The Sneaky Way to Kill a Government Program

When Bill Clinton promised to “end welfare as we know it,” he used a block grant. Republicans in the Senate now want use the same approach to limit funding for Medicaid and Obamacare. The difference: While Clinton explicitly wanted fewer people on welfare, Republicans say more people will get health coverage.

Lawmakers’ latest attempt to roll back federal health care programs relies on an approach similar to the one Clinton and a GOP-controlled Congress used more than 20 years ago to dismantle the federal system of cash aid to poor families. The current bill, known as Graham-Cassidy for two of its sponsors, would replace open-ended federal funding for states’ Medicaid and Obamacare programs with limited pools of money sent to states, called block grants or per-capita caps.