large share of tax cuts in the bill.”

Democrats say Republicans are well aware that millions of Medicaid beneficiaries do not get rid of the hours at home who play video games while eagerly benefiting from a program in which eligibility is related to low income. They say that Republicans distort the situation in seeking savings to compensate for tax cuts in their legislation.

“They are desperate for money and know that there is a lot of money to provide it by withdrawing people from luxury,” said Senator Brian Chatez, a democratic in Hawaii. “Thus, they should imagine an uninterrupted person.”

The Senator Richard Blumenant, Democrat in Connecticut, said that the Republicans wanted to justify their medical discounts by stigmatizing “health care as reporting, when this is something that enables the entire society to be more productive.”

“I think we are descending into the old” queen of luxury “, and I think it is harmful,” he said.

When Reagan nominated for the presidency in 1976, he was overcoming the campaign’s sermons with the story of a woman in Chicago, she found a way to inhibit the social welfare system through the use of the borrowed name and other fraud. This system was supposed to aim to raise anger and resentment among the voters who worked for a living.

Although suggestions about large -scale cases of people living in a luxurious lifestyle on the luxury have been exposed from the beginning, the impression continued for decades and surfaces in political and political battles from time to time. When Congress reinforced the advantages of unemployment during the Kofid pandemic, the conservatives pounced, saying that the additional wage will keep those who do not already control the work at home.

Mr. Johnson and others have accused the unemployed Americans who are able to “cheat” by receiving Medicid coverage when they can work, although the expansion of medical aid in many states under the law of care at reasonable prices made it allowed to obtain coverage without work as long as low -income instructions are met.

“If you are able to work and refuse to do so, you are deceiving the regime,” said Mr. Johnson in late May. He said that there was a “moral component” for the Republican payment to impose the requirements of the Medicaid recipient and that it would provide dignity for those who were pushed to the workforce.

Brookings analysis said that many of those who are not likely to occupy a job will be exempt from new requirements due to reasons such as a family member care or other factors. And I expected that this effort would lead to unintended results such as inhibiting those who need medicaid to qualify for help due to the requirements of new papers.

The report said: “The prior efforts to surgically dismissed those registered dryly from the recipients have proven ineffective and very expensive,” the report said. “Medicaid’s work requirements do not work in the way their supporters are preparing.”

Robert Jimson The reports contributed.