House Democrats’ Absurd Double Standards on Benefits for Billionaires
On Friday evening, Democrats on the House Energy and Commerce Committee sent out an analysis of the health provisions of the House Republican payroll tax proposal. Of particular note is the following sentence: “Increases and other changes made to the premium structure of Medicare raise fundamental and difficult issues for the program and certainly should never be considered in the context of addressing short term issues.” This sentence obliquely refers to the proposals for additional means-testing included in the House Republican payroll tax bill – which come directly from the deficit reduction proposal the President submitted to the Joint Committee earlier this fall.
There’s a good reason why House Democrats might want to be circumspect about criticizing the means-testing proposal – because their position results in what can most charitably be described as feats of tautological jujitsu:
- Congress SHOULD raise taxes on “the rich” to pay for a short-term payroll tax extension – but SHOULD NOT take away taxpayer subsidies for wealthy Medicare beneficiaries to pay for a short-term “doc fix” extension;
- Congress SHOULD pass the tax increases the President proposed in his September submission to the Joint Committee right away – but SHOULD “CERTAINLY” NOT pass proposals to reduce wealthy beneficiaries’ Medicare subsidies included by the President in the same September proposal without months or years more study;
- Choosing not to subsidize the health benefits of billionaires like George Soros is a “difficult” decision, but raising taxes by trillions of dollars is easy; and
- Taking away wealthy Medicare beneficiaries’ subsidies “raise[s] fundamental…issues for the program,” but raising taxes on job creators in the middle of a sluggish economy raises no concerns, fundamental or otherwise, about the impact on stubbornly high unemployment.
It’s clear that Medicare is in the midst of a fiscal crisis – the program is projected to suffer a record deficit of nearly $40 billion this fiscal year, a greater deficit than that faced by Greece. Even President Obama has admitted that “if you look at the numbers, then Medicare in particular will run out of money and we will not be able to sustain that program no matter how much taxes go up. I mean, it’s not an option for us to just sit by and do nothing.” Yet House Democrats have articulated a philosophical position on which they are apparently willing to fight: The holy right of people like Warren Buffett and Bill Gates to have their health benefits subsidized by federal taxpayers.
So much for fighting for the middle class…