Wednesday, November 2, 2011

Pelosi Admits: “We Took Half a Trillion Dollars Out of Medicare”

This space and others have already reported on portions of former Speaker Pelosi’s interview with CNBC’s Maria Bartiromo on Friday afternoon, in which Pelosi talked about employers “emancipating” themselves from coverage.  But what has NOT been reported thus far is what Pelosi said during that same interview in response to a question on deficit reduction and entitlement reform.  When asked about Democrat ads and messages opposing entitlement reform, here’s how Pelosi responded (exchange starts at about 1:45 of the video):

You don’t have to have cuts in those initiatives in order to reduce cost there, and we have proven that we’re willing to make cuts in the cost to initiatives.  We took a half a trillion dollars out of Medicare in [Obamacare], the health care bill, already, and there’s certainly more opportunities for savings in that respect, but it shouldn’t be cuts to seniors.

That is EXACTLY what Obamacare did – it resulted in $500 billion in Medicare spending reductions, savings that in the words of the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office “will not enhance the ability of the government to pay for future Medicare benefits” – because those savings will be used to fund other unsustainable entitlements.  Note also that Pelosi sounded perfectly fine with “taking half a trillion dollars” out of Medicare to fund Obamacare’s new entitlements, only to turn around and oppose new “cuts to seniors” – an intellectually muddled position, at best.

Republicans support reforming Medicare – but to improve Medicare’s solvency, not to fund new government spending.  Five years ago, Republicans took action to reform Medicare by passing the Deficit Reduction Act, which saved $22 billion within the program – less than five percent of the total Democrats “took out of Medicare” last year.  Yet not a single Democrat voted for the legislation in either the House or the Senate.  Perhaps Speaker Pelosi’s comments explain why:  Because Republicans’ Medicare savings were not “taken out of Medicare” and used to fund new entitlement spending.

Last year, Speaker Pelosi famously said we had to pass the bill to find out what’s in it – and by admitting the law “took a half a trillion dollars out of Medicare,” it would appear that she took her own advice and found out what’s in Obamacare.  However, this damaging admission also brings to mind the old saw about a gaffe in Washington taking place when a politician speaks the truth.  In this case, the former Speaker’s gaffe and a half (trillion) reinforced the fundamental truth:  Republicans want to reform Medicare to make the program solvent, while Democrats will only “reform” Medicare if it leads to more unsustainable entitlement spending.