TPMDC Medicare/Medicaid
Barney Frank
Barney Frank Unloads On The 'Great Scam' Of Paul Ryan
Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA) unleashed a stinging attack on House Budget Chairman Paul Ryan in an interview with TPM, describing him as an ideologically driven extremist who doesn't deserve his reputation within the political establishment as a genuine fiscal hawk.
Labeling the House-passed GOP budget a "great scam," Frank cited its military spending hikes from current law levels as evidence that Ryan's primary goal isn't deficit reduction. He also cited Ryan's refusal to specify which tax loopholes he'll close as evidence of trickery.
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (0)Topics: Barney Frank, GOP Budget, House Republicans, Medicaid, Medicare, Medicare Privatization, Medicare/Medicaid, Paul Krugman, Paul Ryan, Tom Friedman
Deficit
Super Committee Pressed To Raise Medicare Eligibility Age
The Democratic co-chair of President Obama's fiscal commission now says Democrats should entertain an increase in the Medicare eligibility age -- thanks in part to Obama's own health care law.
At a hearing before the deficit Super Committee, former Clinton White House Chief of Staff Erskine Bowles argued that the Affordable Care Act should allow Democrats to accept raising the Medicare eligibility age, because it creates a system of subsidized, guaranteed private health insurance for people who don't qualify for government programs like Medicare and Medicaid. And he outlined a plan -- framed as a pitch to Democrats -- that would total nearly $4 trillion in deficit reduction over 10 years, including a higher Medicare retirement age.
"As I have thought about it...under the Affordable Health Care Act we provide subsidies for people who have really chronic illnesses and people who have limited incomes so they can afford health care insurance in the private sector," Bowles told the panel during an exchange with Sen. John Kerry (D-MA). "And that didn't exist before the Affordable Health Care Act. That means that people 65, 66, 67 will still be able to get health care insurance. So as I think about it I could support raising the health care age for Medicare since we have other coverage available under the Affordable Health Care Act."
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (0)Topics: Deficit, Erskine Bowles, Jeb Hensarling, Medicare/Medicaid, Super Committee
Debt
White House: We Thought We Were Down To The Details
President Obama and White House officials earnestly believed they were closing in on a deficit-reduction deal with only three remaining sticking points until Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) pulled the rug out from under them and walked away from the negotiating table late Friday afternoon, White House officials said Friday night.
As of Thursday, Obama and Boehner had been working on a grand bargain that would produce roughly $3 trillion in savings over 10 years, the officials confirmed. But talks broke down along three major differences: the two sides were $400 billion apart on taxes, Obama rejected a last minute demand from the GOP that the deal include a repeal of the individual mandate in healthcare reform, and the two sides were still haggling over a difference of $40 billion in cuts to Medicaid, according to the White House.
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (0)Topics: Barack Obama, Debt, Debt Ceiling, Defunding health care, Health Care, House Republicans, John Boehner, Medicare, Medicare/Medicaid, Taxes, White House
AFL-CIO
AFL-CIO Slams 'Gang of Six' Proposal For 'Goring' The Poor
AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka
AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka doesn't share President Obama's enthusiasm for the so-called balanced approach to deficit reduction set forth in the much ballyhooed bipartisan 'Gang of Six' proposal. In fact, he's dead-set against it.
Despite all the talk of tough choices and shared sacrifice and taking on sacred cows during difficult economic times, Trumka says the Gang of Six proposal appears to balance the budget on the backs of middle-class workers and the poor.
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (0)Topics: AFL-CIO, Debt, Debt Commission, Debt ceiling, Gang of Six, Medicare, Medicare/Medicaid, Richard Trumka, Social Security, Tax Breaks, Tax Cuts, Taxes
Barack Obama
Obama Pushes Means Testing Of Medicare In Debt Talks
President Barack Obama delivers remarks on the ongoing debt ceiling debate in the Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House in Washington on July 5, 2011.
President Obama said his 2008 campaign message of hope still springs eternal when it comes to breaking the impasse in debt ceiling negotiations with Republicans in the next few days.
"I'm hopeful that over the next couple of days we will see this logjam broken," he said at a Friday press conference, his second in a week.
Topics: Barack Obama, Debt Ceiling, Deficit, Eric Cantor, House Republicans, Medicare, Medicare Privatization, Medicare/Medicaid, White House
Medicare
Obama Urges Dems To Accept Changes To Medicare, Social Security
President Obama said both sides have to be willing to sustain some political pain in order to reach a deal on cutting the nation's long-term debt, and he urged his own party to accept changes to entitlement programs in order to wrangle some targeted tax increases out of Republicans.
Recognizing that he has a lot of work still ahead of him to convince Democrats to agree to altering Medicare or Social Security, Obama tried to lay some ground work Monday at a press briefing.
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (0)Topics: Barack Obama, House Republicans, Medicare, Medicare Privatization, Medicare/Medicaid, Social Security, White House, boehner
Paul Ryan
Rep. Ryan Tastes The Grapes Of Wrath
Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI), a leading advocate of shrinking entitlement spending and the architect of the plan to privatize Medicare, spent Wednesday evening sipping $350 wine with two like-minded conservative economists at the swanky Capitol Hill eatery Bistro Bis.
It was the same night reports started trickling out about President Obama pressing Congressional leaders to consider changes to Social Security and Medicare in exchange for GOP support for targeted tax increases.
[TPM SLIDESHOW: Hey Big Spenders: What Else Could Wealthy Candidates Buy With All That Campaign Cash?]
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (0)Topics: Barack Obama, Economy, Entitlement reform, Entitlements, Medicare, Medicare Privatization, Medicare/Medicaid, Paul Ryan, Social Security
Medicare/Medicaid
Debt Deal Could Spare Middle and Upper Class Seniors, But Slam The Poor
Medicaid recipients receive treatment
Democrats' rallying cry on deficit talks couldn't be clearer: It's the elderly, stupid.
That means Medicare benefits are off-limits, a message that Democrats plan to reinforce at every opportunity through November 2012. With Republicans demanding trillions in cuts to raise the debt limit, however, savings are going to have to come from somewhere. The most logical option left is Medicaid, a favorite conservative target whose low-income recipients carry little clout in Washington compared to Medicare's elderly and middle-class base.
But there is one politically tricky obstacle to cutting Medicaid: Millions of seniors -- including those who consider themselves middle class -- rely on Medicaid cover their nursing home care, meaning any raid on its funding could complicate Democrats' image a the tireless champion of retirees across the land.
Mindful of the problem, aides and lawmakers are floating a way forward: shielding the elderly from Medicaid cuts while slashing aid to poor and uninsured Americans.
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (0)Topics: 112th Congress, Bill Pascrell, Debt Ceiling, Henry Waxman, House of Representatives, Medicaid, Medicare, Medicare/Medicaid, Rob Andrews, Senate
Medicare
Democrats Break Down Impact Of GOP Medicare Plan District By District
Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-CA)
House Democrats have broken down the massive changes to Medicare and Medicaid proposed by the House GOP into a convenient take home size.
Democratic Reps. Henry Waxman (CA) and Frank Pallone (NJ), voters can now see what Democrats say is the direct impact of the Republican plan to turn Medicare into a voucher system on every congressional district in the country.
Waxman and Pallone have set up an interactive map that allows viewers to pop open a report on the impact of the Medicare change on the population in their community.
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (0)Topics: Frank Pallone, Henry Waxman, Medicare, Medicare/Medicaid
Medicare/Medicaid
Poll: Voters Ready To Penalize Democrats Who Mess With Medicare
Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-MO)
Voters in key Senate swing states don't want cuts to Medicare and Medicaid benefits -- and they're prepared to exact revenge on politicians who vote in favor of them.
That's according to new Public Policy Polling (D) numbers from Ohio, Missouri, Montana and Minnesota, where Democratic Senators face what could be tough reelection fights. The polling, published first by TPM, was sponsored by a coalition of progressive groups.
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (0)Topics: 2012 elections, Amy Klobuchar, CREDO, Claire McCaskill, Democracy for America, Entitlements, Jon Tester, Medicare/Medicaid, MoveOn, PCCC, Polls, Progressive Change Campaign Committee, Sherrod Brown
Debt Ceiling
McConnell: If You Want A Debt Ceiling Hike, You're Gonna Have To Give Me Entitlement Cuts
Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY)
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) took to the mics today to layout what it would take to get him behind the debt ceiling increase just about everyone in Washington agrees is necessary to avoid serious economic problems. McConnell made it official: Republicans are not going to give the White House a clean vote on the debt limit, and they're going to demand "significant" cuts to Medicare and Medicaid obligations to get one done.
As was his partner in the Republican leadership of the House earlier on Thursday, McConnell was cryptic about just what exactly it will take for him to raise the debt level. But he made one thing clear: the country's expensive health care entitlements are very much on the table.
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (0)Topics: Debt Ceiling, Medicare/Medicaid, Mitch McConnell
Budget
White House Slams Ryan Budget For Failing Test of Fairness
White House spokesman Jay Carney said Tuesday that House GOP Budget Chairman Paul Ryan (R-WI) blueprint for next year's spending is fundamentally unfair.
"It fails the test of balance, and balance is essential," Carney told reporters at a briefing.
The comments come one day before President Obama plans to give a landmark speech on his vision for reducing the nation's deficit and cutting long-term spending.
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (0)Topics: Barack Obama, Budget, Budget Committee, Deficit, Economy, House Republicans, Medicare, Medicare/Medicaid, Paul Ryan
John Podesta
Podesta: Not Raising Debt Limit Is Suicide ... For Republicans
John Podesta, former transition Chief of Staff for President Obama
One of the most influential Democratic operatives in Washington says the GOP plan to extract enormous conservative concessions from President Obama in exchange for raising the debt ceiling will backfire. If Republicans push ahead with this tactic, they'll be forced to backpedal quickly.
"That that's like playing Russian Roulette with a fully loaded gun. I think that gun's actually pointed at the Republican leadership's head, not so much at the White House," John Podesta told me after a presentation at his think tank, the Center for American Progress. "I think they will find soon enough that if they try the same tactics they used in the 2011 [spending] battle with respect to the debt limit, you're going to see markets react to that in a very, very negative way and there's going to be a lot of pressure on them to get realistic, and at least with respect to the debt limit, to move forward in a more cooperative way."
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (0)Topics: Chris Van Hollen, Debt, Debt Ceiling, Health Care, John Boehner, John Podesta, Medicaid, Medicare, Medicare/Medicaid, Republicans
Barack Obama
It's A Deal: Dems, Republicans Strike Spending Deal To Avoid Government Shutdown
They've got a deal!
Their negotiations have teetered erratically on the brink of collapse for weeks. But Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and House Speaker John Boehner have finally shaken hands on a spending bill to fund the government through September and avoid a government shutdown.
"We have agreed to an historic amount of cuts for the remainder of this fiscal year, as well as a short-term bridge that will give us time to avoid a shutdown while we get that agreement through both houses and to the President," read a joint statement from both leaders. "We will cut $78.5 billion below the President's 2011 budget proposal, and we have reached an agreement on the policy riders. In the meantime, we will pass a short-term resolution to keep the government running through Thursday. That short-term bridge will cut the first $2 billion of the total savings."
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (0)Topics: Barack Obama, Budget, Debt, Debt Ceiling, Deficit, George W. Bush, Government Shutdown, Harry Reid, John Boehner, Medicaid, Medicare, Medicare/Medicaid, Social Security, Spending
Health Care
How The GOP Plan To Kill Medicare And Medicaid Would Work
Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI)
On Tuesday, House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-WI) will introduce a 10-year budget proposal that would over time eliminate Medicare and Medicaid and replace them with less generous health care plans for the elderly, poor, and disabled. The reviews are in, from experts and advocates, and it looks like there's gonna be a fight.
Phasing Out Medicare
Starting with Medicare, Ryan's critics attack his plan as a step back from the single-payer system that, despite looming financing problems, serves the elderly very well.
"There ought to be a TV show called 'That 90s Show,'" said David Cutler, a Harvard economics professor and one-time adviser to President Obama. "What Paul Ryan has in mind is to recreate the managed care era, do for the elderly what we rejected for ourselves."
Republicans will be loath to admit this, but the system Ryan has in mind for Medicare works a lot like dread 'ObamaCare,' too. He developed it in concert with Alice Rivlin, who used to run the Office of Management and Budget for President Clinton. They propose giving the elderly a menu of private insurance options (think the health care exchange) and then subsidizing those plans based on need (think insurance credits). Thus, in addition to all the questions Republicans will have to answer about the plan from experts and stakeholders, they'll have to explain why the health care law is terrible for working adults, but a great idea for retirees.
"I keep talking to Paul and trying to convince him of that," Rivlin told Ezra Klein recently. "But even if he agreed with me, he couldn't say so."
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (0)Topics: Barbara Boxer, Budget, Budget Committee, Health Care, Medicaid, Medicare, Medicare/Medicaid, Republicans
Bill Owens
Republican Leadership Aide: Owens Implies He'd Oppose Health Care Reform
NY-23 candidate Bill Owens (D)
In response to this scientific post by TPMDC, a Republican House leadership aide sends over a link to Bill Owens' campaign website to suggest that Owens ought to oppose "the Pelosi health care bill". Here are the key bullet points.
Bill Owens is opposed to:
- Opposes: Medicare benefit cuts. We can all agree that there are inefficiencies and waste in the system, but any savings should be used to strengthen Medicare.
- Opposes: Taxing health care benefits.
- Opposes: Increasing taxes on the middle class in any way.
Of these, the only one that could legitimately cause Owens any grief is the first. The House bill doesn't tax health care benefits or the middle class. It does extract waste from Medicare, in part by reining in over-payments by Medicare Advantage plans, and those savings are not rerouted back into Medicare. But does that mean he should oppose the bill. It doesn't sound like he thinks he should, but we have a call in to his campaign staff for some clarity.
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (0)Topics: Bill Owens, Health Care, House of Representatives, Medicare, Medicare/Medicaid, Republicans
Health Care
House GOP Finds New Health Care Reform Villian In AARP
Rep. Mike Pence (R-IN), Rep. Dave Reichert (R-WA)
Rep. Mike Pence (R-IN) and Rep. Dave Reichert (R-WA) briefed reporters this afternoon on the House GOP's plans for health care this week. The party will focus on reform's effects on senior citizens, specifically through changes to Medicare. Democratic proposals include several changes to the way Medicare is funded that have long had support from the AARP, far and away the most powerful lobbying group for seniors. But Pence and Reichert suggested that support was the result of corruption inside the AARP and not based on the interests of its membership.
"What you've got here is a backroom deal," Pence said of reform measures expected to be introduced by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid this afternoon. "Democrats are protecting the salaries of the heads of groups like AARP while cutting medicare."
For its part, AARP dismisses the allegations, pointing out that it has seen this movie before.
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (1)Topics: Dave Reichert, GOP, Harry Reid, Health Care, Medicare/Medicaid, Mike Pence
Humana
Americans United Ad Dresses Up Anti-Reform Forces For Halloween
The campy new TV ad from Americans United has to be seen to be believed. The ad, running in Orlando, Louisville and Washington, presents the CEO of Humana and Republican leaders as being dressed up as monsters for Halloween.
The ad fires back at Humana for telling its senior citizen clients that Democratic health plans would cut their Medicare coverage. "But we shouldn't be surprised. Whether it's the insurance companies or their Republican allies, the case against health insurance reform always gets down to one word," the narrator says, followed by the sound of a woman screaming over spooky music.
Most notably, Humana CEO Michael McCallister is dressed up as the Devil. Also, John Boehner probably wouldn't appreciate the drag element of making him a witch.
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (0)Topics: Americans United For Change, Health Care, Humana, Medicare/Medicaid
Michael Steele
Steele: Public Option Is Socialist
Michael Steele appeared this morning on CBS, and was asked by host Harry Smith whether he believes the public option is socialist. "Yes I do," he said. "And quite frankly I think a lot more people believing (sic) that there's more to this than meets the eye."
Steele explained: "And the reality of it is, you know, I just don't understand this idea that somehow people think that the federal government can enter into a marketplace and compete with private industry. That goes counter to everything that we know about how markets work and the role that the government plays in those markets."
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (1)Topics: Medicare/Medicaid, Michael Steele, Public Option, Socialism
Health Care
New DNC Ads Attack Individual House GOPers For Wanting To End Medicare
The Democratic National Committee is now rolling out a localized version of its "Republicans Want To End Medicare" ad, targeting individual House GOP members over a proposal from back in April to privatize Medicare for future generations of retirees (everyone currently 54 years and younger).
That proposal failed on a roll call vote, with every Democrat present and even 38 Republicans voting against it. And now, the Dems are using it as political fodder to go after some of those 137 House GOPers who did vote for it. Here's the version attacking its main sponsor, Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI):
Other localized versions of this ad are also running against Lee Terry (NE), Patrick Tiberi (OH), Mary Bono Mack (CA), Don Young (AK), Michele Bachmann (MN), Jean Schmidt (OH), Erik Paulsen (MN), John Boehner (OH) and Eric Cantor (VA).
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (2)Topics: Health Care, Medicare/Medicaid, Paul Ryan
Health Care
New DNC TV Ad: "Republicans Have Opposed Medicare From The Start"
The Democratic National Committee has a new TV ad on national and D.C. cable, firing back at GOP attacks that allege the Dems would weaken Medicare by playing up an obvious theme -- that the Republicans have long opposed Medicare, and have repeatedly voted to weaken or even abolish it:
"America's seniors have relied on Medicare for over 40 years - and Democrats are working to strengthen Medicare," the announcer says. "But the plain truth is, Republicans have opposed Medicare from the start. Their leaders have called for cutting Medicare -- and now for killing it."
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (1)Topics: DNC, Health Care, Medicare/Medicaid
Chris Van Hollen
Van Hollen On GOP And Medicare: "The Hypocrisy Is Shameless"
Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD)
In an interview with Ezra Klein over at the Washington Post, DCCC chairman Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) shot back at the current Republican arguments about protecting Medicare from the Democrats:
The hypocrisy is shameless. I won't go through the history of Medicare, but for Republicans to say that you should trust us on Medicare is like Colonel Sanders guarding the chicken coop. I think most seniors know that, and these scare tactics will boomerang. I don't think people will buy it, since the guys peddling this stuff are the very people who have been trying to undermine and weaken Medicare for years and years. There was a budget alternative put forward by Paul Ryan this year that would have ended Medicare as we know it and given all seniors a voucher to get their health care on the private market. And they voted for it. So we know what they wanted to do with Medicare.PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (7)
Topics: Chris Van Hollen, Health Care, Medicare/Medicaid, Paul Ryan
Health Care
The GOP's 40-Year Effort to "Pull the Plug" on Medicare
During the health care fight this summer, the GOP has been warning seniors, in ominous tones, of the danger that Democrats might cut Medicare--conveniently forgetting that this has been the Republican party's official position for more than a generation.
Thankfully, their words have been immortalized.
The below clip comes from a 1961 American Medical Association recording of then-actor Ronald Reagan warning that "one of the traditional methods of imposing statism or socialism on a people has been by way of medicine."
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (2)Topics: Health Care, Medicaid, Medicare, Medicare/Medicaid, Republicans
Barack Obama
Grassley, Moynihan, Health Care and the Missed Opportunity
If you care about health care, you have to care about the Senate Finance Committee. It's the choke point for any health care legislation. Make it work there in a bipartisan way and you'll get health care. Fail there and kiss it goodbye--again.
One of the tragedies of the Clinton-era effort to reform health care is that Pat Moynihan, then the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, which has jurisdiction over health care, was eager to promote some kind of health care deal with Bob Dole, the Senate minority leader at the time, who had expressed interest in finding a deal. That's why it is so encouraging at the moment that Charles Grassley, the ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee, is working on a health care proposal with Max Baucus, the committee's chairman.
If they can come up with something health care has a much better chance of passage. If they can't, it's hard to imagine health care passing. Such is the importanxw of the Senate Finance Committee.
So I was surprised to see last week, after the health care summit with all its bonhomie and the president's encouaging words for the Baucus-Grassley effort, this item on March 5 about the administration canceling an effort at collecting back taxes. The effort used private companies to collect back taxes and was fought heavily by the union representing Treasury workers. TIm Geithner called Grassley on Friday evening to announce that he was putting the kibosh on the program which happened to cost 60 jobs in Iowa. A source close to Grassley says he's still "very unhappy" about the cancellation although, thank goodness, Geithner, understaffed and overwhelmed, managed to make the call. Grassley would surely had been more angry if he'd read it in the papers.
Leaving aside the merits of the debt collection program, one would think that with so much at stake on health care, the administration would be going out of its way to court and soothe Grassley. Granted, Grassley is not the vindictive sort who would hold up health care because of 60 jobs in Waterloo, but a move like this can't help relations. (Some senators are more mercurial. In 1993, the Clinton administration punished Sen. Richard Shelby, then a Democrat, for not supporting it on a number of issues by moving some NASA jobs from Huntsville, AL to Houston. It was one of the factors in Shelby converting to the GOP in 1994.)
Let's hope the administration is working a charm offensive on Grassley in other ways. Grassley and Baucus are working on their bill now and hope to have some kind of mark up by June although that's not realistic, one staff member told me. So let's see where it goes from here.
For those who want to follow Grassley, I highly recommend his Twitter account. Note the entry complete with original misspellings and abbreviations: "Geithner call to tel me he's cancling 60 jobs in Wloo. No renewal of contract to collect bk taxes. Vry disapted"
Let's hope he doesn't stay dissapointed
Topics: Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, Health Care, Hillary Clinton, Medicare/Medicaid, Timothy Geithner, Twitter
Barack Obama
Grover Norquist on Bush and CPAC
Grover Norquist, the conservative activist and head of Americans for Tax Reform, chatted wih TPM about the annual Conservative Political Action Conference and how enthusiasm is still high among Republicans even after last year's electoral drubbing. He also explains how the conference has approached one of the most famous conservatives of all: George W. Bush.
Topics: Barack Obama, George W. Bush, Medicare/Medicaid, Republicans
Social Security
The Story Behind That Scrapped White House Social Security Task Force
The New York Times reports this morning that the White House had abandoned plans to unveil a Social Security "task force" at today's fiscal summit, raising the question of whether the Obama administration is ready to conduct separate debate over the long-term health of Social Security and Medicare -- or whether the tired canard of "dangerous entitlement spending" will continue to rule the political roost.
One liberal activist who weighed in against the proposed task force told me that some within the administration are ready to attempt "one more fix" for Social Security, thinking of the 70-year-old benefits program "as an equation to be solved" and the Obama team as the mathematicians on the case.
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (1)Topics: Barack Obama, Medicare/Medicaid, Progressive Community, Social Security
Social Security
Will the White House Avoid the 'Entitlement Spending' Trap?
As President Obama's "fiscal responsibility summit" consumes much of Washington's oxygen today, a critical question is being largely ignored in the mainstream media: Will this administration dispense with the notion of an overall "entitlements" crisis and begin treating Social Security and Medicare like the separate issues they are?
The New York Times raises the issue, in a back-handed fashion, by reporting that congressional Democrats are warning Obama against attempting to shore up Social Security's long-term fiscal health. Per the Times:
Those who oppose action said Mr. Obama must focus on his bigger priority -- health care legislation to expand access to insurance and reduce the costs of care. They argue that success there would help control the unsustainable growth of Medicare and Medicaid, the government's other major benefit programs, which together pose a far greater fiscal problem.
It's not clear which Capitol Hill Democrats helped quash the idea of announcing a "Social Security task force" during today's fiscal summit -- but Obama would be well-served to heed their advice.
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (0)Topics: Barack Obama, Democrats, Medicare/Medicaid, Social Security
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