White House Shirks Responsibility to Address Medicare Insolvency

Kathryn Nix / March 10, 2011

If lawmakers are serious about tackling out-of-control government spending, they have no choice but to tackle entitlements. Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security are the three largest entitlement programs and together represent 40.2 percent of the President’s fiscal year (FY) 2012 budget. For the sake of comparison, total spending on national defense amounts to less than half of that at 19.3 percent.

Though President Obama’s rhetoric acknowledges the need for reform, his actions indicate unwillingness to address the issue. The President’s FY 2012 budget includes no substantive commitment to reduce entitlement spending, and the White House has expressed that Congress should instead make the first move. The Hill reported that House Speaker John Boehner (R–OH) has “personally promised Obama that he will stand side by side with him to weather the strong political backlash expected from any proposal to cut entitlement costs.” Even so, the White House remains quiet on entitlement reform. This isn’t just irresponsible; it’s actually a disregard for the duties of the Administration under the law.

The Medicare Modernization Act of 2003 created a “trigger” to require presidential and congressional action to address Medicare’s future unfunded obligations. Heritage expert Robert Moffit explains: (more…)