More Democrat Hypocrisy on Medicare
The Hill reports this morning that several House Democrats filed legislation (H.R. 3519) earlier this week to exempt the entire Medicare program from sequestration under the Budget Control Act. As a reminder, the Budget Control Act provided that Medicare payment reductions to providers are capped at 2 percent – meaning that the sequestration reductions to Medicare, in both percentage and amount, will be MUCH smaller than the cuts faced by the Defense Department, and even non-defense discretionary programs as well.
What’s most interesting is the rationale behind the legislation: The bill’s sponsor, Rep. Ed Towns, claimed that “hospitals in New York are already slated to experience $15 billion in Medicare and Medicaid cuts under” Obamacare – and therefore cannot absorb additional reductions under sequestration. (Never mind that hospitals actually agreed to the Obamacare payment reductions as part of a backroom deal with the Administration.) The message is clear: Democrats SUPPORT Medicare payment reductions that help create unsustainable new entitlements – but OPPOSE reducing Medicare payments to lower the deficit and bolster Medicare’s solvency.
Recall that Speaker Pelosi recently admitted that “took a half a trillion dollars out of Medicare in [Obamacare], the health care bill” to pay for more unsustainable new entitlements. This latest development once again illustrates that when it comes to reforming Medicare to save the program, Democrats are focused on scoring political points rather than solving the problem.