Deficit Reduction Disappointment

"We believe, in the words of our first Republican president, Abraham Lincoln, that through government, we should do together what we cannot do as well for ourselves."

--Barack Obama, 4.13.11 Deficit Reduction Speech

Though I hadn’t expected much, I was disappointed with the President’s deficit reduction speech. Mostly, he defended big government, reaching back to Republican Abraham Lincoln (see quote) as opposed to Democrat Franklin Roosevelt to find his government patron saint. Is it that Civil War thing? When Obama's speech finally got around to budget cuts, he not only offered no “steak,” as I had predicted, he also failed to give us the “sizzle” I expected to see.

As I said he would, he called for tax increases and cuts to defense spending. The two would reduce the debt $1.4 trillion over 12 years (Obama pumped up all his figures by taking them out 12 years, two years beyond the ten budget sheets call for).

And, as I said, he did propose Medicare and Medicaid cuts. Here’s where I expected the “sizzle,” something that would look like entitlement reform, but would not happen because Republicans would be unable to accept the ideas.

Instead, after first instructing us that “politicians are often eager to feed the impression that solving the problem is just a matter of eliminating waste and abuse,” [emphasis added] the President then said he would achieve his Medicare/Medicaid savings by eliminating waste and abuse! Not kidding:

We will reduce wasteful subsidies and erroneous payments. We will cut spending on prescription drugs by using Medicare’s purchasing power to drive greater efficiency and speed generic brands of medicine onto the market. We will work with governors of both parties to demand more efficiency and accountability from Medicaid. We will change the way we pay for health care — not by procedure or the number of days spent in a hospital, but with new incentives . . . And we will slow the growth of Medicare costs by strengthening an independent commission of doctors, nurses, medical experts and consumers who will look at all the evidence and recommend the best ways to reduce unnecessary spending. [emphasis added].

Obama claims just by going after waste and abuse in the above manner, he can realize total healthcare savings of $830 billion.

Not likely. No steak. No sizzle.