The GOP Entitlement Caucus: Freedom Caucus Wastes the Best Shot at Fiscal Restraint in Years – Fox News

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL - The full dimensions of the GOPs self-defeat on health care will emerge over time, but one immediate consequence is giving up block grants for Medicaid. This transformation would have put the program on a budget for the first time since it was created in 1965, and the bills opponents ought to be held accountable for the rising spending that they could have prevented.

The members of the House Freedom Caucus who killed ObamaCares repeal and replacement claim to be fiscal hawks. Most of them support a balanced budget amendment. Yet they gave zero credit to a reform that would have restored Medicaida safety net originally intended for poor women, children and the disabledto its original, more limited purposes.

Over the years liberal and some otherwise conservative states opened Medicaid benefits to new populations. And in 2010 ObamaCare added working-age, able-bodied adults above the poverty level. The result is that Medicaid now insures more than 72 million people, or one of every five Americans. In six states its one of every four or higher. Medicaid is now the third-largest program in the federal budget and the fastest growing. Federal outlays are nearly three times higher today than in 2000, as the nearby chart shows.

Read this article:

The GOP Entitlement Caucus: Freedom Caucus Wastes the Best Shot at Fiscal Restraint in Years - Fox News