Meanwhile, just a few months ago, Mitt Romney spent millions accusing President Obama
of cutting Medicare by $716 billion.
Woe is Politico:
The president has never precisely defined what hard choices he would be willing to make on Medicare and Social Security. It’s not even clear what he would do if he had the power to remake the programs on his own, without worrying about opposition from Republicans or Democrats.
How incredibly sad. President Barack Obama just isn't willing to make hard choices on Medicare and Social Security. And, as everybody knows, with an unemployment rate of 7.8 percent, America's top priority is making "hard choices" to cut not just those programs, but Medicaid as well.
If only the president had done something courageous, like passing landmark health care reform legislation that will achieve $716 billion in Medicare savings over the next decade. If only he had been willing to take such a step despite the virtual guarantee that the Republican presidential nominee would run ads attacking him for it. If only he'd been willing to do something bold, like taking the risk of having Republicans claim that he had created death panels when what he really did was create an Independent Payment Advisory Board aimed at reducing Medicare costs.
But no, our lousy president hasn't been willing to make any tough choices at all. In fact, as Politico "reports" in the very same article that I quoted above:
Obama infuriated Democrats by proposing controversial changes to Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security during his failed 2011 grand-bargain talks with Boehner. The president was ready to make some entitlement concessions in the fiscal cliff negotiations last month, but that effort fizzled, too.
Wait. Hold on. You mean Obama
has proposed additional cuts to Medicare and Social Security?
Continue below the fold to discover why Obama still sucks, at least according to Politico
Now at this point you might be a bit confused, because on the one hand Politico is ripping Obama for being unwilling to cut Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security, but on the other hand, they are pointing out that he angered his own party when he proposed cuts to Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security. Fortunately, your confusion will be short-lived, because Politico explains why Obama still sucks. The short version: the tax cliff deal made it impossible for him to get entitlement cuts because Republicans aren't willing to raise taxes again.
The fiscal cliff deal, which raised $600 billion in new revenue, may have actually made it more difficult to strike a grand bargain. That’s because Republicans aren’t willing to consider further tax hikes — a White House prerequisite to weighing any controversial cuts to entitlements.
Well, I guess that settles that. As we all know, if Republicans say no to something, then it's off the table. It should never be considered. Why? Because Republicans said no, that's why. And when they say no, they mean it.
Except:
A senior Republican tax aide confirmed that Representative Dave Camp of Michigan, the Ways and Means chairman, planned to push forward this year with “revenue-neutral” tax reform, with the revenue target adjusted upward to the amount raised by the higher tax rates on the wealthy approved this month to resolve most of the so-called fiscal cliff.
The Republican aide said if the Senate can approve tax changes that raise revenues, it is possible that difficult negotiations between the two chambers could produce a final deal that would produce more tax revenue – but not as much as the Senate wants.
Huh. Maybe assuming Republicans say what they mean and mean what they say isn't really the best assumption to make. Maybe it's time to realize that Republicans like to bluff. And as long as Politico is going to perpetuate its misguided obsession with 20-year budget projections for Social Security, maybe they should give President Obama some credit for having done what they say he refuses to do.
Of course, what would really be nice would be to see the same level obsession on an issue like unemployment and economic growth, or maybe even climate change. After all, the fanciest projection in the world doesn't mean a damn thing without economic growth. And if we don't do anything to confront climate change, the only thing we can say for sure about the demographic forecasts for the future of Social Security and Medicare is that they are going to be wrong.