Ballooning Deficit & Proposed Cuts To Medicare Finally Getting People's Attention

by Sam Adams MMIV: In his Washington Post column yesterday, Michael Gerson pointed to key problems Democrats are facing in their drive for an expensive health care reform bill: “Democrats are fighting against a swift current of fiscal responsibility, widespread skepticism about government and resentment against using Medicare as the smashed piggy bank for reform.”

Certainly the new deficit projections this week have not made the prospect of adding potentially more than $1 trillion in red ink over the next decade more appealing. In an editorial yesterday, The Washington Post wrote, “Instead of a cumulative $7.1 trillion deficit over the next decade, the White House now projects a $9 trillion deficit. These figures imply average annual budget deficits greater than 4 percent of gross domestic product through fiscal 2019, a rate of debt accumulation faster than projected GDP growth. This is not a sustainable fiscal path. . . . The new deficit numbers make it even more urgent that any health-care reform not only be fully paid for and certifiably budget-neutral in the eyes of independent analysts such as the CBO but also promise meaningful reductions in the cost growth of health care. So far, none of the plans under discussion measure up.”

Even Democrats can’t ignore this approaching tidal wave of debt. While meeting with constituents in Montana, Democrat Sen. Jon Tester admitted that he is "worried about the national debt.” Tester was also waffled when asked about his support for a government-run health care plan, which President Obama has made central to his reform plans.

Meanwhile, Americans are more and more skeptical of the White House’s plans to pay for (only part) of their plans by cutting Medicare and Medicaid, but especially the Medicare advantage program.  Karl Rove in his Wall Street Journal column today notes “the administration would cut $622 billion from Medicare and Medicaid, with a big chunk coming from Medicare Advantage, to pay for overhauling health care. Mr. Obama heralded these cuts as ‘common sense’ in his June 13 radio address.”

And when Democrats decide to be candid, they acknowledge this. The Fort Collins Coloradoan reports, “Some people, including Medicare recipients, will have to give up some current benefits to truly reform the nation’s health-care system, Rep. Betsy Markey told a gathering of constituents in Fort Collins on Wednesday. Markey has repeatedly said during the August congressional recess that Medicare spending needs to be reined in to help pay for reforming the broader health-care system. ‘There’s going to be some people who are going to have to give up some things, honestly, for all of this to work,’ Markey said at a Congress on Your Corner event at CSU.” Tester echoed this sentiment in Montana, “I certainly don’t support taxing the middle class; they pay their fair share already. But I think you are going to have to give something to get something.”

The reality of the ballooning deficit and the Obama administration’s targeting of Medicare and Medicaid for cuts to pay for his vague new programs is not lost on Americans - especially older Americans and those who have fueled the economy and are now entering their retirement years, the Baby Boomers. As Rove writes, “The problem for Mr. Obama is that he lacks credibility when he asserts his plan won’t add to the deficit or won’t lead to rationing; that people can keep their health plans; that every family’s health care will be better, not worse; and that a government run plan isn’t a threat to private insurance. A large number of Americans don’t believe the president on this.”

Referring to the deficit, The Washington Post editors wrote, “The time is fast approaching for the president and Congress to face that reality, too.” But it’s just as applicable to American’s skepticism of the Obama administration’s assurances about his plans for health care reform and their effects on Medicare and Medicaid.
[Sam Adams MMIV is a pen name for an un-named beltway source.]
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Bill Smith, ARRA Editor:  Let's put things into personal terms. The remnants of the "greatest generation," who fought back global fascism and then initiated the greatest economic post-war recovery in history while feeding and sustaining its former enemies; returned to Korea to beat back the Communists; put a man on the moon; etc., are being asked in the time of life when they are most vulnerable to sacrifice their own health care. And so are their children - the Baby Boomers - who fueled and sustained the greatest innovations and economic growth in our history (outside of the prior geographic expansion of the U.S.); fought in in Vietnam, Grenada, Somalia, the Gulf War and helped defeat the Soviet Union in the Cold War. The generations which were continually told by the government that social security and medicare would be their safety net for their retirement but is now being told - "oops" you are going to have to accept less medical care. And they are being told this by a young president who work as a community organizer and was most likely paid by grants from our taxes. He never saw his parents work as his foreign father was absent in other countries and his mother lived separately from him most of his life. His parents and grandparents are gone except for one grandmother in Kenya. You can read his biography. Being offered little support from the traditional structure of American life, he is therefore disconnected from America's greatest generation and the present baby boomer generation. We can observe his lack of empathy towards these generations.

President Obama and his administrative Czars, staff members, and political appointees is seeking to reduce care to the elderly and to those about to be covered by medicare. Why? - Well, they say they want to cover "everyone" with a health care plan. The elderly and those soon to be under the "promised - paid for" - medicare are being asked to give up present or future needed medical coverage for whom? For those who don't work? For those who are in the United States illegally? We have already funded SCHIPS for the kids. We funded Medicaid for the disabled and others who could not pay. We have already funded health care for anyone walking in to an emergency room. We have sacrificed; covered the bills; after all, the Government "promised" that by paying our mandated premium payment for medicare (which were also taxed), we would in our "years of need" be covered by medicare. They just forgot to mention, the coverage could be worthless.

In less than 9 months, while promoting various "snake oil" solutions called national health care, cap and trade, auto bailouts, etc., the Obama Administration and their Congressional supporters have accomplished the unbelievable -- they have created or mandated programs that are running up a cumulative 2010-2019 deficit of $9 Trillion. Please note that this is the spending deficit above the spending covered by revenue. Imagine what this total government spending currently is and will be over this period of time? They are enslaving our grandchildren and great grandchildren that we love so dearly with this debt. They are mortgaging everything you own even your health care. To paraphrase a GREAT book, "Be a debtor to no one because when you are you become their slave." People when is enough - enough? Wake Up! Did you and are you teaching your children and grandchildren to pay attention, to be alert? Share the truth with them. Wake up your neighbors, relatives and friends.

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