Trump Sticks It To Puerto Rico Yet Again

Congress was all set to do something bipartisan to help people in Puerto Rico … and then Donald Trump got wind of it and insisted it dial it back.

Republicans and Democrats on the House Energy and Commerce Committee and the Senate Finance Committee had negotiated $12 billion in Medicaid funding over four years for Puerto Rico as part of the government spending package that passed last week.  Politico reports, though, that Trump wasn’t having it.  He said that was too much—for Puerto Rico, anyway, which he clearly doesn’t believe is really part of the United States—and forced Congress to cut the aid down to two years and $5.7 billion.

According to a White House spokesperson, it’s a “win for President Trump and the American people.”  Because, again, Trump doesn’t believe that Puerto Ricans count as part of the American people, despite their citizenship.  In reality, the effect is that, “With another funding cliff looming in two years under the new agreement, Puerto Rico may continue to lack the certainty it needs to commit to long-term increases of its very low payment rates to health care providers to stem their alarming exodus to the mainland, to provide coverage for such key health treatments as drugs to treat Hepatitis C, and to cover more poor, uninsured residents,” according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities’ Robert Greenstein.

By contrast, Trump's farm bailout (due to his trade war with China) has hit $28 billion-- more than double the 2009 auto bailout.