Fact Check: Doing Nothing on Medicare
At the IPAB hearing before the House Budget Committee, Secretary Sebelius just said that no one is talking about doing nothing when it comes to Medicare reform. But that’s EXACTLY what Democrats in Congress want to do – do nothing on Medicare reform to gain political points. The liberal Plum Line reported yesterday that Senate Democrats don’t want to pass Medicare reform because it would be “giving away the biggest [political] advantage” Democrats have had “in some time.” Likewise, the head of House Democrats’ campaign committee is reported to have said “the Medicare message is a winner [for Democrats], but that he’ll have a hard time recruiting candidates if he loses it.” In other words, Democrats in both bodies of Congress want to avoid making tough choices on Medicare in order to obtain what they perceive as a political advantage.
And if the President doesn’t want to do nothing, then where is HIS Medicare plan? He’s been required to submit one to Congress for the last three years, yet failed to do so. If he can’t bother to submit a simple bill to Congress, how serious is the President regarding Medicare reform?
President Obama’s own Chief of Staff admitted this weekend that “Medicare will run out of money in five years if we don’t do something.” And President Clinton has argued that Democrats can’t say “we shouldn’t do anything” on Medicare reform because otherwise “health care [will] devour the economy.” So if the Secretary wants to assert that no one is talking about doing nothing, where’s the Democrat Medicare reform plan?