Medicare

Pete's post from yesterday about not being able to draw a conclusion about the results in the special election held in New York to fill the seat left vacant when Republican Chris Lee resigned is correct in the sense that (1) it was a special election and specials are never easy to analyze, (2) the tea party candidate had an impact on the outcome, and (3) the GOP plan to "change" (I'll use that word instead of "cut" to avoid any hyperventilating by hyper partisans) Medicare can't be completely blamed for the GOP loss.

But you don't need an absolute conclusion; all you need is a strong hint and that's why Pete's not correct when he implies that the win by a Democrat who used the GOP Medicare plan as a cudgel against her opponent will have no impact on the ongoing budget debate in Washington.  Congressional Republicans, who were already trying hard to walk away from the changes the House GOP endorsed in the fiscal 2012 budget resolution, are now very likely to change that walk into an all-out sprint.

Stories like this one in the AP by Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar are much of the reason why I doubt that any forward-looking reductions in the growth of entitlement spending will ever be implemented.  Even when the reductions are part of the legislation, they are undone bureaucratically before they are implemented.  This is just the "doc fix" all over again.

Millions of seniors in popular private insurance plans offered through Medicare will be getting a reprieve from some of the most controversial cuts in President Barack Obama's health care law. In a policy shift critics see as political, the Health and Human Services department has decided to award quality bonuses to hundreds of Medicare Advantage plans rated merely average.

This new Marist poll, which includes responses from just before and just after President Obama's speech at George Washington University last Thursday, shows again that many of the most fundamental positions of the leaders of the tea party and GOP on the budget are at odds with a vast a majority of not just the country as a whole but with their own party as well when it comes to cutting Medicare and Medicaid.

However, the most informative response in the poll was about raising the federal debt ceiling.  Almost 7 out of every 10 voters (69 percent) said the debt ceiling should not be raised.  But with the exception of raising taxes on those earning more than $250,000 a year, those who responded didn't support any of the things that would actually make it unnecessary to increase the amount the government borrows.

There are some important implications for the debate on increasing the federal debt ceiling that's just ahead.

My column from today's The Fiscal Times explains why last Sunday's debate between Karl Rove and David Plouffe over health care reform really should have been aired somewhere other than This Week on ABC.

The column is below.

Health Care Budget Projections Spark Political ‘Food Fight’