Do House Democrat Leaders Oppose Obamacare?
This morning’s CongressDaily features an article on the debt limit negotiations, and Democrats’ adamant insistence that any agreement include job-crushing taxes. The article quoted House Democrat Caucus Chairman John Larson as saying that “the only way ‘conceivably to get Democratic support’ on Medicare cuts was to direct any savings back into the Medicare program, in addition to increasing government revenues.”
This comment was a curious statement to make, as non-partisan budget analysts and even President Obama himself have admitted that the health care law uses more than $500 billion in Medicare funds to pay for new entitlements:
- Medicare actuary Foster has written that the Medicare provisions in Obamacare “cannot be simultaneously used to finance other Federal outlays (such as the coverage expansions under the PPACA) and to extend the [Medicare] trust fund, despite the appearance of this result from the respective accounting conventions.”
- The Congressional Budget Office agreed with the Medicare actuary, writing that the Medicare provisions in Obamacare “would not enhance the ability of the government to pay for future Medicare benefits.”
- President Obama in an interview with Fox News last year admitted that “You can’t say that you are saving on Medicare and then spending the money twice.”
Last year then-Speaker Pelosi famously said we had to pass the bill to find out what’s in it. Some might suggest Democrats need to take her advice, to rediscover how Obamacare uses more than half a trillion dollars in Medicare savings – not to improve Medicare’s fiscal situation, but to create new and unsustainable entitlements.