Durbin on Medicare age hike: 'Not on the table from the White House'

[ProSense]

Durbin on Medicare age hike: 'Not on the table from the White House'

by Jed Lewison

Interesting:

Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) said he has been told that raising the Medicare eligibility age is “off the table” in deficit talks, limiting the scope of entitlement reform.

“I was told that it is not on the table from the White House,” Durbin said, “raising the Medicare eligibility age.”

Durbin, the Senate’s second-ranking Democratic leader, made his comments to reporters after a leadership press conference on the "fiscal cliff" talks.

I'm not sure that Durbin is saying the Medicare age hike is off the table entirely, nor am I sure that he's saying the White House has taken it off the table. But at the very least, he's saying that the White House is not putting it on the table.

Given that Republicans refuse to put anything specific on the table, that means it's not on the table at all, and if it ever did get on the table, Republicans would have to be the ones to put it there. But Republicans are trying this weird negotiating strategy of not only demanding cuts in programs like Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid, but they are also demanding that Democrats identify the cuts and therefore take responsibility for them. If Democrats were to do that, Republicans would obviously turn right around and attack Democrats for proposing the cuts that Republicans demanded.

In a way, it sounds like a clever ploy, but it would really only be clever if Democrats were dumb enough to not see through it. At the very least, Durbin's comments make it clear that Democrats aren't going to be that stupid this time around. If Republicans really want entitlement cuts to be on the table, they are going to have to step up to the plate and name those cuts. And if they're too scared to do that, then maybe the cuts aren't such a good idea to begin with. Which, especially when it comes to Medicare age hikes, they most certainly are not.

- more -

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/12/13/1169565/-Durbin-on-Medicare-age-hike-Not-on-the-table-from-the-White-House

Nancy Pelosi: "don’t even think about raising Medicare age"
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10021971920

[mucifer]

1. Local Chicago news is reporting it as Durbin has said the President won't raise the age.

I personally feel relieved.

[LiberalAndProud]

2. That is reassuring and wise. Good news is good.

[ProSense]

3. Kick! n/t

[Faryn Balyncd]

4. Republicans absolutely NEED Democrats to OWN any cut to SS or MC. kick.

[ProSense]

6. Yup. Krugman:

Party of No Ideas

Greg Sargent writes:

I spoke this morning to an official familiar with the fiscal cliff talks. He tells me that ever since Republicans rejected the first White House fiscal offer, White House negotiators have been asking Republicans to detail both the spending cuts they want and the loopholes and deductions they would close to raise revenues while avoiding a hike in tax rates for the rich.

According to the official, Republicans continue to refuse to answer.

“No answer ever since the Geithner meeting,” the official said. “To date they have been unwilling or able to identify a list of specific cuts or changes they would like or a single loophole they are willing to close.”

I think everyone has been hearing the same thing. This is not a negotiation in the normal sense, in which each side makes proposals and they dicker over the details; instead, Republicans are demanding that Obama read their minds and produce a proposal they’ll like. And Obama won’t do that, for good reason: he knows that they’ll just pronounce themselves unsatisfied with whatever he comes up with, and are indeed very likely to campaign in 2014 attacking him for whatever cuts take place.

- more -

http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/12/13/party-of-no-ideas/

[Cha]

5. I never thought it was..