Republican Medicare Cuts - Paul Krugman Blog - NYTimes.com:
"So, Newt Gingrich and John Goodman say,
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Don’t cut Medicare. The reform bills passed by the House and Senate cut Medicare by approximately $500 billion. This is wrong.
Leave aside the mind-killing irony of Newt Gingrich — New Gingrich! — denouncing Medicare cuts. What are Republicans themselves proposing?
Well, Rep. Paul Ryan’s Roadmap for America’s Future calls for the eventual elimination of Medicare as we know it, replacing it with a system of vouchers that would, eventually, account for a steadily declining share of GDP. But what about the next decade? Mr. Ryan’s release says that it
Strengthens the current program with changes such as income-relating drug benefit premiums to ensure long-term sustainability.
What does that mean? The CBO, helpfully, translates (pdf):
People who are age 65 or older in 2020 and other existing enrollees at that time would continue to be covered by the current program, although some higher income enrollees would pay higher premiums, and some program payments would be reduced.
In other words, Medicare would face cuts. And the CBO’s detailed analysis provides an estimate of those cuts. I’ve taken the table comparing projected spending with baseline as a share of GDP (xls), and scaled it up using the CBO’s projections of GDP. What I get is an estimated cut in Medicare spending over the next decade of about … $650 billion.
So, cutting Medicare by $500 billion is wrong — support Republicans, who want to cut it by $650 billion!"
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