McConnell: No Debt Limit Raise W/O Medicare Cuts

[lakhota]

McConnell: I Won’t Agree To Raise The Debt Limit Without Medicare Cuts

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) says substantial Medicare cuts must be part of a spending and deficit cut package to get his support to raise the debt limit.

In a Capitol briefing with reporters Friday, McConnell declared affirmatively that unspecified Medicare cuts are on the table in bipartisan debt limit negotiations, led by Vice President Joe Biden, and he expects they'll be part of the final deal. But in response to a question from TPM, he went further than he has in the past in laying down a marker on that issue. Medicare cuts must be part of that deal to get his support, he says -- even if negotiators manage to find trillions of dollars in savings elsewhere, even if his other priorities are met.

"To get my vote, for me, it's going to take short term [cuts, via spending caps]... Both medium and long-term, entitlements.," McConnell said. "Medicare will be part of the solution."

To clarify, I asked "f [the Biden group] comes up with big cuts, trillions of dollars worth of cuts, but without substantially addressing Medicare, it won't get your vote?"

"Correct," McConnell said.

More: tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/05/mcconnell-medicare-must-be-cut-to-raise-debt-limit.php?ref=fpb

[lakhota]

Despite What Boehner Says, Republicans Have Voted To Cut Medicare, Repeatedly

The words "voted to" could come back to haunt House Speaker John Boehner.

In his weekly Capitol briefing with reporters Thursday, Boehner made an unmistakably false claim. "The only people in Washington, DC who have voted to cut Medicare have been the Democrats when they voted to cut $500 billion in Medicare during Obamacare," he said. Given a chance to walk it back, Boehner's spokesman did not.

Even if you leave out the key modifier "voted to" this is far from true. Both parties have actually "cut" Medicare many times over the years. Republicans in particular haven't just voted for cuts, but passed legislation that presidents either signed or vetoed.

That happened repeatedly in the 1990s, as laid out in detail here. In late 1995 and early 1996, it precipitated a government shutdown. In 1997, it resulted in the Balanced Budget Act.

But if you leave the modifier in, this turns into a huge whopper.

Not only did Republicans vote aspirationally to cut Medicare -- in both the near and short term, and by huge amounts -- in their dead-on-arrival budget this year, they've arguably made cutting Medicare a hallmark of what it means to be a Republican.

Here's a brief, incomplete recap of how that's played out in recent years.

More: tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/05/despite-what-boehner-says-republicans-have-voted-to-cut-medicare-repeatedly.php?ref=fpb

[lakhota]

Not only did Republicans vote aspirationally to cut Medicare -- in both the near and short term, and by huge amounts -- in their dead-on-arrival budget this year, they've arguably made cutting Medicare a hallmark of what it means to be a Republican.

Exactly.

[lakhota]

Poll: Americans Don’t Approve Of Ryan’s Plan For Medicaid, Either

On Tuesday, New Yorkers in the state’s 26th Congressional District delivered House Republicans a clear message that House Budget Chairman Paul Ryan’s (R-WI) plan to end Medicare won’t fly. But a new poll shows that the American public’s distaste for Ryan’s proposal doesn’t stop at Medicare. According to a new Kaiser Family Foundation poll, 60 percent of those polled prefer the keep Medicaid — the federal heath insurance system for the poor — “as is,” as opposed to Ryan’s detrimental block grant program. Indeed, more than half want to see no reductions in Medicaid spending at all because of “a strong sense of the program’s importance.” Indeed, many said they had benefited or knew people who had benefited from the program directly:


Support for maintaining the current program may be due at least in part to the public’s personal connections to Medicaid and a strong sense of the program’s importance. About half of Americans say they or a friend or family member has received Medicaid assistance at some point, and a similar share say the program is important to their family.

Even those who initially supported Ryan’s Medicaid block grant idea said the Democratic position could sway them into maintaining Medicaid as it is. As The Huffington Post’s Emily Swanson notes, “The survey suggests the Republican Party might make some inroads in changing public opinion, but likely not enough to attain majority backing.” Overall, the Kaiser poll verified previous polls‘ findings that general cuts to vital entitlement programs like Medicaid and Medicare to reduce the deficit is an agenda deeply out of line with the American public.

thinkprogress.org/2011/05/27/kaiser-medicaid-poll/

[lakhota]

The Republican Death Wish: The 2012 Election Is Going to Be All About Medicare

Polls show an overwhelming majority of Americans -- even a majority of Republican voters -- want to preserve Medicare.

Forty Senate Republicans joined their colleagues in the House to support Paul Ryan’s plan that would turn Medicare into vouchers that funnel money to private health insurers. They thumbed their nose at the special election in upstate New York earlier this week that delivered a victory to Democrat Kathy Hochul, who made the plan the focus of her upset victory.

So now it’s official. The 2012 campaign will be about the future of Medicare. (Yes, it will also be about jobs, but the Republicans haven’t come up with any credible ideas on that front, and the Democrats seem incapable of doing what needs to be done.)

This spells trouble for the GOP. Polls show an overwhelming majority of Americans — even a majority of Republican voters — want to preserve Medicare. They don’t want to turn it over to private insurers.

It would be one thing if Republicans had consistency on their side. At least then they could take the high road and claim their plan is a principled way to achieve the aims of Medicare through market-based mechanisms. (It isn’t, of course. It would end up squeezing seniors because it takes no account of the rising costs of health care.)

But they can’t even claim consistency. Remember, this was the same GOP that attacked the President’s health-reform plan in 2010 by warning it would lead to Medicare cuts.

Former President Bill Clinton counsels Democrats not to say Medicare is fine the way it is. He’s right. But instead of talking about Medicare as a problem to be fixed, Democrats should start talking about it as a potential solution to the challenge of rising health-care costs — as well as to our long-term budget problem.

Can we be clear about that budget problem? It’s not driven by Medicare. It’s driven by the same relentlessly soaring health-care costs that are pushing premiums through the roof and causing middle-class families to shell out more and more money for deductibles and co-payments.

Some features of Obama’s new healthcare law will slow the rise — insurance exchanges, for example, could give consumers clearer comparative information about what they’re getting for their insurance payments — but the law doesn’t go nearly far enough.

That’s why Democrats should be proposing that anyone be allowed to sign up for Medicare. Medicare is cheaper than private insurance because its administrative costs are so much lower, and it has vast economies of scale.

If Medicare were allowed to use its potential bargaining leverage over America’s hospitals, doctors, drug companies, and medical providers, it could drive down costs even further.

And it could force the nation’s broken health-care system to do something it must do but has resisted with a vengeance: Focus on healthy outcomes rather on costly inputs. If Medicare paid for results — not tests, procedures, drugs, and hospital stays, but results — it could give Americans better health at lower cost.

Let the GOP go after Medicare. That will do more to elect Democrats in 2012 than anything else. But it would be wise and politically astute for Democrats to go beyond just defending Medicare. Strengthen and build upon it. Use it to reform American health care and, not incidentally, rescue the federal budget.

www.alternet.org/news/151102/the_republican_death_wish%3A_the_2012_election_is_going_to_be_all_about_medicare/

[Deleted]

Well, Lak, sounds you finally support not raising the debt limit?? Good........

[formerexpat]

About time someone in DC had the balls enough to realize that our entitlement spending is bankrupting the country.

[tbop77]

Yeah, only took old Mitch 27 years! What a guy!

[lakhota]

May 27, 2011 20:37:06 GMT -5 formerexpat said:

About time someone in DC had the balls enough to realize that our entitlement spending is bankrupting the country.

Be careful how you use the word "entitlement". After all, most working Americans have paid for these benefits.

Social Security and Medicare are sometimes called "entitlements," because people meeting relevant eligibility requirements are legally entitled to benefits, although most pay taxes into these programs throughout their working lives.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_federal_budget

[lakhota]

BTW, Republicans are the ones trying to bankrupt the country with their Starve the Beast strategy.

"Starving the beast" is a fiscal-political strategy of some American conservatives to create or increase existing budget deficits via tax cuts to force future reductions in the size of government.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starve_the_beast

Starving the beast really means starving the poor and middle class, while the rich get richer and richer. The funny part is that many who support this starve the beast strategy are some of the very ones the rich wish to starve to enrich themselves. Funny, ain't it...

[deziloooooo]

Truthfully I haven't a clue about what to do about medicare. I am on it, i am so glad it's there for me. I cover the 20 % shortfall, my contribution, by spending about $3000 per year out of pocket to have a insurence policy out of AARP.

This enables me to see my doctors regulerly, and if have to see a specialist or tests, no pre approval needed. I could use the VA and do for a few things but I prefer this way. Va is ok, doctors are good but this is the way I want to do it, I guess what i saved my $ for plus other things.

I know it is complicated, not sure of all the regs, and if they need to nip and tuck it a bit, i'm game but am very leery to doing away and vouchers and having seniors at their time of life decide these things and as they age keep up with it , and you all will be there, as I said before , a hell of a lot quicker then you think, isn not the way to go.

For those who are younger and think it's the way, suggest turn to your parents and older love ones, ask them what they think, how is medicare working for them. If anything you'll get to spend some time with em which I know they will appreciate.