Insider Trading Continues, Medicaid Reform Surges, and Brit Hume Channels Matt Mayer

Once again Beltway pundits can only echo what I’ve already said:-)

I’m Back!! Thank you for indulging my curiosity by reading the various posts I did last week featuring X’s AI tool, Grok 3. I hope you found the exchanges as fascinating as I did. I now have a big backlog of items I’d plan to write about in the coming weeks, so please keep reading.

The first topic I wanted to briefly revisit is the stock trading activities of members of Congress from both parties. I’m not concerned nor bothered when members of Congress trade blue chip or well known stocks like Exxon, Tesla, or Apple; rather, my focus is on members who trade in obscure stocks that aren’t headquartered in their states (i.e., supporting native companies) and which engage in businesses those members oversee as part of their congressional committee assignments (i.e., inside information). Outside of Congress, we call that insider trading, which is illegal and is punished by jail time by the Securities and Exchange Commission. This congressional practice must be stopped immediately. Period.

Next, the latest craze coming out of Washington, D.C., is aimed at getting control of Medicaid spending. On March 3, the editors at the Washington Times wrote, “Republicans Must Slow Medicaid Spending,” in which they stated:

A decade ago, the federal government spent $301 billion a year on Medicaid, $600 billion on Medicare, $845 billion on Social Security, and $3.5 trillion overall. By 2024, it spent $618 billion on Medicaid, $1.09 trillion on Medicare, $1.454 trillion on Social Security, and $6.8 trillion overall. That means that while Medicare, Social Security, and overall spending grew by just 81%, 72%, and 94%, respectively, Medicaid spending ballooned by 105%.

Medicaid spending is expected to rise from $618 billion this year to $1.02 trillion in 2035. This astronomical increase is due to bad government in Washington and greedy decisions in blue-state capitals that have turned a safety net for the most vulnerable into a healthcare inflation machine that drives costs and deficits for everyone.

As you know, it wasn’t just “blue state capitals” that were greedy. Red Ohio under Governor John Kasich was one of the earliest states to put its hand out to Washington when it accepted Obamacare’s expanded Medicaid offer. At the time, Kasich claimed Ohio’s Medicaid rolls would only increase by 275,000, which he later revised upward to 336,000. I led the charge against Kasich’s fiscally irresponsible plan by blanketing the airwaves with data showing Kasich’s predictions were grossly low and expanding Medicaid would drive state spending through the roof. I said enrollment would swell by over 900,000. As Kasich faced defeat in the legislature due to our efforts, he teamed up with then Speaker Bill Batchhelder—who had long hung up his conservative credentials—to do an end-around the legislature by replacing “no” vote Controlling Board members with “yes” men. It worked, as O2 Visiting Fellow Mary McCleary detailed in “Medicaid ‘Win' for Ohio’s Republicans Will Lead to Future Losses.”

In September 2013 when Kasich and Batchhelder executed their Medicaid switch-a-roo, Medicaid enrollment stood at 2.394 million and cost Ohioans $1.441 billion per month. When Kasich left office in January 2019, enrollment was up to 2.849 million (after peaking at 3.101 million in March 2017) and monthly costs hit $2.195 billion. Unless my math skills aren’t working, that means enrollment was 707,000 MORE THAN it was before expansion and MORE THAN two times greater than Kasich’s upward revised figure. Costs were up $754 million per month during that span of time. Today, enrollment is back above the three million mark (3.025 million) and monthly costs are nearly $3.0 billion. Since the Kasich-Batchhelder expansion, we have served as the lone voice urging the legislature to repeal Medicaid expansion, as statewide elected officials looked the other way as enrollment and state spending exploded.

Now comes the Freedom Caucus with an op-ed at Fox News, "We're members of the House Freedom Caucus. The US must choose: either $20 trillion in debt or Medicaid reform,” arguing:

When Obamacare introduced an entirely new class of able-bodied adults to Medicaid, the program exploded, and the federal government took on the majority of the costs. Under President Joe Biden, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) withdrew 13 waivers for Medicaid work requirements, once again dramatically expanding the program and costing taxpayers billions.

Medicaid was never meant to be this expansive.

Medicaid was intended to assist vulnerable populations like the disabled, pregnant women, children and people in poverty. Today, able-bodied, working-capable adults are on course to become the largest subgroup on Medicaid.

Nationwide, there are an estimated 24.6 million able-bodied, working-capable adults on Medicaid, 60% of whom report no earned income.

...

Reimplementing Clinton-era work requirements alone would save roughly $120 billion over 10 years and put more workers back in our economy. Site neutrality could save over $471 billion. Normalizing the federal reimbursement rate for the expansion population under Medicaid would save nearly $600 billion.

Did you read that statement carefully? Do you know what “normalizing” the reimbursement rate means? It means ending the 90%-10% federal-state cost share for Medicaid expansion by resetting it to the Federal Medical Assistance Percentage, which is a 64.6%-to-35.4% federal-state cost share. For perspective, for the most recent fiscal year, Ohio’s total Medicaid costs were $39 billion, with much of that covered by the federal government. If Ohioans had to cover 35.4% of expanded Medicaid recipients’ costs instead of the 10% they pay today, taxes would have to be raised and/or other vital programs would have to be cut to cover those expenses.

These comments mirror what I said way back in 2013 and spelled out in July 2023 in response to a fairly irresponsible statement by then-Lieutenant Governor Jon Husted that Medicaid expansion was “no big deal” because the federal government paid 90% of its cost. In “Out-of-Control Government Spending IS a Big Deal--Medicaid Expansion Swallows the State Budget, Drives Interest Rates Higher, and Creates Dependency on Government”, I wrote:

Next, Husted’s position reflects plain economic ignorance when it comes to the federal government. We conservatives have long known and stated that there are no “free" lunches. The money must come from somewhere. In order to pay for Medicaid, the federal government runs a massive financial deficit ($1.2 TRILLION since October 2022). That annual deficit gets added to the growing national debt ($32.5 TRILLION). We are on the hook for that debt. As that debt climbs, the interest we must pay on that debt grows (nearing $1 TRILLION per year). That growth crowds out other spending priorities like strengthening our military and securing the border.

Finally, to pay for Medicaid, the federal government does what only it can do: it prints money. As it prints money, the value of the dollar declines as the market is flooded with more money. Because each dollar is worth less, prices rise. We call that inflation, which drives interest rates higher. Ohioans get hit with those higher rates when they buy a house, car, or use their credit cards. That means the item you buy on credit ends up costing you far more than it did before interest rates increased because of the money printed to cover the costs of Medicaid. Additionally, rarely do wages rise with inflation, so not only does it cost you more to buy goods and services on credit, but everyday items like groceries, gasoline, home goods, and vacations cost more, too, all the while you are functionally earning less. As Utah U.S. Senator Mike Lee recently noted, the average American family now spends $1,000 more every month because of inflation due to excessive federal spending for Medicaid and other programs.

The Wall Street Journal chimed in as well in its “Who’s Afraid of Medicaid Reform?” editorial. In its editorial, the WSJ included this blurb:

That little comparison is very similar to the one I made in my March 2013 report, “Competitive Federalism: Leveraging the Constitution to Rebuild America,” where I stated:

Great minds think a like, I suppose. The bottom line is that Ohio needs to repeal Kasich’s Medicaid expansion before it is too late and push for full decentralization of the Medicaid program so states can do what they deem best without federal strings attached.

Speaking of great minds, did you hear what Brit Hume had to say about Donald Trump’s non-State of the Union speech? Hume stated, “If you ever doubted that Donald Trump is the political colossus of our time and our nation, this night and this speech should put that to rest.” Sound familiar? It should. Over a year ago I wrote a column, “Trump the Colossus: No Matter how much those historians who write our history despite him, they all will have to acknowledge that what Trump did from 2015 to 2029 was simply mind-blowing and unparalleled.” After noting the twenty-six very skilled politicians in both parties who Trump dispatched of in primaries and general elections despite being outspent $1.137 billion to $151 million in the 2016 and 2024 primaries, I wrote:

All of these outcomes are stunning for a party flopping, brash billionaire real estate developer from New York City, but those outcomes alone aren’t what make Trump a colossus. He is a colossus because Trump has accomplished those things despite the nonstop onslaught he has faced from virtually every corner since July 2015. No other candidate or president has faced the level of hatred, lies, fraud, turncoats, and attacks that Trump has hit head on and survived…some would even say thrived.

…

Whether you are a Trump fan or a hater, his continued survival and viability make him a political colossus unlike anyone we’ve ever seen. No other American politician save Ronald Reagan sends shivers down the spines of leaders—both allies and enemies—across the world like Trump does. Should he go on to win the November election and a second term to become the 47th President of the United States, no matter how much those historians who write our history despise him, they all will have to acknowledge that what Trump did from 2015 to 2029 was simply mind-blowing and unparalleled.

Did Hume read my column a year ago? I have no idea, but once again Beltway pundits can only echo what I’ve already said:-)

P.S. I don’t know about you, but this straw poll result from CPAC on who attendees favor is bizarre. To be clear, it isn’t bizarre that J.D. Vance handily won the straw poll; rather, it is bizarre to me that a bomb-throwing fringe guy who just pled guilty to fleecing hardworking conservatives like Steve Bannon came in second place and ahead of far more worthy candidates like Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and Texas Governor Greg Abbott. Such an outcome tells me more about who attended CPAC than who legitimately should be thinking about a 2028 presidential run. It also tells me Vance is unequivocally in the driver's seat for 2028 even if his lead isn’t 49-percentage points.