Why Believe New Promise When Congress Breaks Old Promise?

Ernest Istook / November 13, 2009

Congress wants America to believe its new promises to control spending even as it reneges on its old promises and spends more than ever.

The “new” promise within health care reform bills is to reduce Medicare spending by hundreds of billions of dollars. Yet simultaneously, Congress is reversing 1997 legislation that claimed it would reduce Medicare spending.

The latest example of hypocrisy is known in Washington as the “doc fix,” (shorthand for fixing payment rates to doctors) and it’s scheduled for a House of Representatives vote next week.

Doctors have a valid complaint that government underpayments make it unprofitable to see Medicare patients. But throwing more borrowed money at the problem makes things worse because it moves Medicare and the rest of the federal budget deeper into bankruptcy. (more…)