Just the Facts on America’s Entitlement Crisis
A document purportedly from House Democrats regarding the House Republican budget makes several flawed points regarding America’s entitlement crisis – and House Republicans’ proposed solutions for it:
- The document repeats the tired old mantra that Social Security is not adding to the deficit. This claim is however FALSE, and has been exposed as such by the non-partisan factcheck.org. The fact is that Social Security is running a cash-flow deficit – the only thing allowing full benefits to be paid out are the IOUs in the Social Security trust fund, and when the government cashes in those IOUs, that adds to the deficit. A similar situation exists in Medicare; the Congressional Budget Office notes that the Hospital Insurance Trust Fund is running a deficit of upwards of $30 billion per year, and will be entirely exhausted by 2020.
- The document alleges that “by cutting Medicaid, [House] Republicans are forcing seniors out of their own homes and communities and into nursing homes.” In reality however, the proposal for block grants is designed to give governors flexibility to manage their programs more effectively, so they can promote use of home and community-based services rather than forcing the elderly and disabled into nursing homes. Some would also note the lack of logic behind the allegation that Medicaid “cuts” would force seniors into nursing homes – which are one of the most expensive sources of health care.
- Some would consider it a bit rich that the document points out that “retiree [health] coverage is no longer available for many seniors” – seeing as how the Medicare actuary concluded that a single provision in Obamacare will result in 9 in 10 seniors losing access to private prescription drug coverage they would have had but for Democrats’ unpopular health care law.
Finally, it’s worth pointing out that the document establishes a position that “any proposal to ensure Medicare’s financial stability must preserve guaranteed benefits.” Implicit in that statement lies a presumption that proposals to ensure Medicare’s financial stability MUST raise taxes – and raise them sooner rather than later, as CBO projects the Medicare Hospital Insurance Trust Fund will be insolvent within this decade. At a time when economic recovery and job growth remain sluggish, raising taxes once again – on top of the more than half a trillion dollars in tax hikes included in the health care law – represents a near-certain recipe for harming the American economy.