Health Care BS

While Press coverage of the recently recessed Congress has focused on the failure of Pelosi & Co. to address high gasoline prices, this was not the only policy issue on which they behaved irresponsibly.

The Democrat majority is also guilty of dereliction of duty in the face of the Medicare funding crisis. Here’s how the Chairman of the Republican Study Committee put it:

Once again, in the face of a looming crisis, the majority in the House would put the next election above the next generation and kick the can down the road on necessary entitlement reform. Medicare is going broke, and Democrats had an opportunity—an opportunity required by law—to fix the problem, and once again they have failed in their obligation to the American people.

On July 24, the Dems pushed through a resolution that effectively abolished the cost-containment ‘trigger’ established by the 2003 Medicare Modernization Act.

And, make no mistake about it, Medicare spending is out of control. If something isn’t done soon, a fiscal meltdown inevitable. As the Happy Hospitalist put it at Kevin, MD:

How can we sustain this? We cannot. Unless the rules change, actuary expectations project that by 2070, 100% of our federal budget will go to Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security. That means no roads, no bridges, no FBI, no CIA, no military. No nothin’.

The House “leadership” dealt with this Medicare funding crisis the same way they dealt with skyrocketing gasoline prices—-they turned out the lights and went home. Time to fire these people.