Zoom In/Zoom Out: GOP's plan to cut health care to fund tax cuts for the rich, trans athletes and Title IX

There’s always a lot going on in Washington. Often, there is a clear “lead story” of the day that’s dominating the headlines and TV news rundowns. In this recurring post, I’ll Zoom In on something that deserves more attention, and Zoom Out on a big story of the day to step back from the buzz and look at the bigger picture. — Jared

ZOOM IN: The House GOP wants to gut health care and blow up the deficit to fund tax cuts for the rich.

The more things change, the more they stay the same. Just like they did in 2017, Republicans in Congress are considering a budget reconciliation plan that delivers trillions to the wealthiest households and corporations while pulling the rug out from under working families by slashing health care — all while adding to our already unsustainable national debt.

Their plan includes:

$4.5 trillion to double-down on the lopsided 2017 Trump Tax Cuts. The Treasury Department found that doing so would give an average annual tax cut of $32,118 for those in the top 1 percent, while working families will only get a few hundred dollars in tax cuts a year. Nearly half the benefit would go to households with income over $450,000.

$2 trillion dollars in spending cuts that hurt working families and communities. Tax cuts like these aren’t cheap. To pay for it, the House GOP is looking at cuts that could take away Americans’ health care. Lots of Mainers could be affected, including:

• 30,000 Mainers in ME-02 who get health care through the ACA. The House GOP plan could increase their premiums by $1,280 on average.

• More than 133,000 Mainers in ME-02 who are covered by Medicaid, including 48,000 children and 17,000 seniors.

Both those programs could end up on the chopping block, according to a menu of cuts House GOP leaders are circulating to their members.

$2.8 trillion increase in the deficit. The actual budget impact is likely even higher, totalling about $3.4 trillion, as adding $2.8 trillion to the deficit is estimated to require an additional $600 billion in debt servicing costs. The national debt today is more than $36 trillion — a level of debt that threatens to crowd out critical obligations like Social Security. We should be looking to reduce the debt, not add to it.

The good news: This proposal is not only bad policy, it’s also deeply unpopular. The House majority’s margin is exceptionally tight and the more people learn about this plan, the more pressure they will feel to go back to the drawing board. A good place to start for compromise? Close loopholes that let the wealthy and corporations get out of paying their fair share of taxes. Then we could extend 2017’s middle-class tax cuts and reduce the deficit without taking away anyone’s health care. That’s a conversation both parties should be eager to have.

ZOOM OUT: Everyone deserves respect and dignity, but public policy shouldn’t ignore biological reality.

Last week, President Trump threatened to withhold federal education funding from Maine if the state didn’t reverse its relatively new requirement that all trans students be allowed to play on the team that conforms with their gender identity, no questions asked. Gov. Mills vowed to fight him in court, and the Trump administration has already launched investigations into the Maine Department of Education over the issue.

It’s wrong for the president to use trans kids as a pretext to hold funding that benefits every student in Maine hostage. And I will do everything I can in Congress to ensure Maine gets its fair share of federal education funds.

But zoom out, and this episode reveals thorny questions that are more complicated than a simple fight between the federal and state governments.

For most people, the fact that men and women are different is about as noncontroversial as you can get. Congress passed Title IX back in the ‘70s in recognition of the principle that because sex differences are an inherent, biological reality, it was wrong to use them as grounds for discrimination. In most cases schools created new, sex-segregated teams, rather than simply integrating girls into the boys teams — another nod to the real and obvious differences between the sexes.

The growing recognition and acceptance of transgender students complicates this arrangement. But that doesn’t mean we can simply ignore biology.

Many Americans who are transgender say that medical transition, under the careful guidance of medical professionals, saved their lives. I believe them. Lawmakers should oppose discriminatory policies like blanket prohibitions of gender-affirming care and requirements that people who are trans be legally identified as the gender they were assigned at birth. Likewise, we should support bans on discrimination against transgender people in areas like employment, housing and college admissions.

Trans kids deserve respect and dignity. But sex is a protected class too. I believe the state got it wrong by overturning a half-century of Title IX precedent and requiring school districts to open girls sports programs to natal males at the early stages of transition and those who may not be undergoing medical transition at all.

It would also be wrong to exclude trans kids from sports entirely. But the current system of letting kids change teams based simply on gender self-identification sets the bar too low to justify infringing on girls’ Title IX rights. A better balance is needed. Before 2023, Maine required trans athletes to obtain a waiver to participate in sports programs, a process that could require the involvement of medical professionals. That seems, to me, a far better approach.

Even then, the state should not ignore that some court rulings continue to allow states to use specific criteria that may exclude transgender students from participating in certain sports, including age, the level of competition, and considerations for athlete safety. At this point, the safest conclusion may be that categorical bans are likely to be considered discriminatory. But Maine should consider the possibility that its current policy may not stand up in court either. Perhaps a return to its previous policy or consideration of another is in order — not in deference to the president’s threat to withhold federal funds, but to biological reality.

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