Obama Plan Won't Include Changes to Social Security,May Exclude Increase in Medicare Eligibility Age

[flpoljunkie]

Obama Plan Won't Include Changes to Social Security

BY CAROL E. LEE AND LAURA MECKLER

President Barack Obama's new deficit-reduction proposal will leave out changes to Social Security, and may exclude any increase in the Medicare eligibility age, people familiar with the discussions said Wednesday.

"As the president has consistently said, he does not believe that Social Security is a driver of our near- and medium-term deficits," White House spokeswoman Amy Brundage said in a statement.

Changing the inflation formula so Social Security benefits grow more slowly and raising the Medicare eligibility age were ideas Mr. Obama had been willing to accept this summer, when he was trying to strike a deficit-reduction deal with House ...

Requires subscription: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111904491704576571154004082570.html?mod=WSJ_hp_MIDDLENexttoWhatsNewsTop

And, from the Washington Post...

Obama unlikely to put Social Security cuts back on the table, sources say
By Zachary A. Goldfarb

In his April speech about deficit reduction, Obama proposed generating most of the health-care savings several ways, namely by building on measures included in his expansion of health-care insurance and negotiating lower prices for prescription drugs.

The proposed deal with Boehner went further and included substantial cuts in benefits. The deal would have sliced $250 billion in Medicare spending by raising the eligibility age, increasing patient premiums on prescription drugs and doctor care and limiting payments to providers. Up to $150 billion more would have been cut from Medicaid.

For the White House to sign off on such dramatic steps now, Republicans would have to accept the kind of tax increases that were discussed with Boehner, according to Jared Bernstein, a former economic adviser to Vice President Biden.

“The only reason to accept any cuts in entitlements is in exchange for substantial revenues, something on the order of dollar for dollar. Otherwise, I don’t see anything ‘grand’ about such a bargain,” said Bernstein, now a senior fellow at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. “Furthermore, any such cuts should emphasize cost savings, not benefit cuts. So ‘yes’ on negotiating lower drug costs in Medicare, ‘no’ on raising the eligibility age.”

http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/obama-unlikely-to-put-social-security-cuts-back-on-the-table-sources-say/2011/09/14/gIQAsW9LTK_story.html?sub=AR

[MannyGoldstein]

1. Obama also said that he'd veto any HCR bill that did not include a public option

And that any compromise on the debt had to include tax increases, etc.

Given that Obama has worked so hard to slash SS, I won't feel comfortable until (at least) the "Super Committee" makes their proposal.

[Inuca]

6. NO

He never said that.

[MannyGoldstein]

7. Here:

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/07/obama-demands-the-bill-i-sign-must-include-public-option.php

[Inuca]

15. That's a statement of support, not

a veto threat.

[MannyGoldstein]

24. "Any bill I sign must..."

I think the meaning is pretty clear, no?

[chill_wind]

13. "Any plan I sign." And worse, he denied he'd ever pushed it when he was all done.

That’s why any plan I sign must include an insurance exchange: a one-stop shopping marketplace where you can compare the benefits, cost and track records of a variety of plans – including a public option to increase competition and keep insurance companies honest – and choose what’s best for your family. And that’s why we’ll put an end to the worst practices of the insurance industry: no more yearly caps or lifetime caps; no more denying people care because of pre-existing conditions; and no more dropping people from a plan when they get too sick. No longer will you be without health insurance, even if you lose your job or change jobs.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/the_press_office/Weekly-Address-President-Obama-Says-Health-Care-Reform-Cannot-Wait/

He DID indeed campaign on the public option and further touted it after elected- and then DENIED it to WAPO when it was over, saying he got every thing he asked for.

“I didn’t campaign on the public option,” President Obama told the Washington Post. But he touted the public option on his campaign website and spoke frequently in support of it during the first year of his presidency, citing its essential value in holding the private insurance industry accountable and providing competition:

– In the 2008 Obama-Biden health care plan on the campaign’s website, candidate Obama promised that “any American will have the opportunity to enroll in new public plan.” (2008)

– During a speech at the American Medical Association, President Obama told thousands of doctors that one of the plans included in the new health insurance exchanges “needs to be a public option that will give people a broader range of choices and inject competition into the health care market.” (6/15/09)

– While speaking to the nation during his weekly address, the President said that “any plan” he signs “must include…a public option.” (7/17/09)

– During a conference call with progressive bloggers, the President said he continues “to believe that a robust public option would be the best way to go.” (7/20/09)

– Obama told NBC’s David Gregory that a public option “should be a part of this ,” while rebuking claims that the plan was “dead.” (9/20/09)

Despite all this overt advocacy for the public option, it appears that Obama was reticent to apply the political pressure necessary to get the plan in the final hours of congressional negotiation.

http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2009/12/22/74682/obama-repeatedly-touted-public


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/12/22/AR2009122202101.html?hpid=topnews&sid=ST2009122202132

(additional internal links in the pieces.)

[mzmolly]

26. In that quote the President used the bully pulpit to push for a public option.

I don't know of a similar quote of him supporting say, COLA adjustments.

[Dragonfli]

27. He says a great many things, depending on the croud. I have learned to watch what he does

He does a great many things that are championed by the Heritage Foundation and the Chamber of commerce.
He has done a few traditionally Democratic things as well, it is just that on balance he is more Reagan than LBJ. (Clinton was even to the left of him welfare reform and all)

I suppose it could be that I no longer understand what is Democratic and what is Republican.
I thought the campaign he ran in '08 sounded very Democratic, it just was not how he has chosen to govern.

The problem I think is that I follow the Democratic platform I knew in the 70's and 80's when I became politically active.

The center has moved by miles and I have moved less than an inch. I used to be called a Moderate, now I am a "wild eyed potentially Communist Socialist" while remaining the same as I always was.

I have grown old and irrelevant just like the now mythic "party of the people" that party no longer exists and like the old fool I am, I am still partially in denial.

[Ineeda]

2. So it looks like all the outrage and hoopla

was premature. Good.

[Autumn]

3. There would not have been any

outrage and hoopla had he said that to begin with. Those are easy words to speak.

[flpoljunkie]

4. Hard to believe the president would be so politically inept to raise Medicare eligibility age

[PA Democrat]

5. "MAY exclude" raising Medicare eligibility age?

Personally, I am sickened that a DEMOCRATIC president would even consider this. My health insurance costs me $15,000 a year at TODAY'S rates.

And for those fortunate to have employer-provided insurance, how many companies are going to hire/ retain older employees if the age for Medicare eligibility is raised? Group rates are based upon the average age of a company's employees.

[flpoljunkie]

9. Raising Medicare eligibility age would shift the cost and make healthcare industry very happy

It would not only be political suicide for President Obama, it would both demoralize and enrage Democrats.

[vi5]

8. Uh.....he said he'd raise the medicare eligibility age.

I fail to see how that's "good" or that it's not exactly what people on here were worried and/or upset about.

[polmaven]

21. Ummm - Huh?

Did you mis-read that? "may exclude raising the Medicare eligibility age"...While that is not saying he definitely will not, it is a long way from saying he will.

[polmaven]

20. Again.

[GOTV]

23. I think the premature outrage and hoopla may have saved SS medicaid and medicare.

[ellie]

10. Don't confuse me with the facts!

I demand to be outraged over things that haven't happened yet!

:sarcasm:

Thanks for posting this!

[chill_wind]

11. Democrats are pushing back at bad ideas. THOSE are the facts.

"President Obama proposed raising the Medicare eligibility age as part of the debt-ceiling agreement, but Democrats are hardly united behind the policy."

http://thehill.com/blogs/healthwatch/medicare/180017-house-dems-outline-health-options-for-supercommittee

Ways and Means Dems took the facts seriously enough to put a specifically detailed cautionary against it in their work for the Super Committee.

House Dems outline healthcare savings for supercommittee
By Sam Baker - 09/07/11 05:15 PM ET
http://thehill.com/blogs/healthwatch/medicare/180017-ho...

From their Ways and Means Memo:
http://thehill.com/images/stories/blogs/healthwatch/health%20options.pdf

Raise Medicare eligibility age to 67 (-$124.8 billion, CBO).

While various permutations are possible, one option is to phase-in an increase of the eligibility age by two months per year, achieving age 67 by 2027.

Discussion: Raising the Medicare eligibility age would be a radical departure from current policy and is only possible if the ACA is retained. If ACA were subsequently repealed or otherwise substantially changed, this policy would result in a significant increase in the number of near-elderly uninsured persons. Even assuming current law with respect to the ACA, some people over age 65 who are subject to the new policy may become uninsured if they no longer have access to employer sponsored insurance (ESI) and cannot afford coverage through the exchanges. Furthermore, this policy does nothing to control costs, it simply shifts substantial costs from Medicare to other parts of government and to private and public employers. More specifically, this policy would increase costs for employers as more near-elderly retain employer-sponsored insurance. It will increase Medicaid costs, as more low-income near-elderly would remain on Medicaid for longer and others who would become eligible for coverage through the exchange may be eligible for the new Medicaid expansion through the ACA. It would also increase government costs for subsidies in the exchanges, because some people who would otherwise receive Medicare will remain in the exchanges for longer. It would increase premiums in the exchanges – raising costs for other individuals and raising government spending for the tax credits – as the risk pool gets a little worse when the population shifts to be slightly older and more costly. Similarly, this policy may also slightly increase Medicare per capita costs as the population shifts to be slightly older than it is today by excluding the youngest and generally healthiest beneficiaries. This policy idea was floated by the President near the end of the debt ceiling debate.

And more facts on how we even got to this "debate":

Krugman: Raising the Medicare Age (April 26, 2011)
http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/04/26/raising-the... /

Bloomberg: Senators Propose Raising Medicare Entrance Age to Cut Costs (Jun 28, 2011)
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-06-28/senators-propo...

WAPO: Top Democrats reject new plan to cut Medicare spending (June 28, 2011)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/top-demo...

Stein: Obama Offered To Raise Medicare Eligibility Age As Part Of Grand Debt Deal (July 11, 2011)
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/07/11/obama-medicare...

TPM: Obama’s Offer To Raise Medicare Age In Debt Deal Goes Over With Dems Like A ‘Lead Balloon’ (July 12, 2011)
http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/07/obamas-offer...

USA Today: White House proposal would raise Medicare age (July 13, 2011)
http://www.usatoday.com/NEWS/usaedition/2011-07-14-medi...

Pushing back with the help of economists on our side:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=103&topic_id=626370&mesg_id=626370

Pushing back at things "that haven't happened yet" to vital safety nets is good, unless people here think we should have all sat on our hands when Bush wanted to reform Social Security in 2005 and we should have all waited to see if happened.

[PA Democrat]

12. +1000

[ProSense]

14. Given

that all of those reports were speculation, the OP should be welcomed news.

And this one, "Bloomberg: Senators Propose Raising Medicare Entrance Age to Cut Costs (Jun 28, 2011)," isn't even about the President.

BTW, only the last link works.

[chill_wind]

16. It IS welcome news. The bullshit pretenses

and various revisionisms all over a few places at DU, as usual, snarking and suggesting that it was never even a discussion or possibility is what isn't.

They can tell that, for starters, to The Dems Ways and Means.

The working links are here, in the last link above. People were very busy keeping it unrecced the other day.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=103&topic_id=626370&mesg_id=626428

[ProSense]

18. Frankly

the media and some blogs were the ones that hyped the speculation.

After pushing the BS speculation again yesterday, here is Sam Stein today:

WASHINGTON -- Jilted by Republican leadership during the deficit-reduction talks that accompanied the debt ceiling debate, the Obama administration is now pulling back an offer to put Social Security reform on the negotiating table.

The president will not include changes to that program in the series of deficit reduction measures that he will offer to the congressional super committee next Monday, administration officials confirm.

<...>

Seriously, WTF?

[chill_wind]

19. That is a stupid

piece of spin in that premise-- that he's pulling anything back on SS because of Republicans: Jilted by Republican leadership during the deficit-reduction..

I couldn't agree with you more. We've seen the lunacy of the GOP on all the entitlements.

Stein makes it sound like Republicans are the ones trying to protect it- or that he's just capriciously playing Indian giver with them now, or something.

He DID bring SS reform into the budget deficit discussions, though, and what I would like to hope is if he was serious about strengthening it, he will support the current Dem bill co-sponsored with Bernie Sanders since it would be aligned with his ideas in the past.

[Mass]

17. Unfortunately, it does not seem that the WH says they will exclude Medicare eligibiility age.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/09/15/us-usa-debt-obama-social-security-idUSTRE78E38X20110915

A senior administration official said the package Obama will recommend is still being finalized and it was not yet possible to say whether other reforms to government assistance programs, such as a change in the eligibility age for Medicare health benefits, would be included.

We cam hope for the best, but unfortunately, they are not yet ready to take this off the table yet.

[flpoljunkie]

22. Jay Carney would not give specifics today either, but said there would be specifics next week.

Why leave the question of raising Medicare eligibility from 65 to 67 hanging?

[chill_wind]

25. Fair question.