Ask A Genius 1544: ACA Fraud Claims and Debt
Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen and Rick Rosner
Publication (Outlet/Website): Ask A Genius
Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2025/10/13
Do GOP claims about ACA fraud and immigrant coverage distract from inflation, debt, and tariff risks?
Vice President J.D. Vance argues ACA tax credits invite insurance fraud as Democrats seek an extension to end the shutdown. Rick Rosner counters that Republican leaders increasingly lie, including about federal coverage for undocumented immigrants, which has been barred since the 1996 welfare reform. Scott Douglas Jacobsen raises debt concerns, citing roughly $38 trillion. Rosner says voters care more about inflation and benefits than debt itself. He warns tariffs are inflationary, noting a market drop after a proposed 100% China tariff and harm to soybean exports, notably this year. The dollar’s recent slide is relative; domestically, Americans still meet needs despite turbulence.
ACA Tax Credits
Scott Douglas Jacobsen: Vice President J.D. Vance claims Affordable Care Act tax credits fuel fraud as Democrats push for an extension to end the government shutdown. Vance also called for regulatory reform, saying on CBS News’ Face the Nation: “The tax credits go to some people deservedly. We [see that] the tax credits actually go to a lot of waste and fraud within the insurance industry. So we want to make sure the tax credits go to people who deserve them.”
Rick Rosner: Republicans—especially much of their leadership and many in Congress—no longer feel compelled to tell the truth. They just lie wherever they think they can get away with it now. I don’t know if it’s unprecedented in U.S. history, but it’s certainly something that hasn’t happened in my lifetime. They just go on television and tell lies. Sometimes they’re called out, sometimes they’re not, and it doesn’t matter—they just keep going.
The lie that they’re fighting to stop money from going to provide health insurance to undocumented immigrants is one of many. As far as I know, it’s illegal to provide federal health insurance to undocumented immigrants. That restriction dates back to the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996, signed by President Bill Clinton, not Reagan. Republicans have been repeating this false claim throughout this shutdown and earlier.
They’re in charge of parts of government and also cornered politically because they’re afraid of various investigations—Epstein files among them. The result is a toxic mix of arrogance and desperation, which leads them to keep saying whatever serves their narrative.
Rising National Debt
Jacobsen: The debate between Democrats and Republicans keeps avoiding the country’s biggest structural issue: the rising national debt and the long-term financial health of Social Security and Medicare. The U.S. national debt is currently around $38 trillion. Any thoughts on this?
Rosner: It’s not the number one problem for most Americans. The top concern is their own economic situation. Most Americans don’t care about the national debt in itself—they care about what follows from it, like inflation. They care about Social Security and Medicare.
The United States can fund all of these programs—Social Security, Medicare, whatever else—because we can print more money and sell more debt. But doing that is highly inflationary. Still, the U.S. economy is so large and resilient that even after repeated shocks—such as those caused by Trump’s bad decisions—it remains fundamentally healthy.
We’re somewhat insulated from the kind of hyperinflation you see in weaker economies. Historically, one of the worst examples wasn’t the fastest but the most devastating: Germany in the early 1920s during the Weimar Republic, when hyperinflation wiped out the middle class and destabilized society.
That hyperinflation led to Hitler and World War II. It was probably around 10,000 percent per year or something close to that. When the U.S. experiences bad inflation, it might hit 7 percent—and that alone angers Americans.
We might be hit with inflation again because of the tariffs. Trump knocked the stock market down by nearly 2 percent on Friday after announcing a 100 percent tariff on China—again.
Jacobsen: Do you know why? I haven’t paid any attention as to why he did that.
Rosner: Well, he just does things like that. It tanks the stock market and hurts farmers. Last year, American farmers sold about $18 billion worth of soybeans to China; this year, virtually none.
So, the national debt itself doesn’t concern people. What they care about is how the economy affects their own finances. The U.S. dollar has fallen roughly 10 or 11 percent so far this year, but that’s relative to other currencies. Domestically, people can still buy what they need and not feel the pinch immediately.
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