Friday, July 8, 2011

Obama Puts Social Security and Medicare Cuts on the Table: Here Be Dragon’s Stuff….

Obama is an overachiever. Or according to NY Magazine ... something. He proposed a mere $2 trillion in cuts during previous budget negotiations, but the White House now says the president will look for $3 trillion to $4 trillion in cuts over the next ten years. The new target comes after a private meeting with House Speaker John Boehner, who reportedly agreed to $1 trillion worth of new tax revenues — in exchange for Obama putting Social Security, Medicaid, and Medicare (previously untouchable) on the table. It's unclear exactly how those programs would be trimmed, but cost-of-living adjustments have been bandied about in previous negotiations.

The Obama-Boehner meeting has congressional Democrats (already concerned that Obama would cave too easily to Republican demands) a little worried. Any cuts to those legacy Great Society programs won't be well received in liberal quarters — even the mention of Social Security in the same sentence as "cuts" gets blood pressure elevated on the left. In addition to the practical consequences of such a deal, it's not great political theater for the Democrats heading into an election year: It's a bit harder to argue that the GOP is coming for Medicare when the president opened the door.

Meanwhile, Boehner's tax concessions, which probably involve tightening tax breaks for oil and gas companies and owners of corporate jets, aren't quite as close to the bone — though Congress would have to enact additional, broader changes to the tax code to reach that $1 trillion goal.

The debt-ceiling debate adds more than a little urgency to the negotiations. The debt ceiling expires on August 2, and as Felix Salmon writes, "No responsible legislator would risk letting it pass. Beyond that date is uncharted territory: Here Be Dragons stuff.

Read more at
http://nymag.com/daily/intel/2011/07/obama_puts_social_security_and.html

No comments:

Post a Comment