Monday, February 9, 2015

How Obama’s Budget Delays Fiscal Pain

In its 2016 budget, the Obama administration proposed approximately $400 billion in health-care savings. While this would include some modest changes to Medicare benefits, the overall document postpones most of the fiscal pain until after President Barack Obama leaves office.

The budget proposes additional increases to Medicare means-testing: reducing federal Part B and Part D subsidies to higher-income households. It also would increase the Medicare Part B deductible, introduce a Part B surcharge for beneficiaries who purchase rich supplemental Medigap coverage, and introduce home health co-payments. The latter three changes would apply only to new beneficiaries—and all the changes would take effect in 2019, more than a year after President Obama leaves office.

In its updated economic outlook last month, the Congressional Budget Office made clear that the United States faces an entitlement problem. CBO’s Figure 1-3 (above) shows that Social Security, health programs, and interest represent 84% of the increase in federal spending over the coming decade. With an average of 10,000 baby boomers retiring every day, President Obama’s proposals would permanently exempt approximately 14 million individuals who will join Medicare by January 2019—making the task of bringing entitlement commitments into balance that much more difficult.

President Obama has a history of prioritizing political expediency over fiscal rectitude. His first submission proposing additional Medicare cost-sharing—in September 2011—delayed the implementation until 2017. Obamacare has followed the same course: Two of the law’s biggest long-term “pay-fors”—provisions slowing the growth in insurance exchange subsidies and the law’s “Cadillac tax“—won’t take effect until a new president is in office. A third provision, the controversial Independent Payment Advisory Board, has been left unaddressed by the administration.

This strategy of pursuing dessert before spinach—of kicking tough choices down the road to future political leaders—may lead to short-term political gains but could result in long-term fiscal and political pain. Unsustainable trends will not continue forever—and whenever the fiscal reckoning comes, voters are unlikely to look kindly on those whose actions helped bring about the mess.

This post was originally published at the Wall Street Journal Think Tank blog.