Jul 11 2011
News outlets covered the fallout of House Speaker John Boehner's Saturday announcement. On Sunday talk shows, Democrats insisted the President is "still committed" to solving the deficit problem.
CNN: "Political leaders retreated to hard-line positions Sunday after talks to reach a comprehensive deficit reduction deal sought by President Barack Obama effectively broke down over Republican resistance to tax increases. ... House Speaker John Boehner said Saturday that the insistence by Obama and Democrats on raising revenue through higher taxes prevented any chance that Republicans could support a major deal that also would cut spending and reform entitlement programs such as Medicare" (Walsh and Yellin, 7/10).
The Wall Street Journal: "Mr. Boehner's move upended a growing expectation in Washington that he and President Barack Obama were near a major deal that would bring in close to $1 trillion in new revenue and cut trillions of dollars in spending throughout the government, including in popular entitlement programs like Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security. ... Both sides remain deeply divided over whether new taxes should be part of any deal, and Democrats have resisted benefit cuts in Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security" (Paletta, Lee and Talley, 7/10).
The Washington Post: "Two of President Obama's top advisers said he will continue to press for a far-reaching, $4 trillion deal to cut the deficit when he meets with congressional leaders on Sunday evening ... White House Chief of Staff William M. Daley and Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner said on the Sunday political talk shows that Obama still believes in a deal that would reduce the deficit through a combination of spending cuts, entitlement reforms and tax increases (Goldfarb, 7/10).
ABC News: "'It's rather unfortunate that the speaker has made the comments he has,' Daley told 'This Week' anchor Chistiane Amanpour in an exclusive interview. 'The president is still very committed to solving this deficit problem for the future of America'" (Delawala, 7/10).
MSNBC: "With the government's borrowing capacity now capped at $14.3 trillion, a deficit cutting deal is essential to persuading enough Republicans in Congress to vote to increase the debt limit before it is reached in early August. Geithner said Obama 'is willing to do very, very difficult political things' including changes in the Medicaid and Medicare programs to reduce future outlays" (7/10).
Politico: "Following the breakdown of talks Saturday night, though, Republicans signaled Sunday that they are already moving on, focusing instead on a medium package in the range of $2 trillion that would not require as many new revenues. 'To get a big package would require big tax increases in the middle of an economic situation that's extraordinarily difficult with 9.2 percent unemployment — we think it's a terrible idea, it's a job killer," Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said on 'Fox News Sunday'" (Budoff Brown, 7/10).
The New York Times: "'And as you saw on the Ryan budget,' [Geitner] said, referring to a plan proposed by Representative Paul Ryan, Republican of Wisconsin, that would cut entitlement programs, 'if you try to do it with just cuts, you're putting unacceptably deep cuts in benefits for Medicare beneficiaries in the future and you can't do that politically, and it's unfair to do it'" (Harris, 7/10).
Business Week: "Democrats made clear that Boehner's decision also takes major changes to entitlements like Medicare off the table. 'This decision to reject the president's offer means as much as a trillion-dollar gulf remains between the two sides on a debt-limit deal, and Republicans should be put on notice that no matter how hard they try, their plan to end Medicare as we know it will never fill in that gap,' said Senator Charles Schumer of New York in a statement" (Brower, 7/10).
The Associated Press: "Health care was a main ingredient on both the spending and tax sides of the elusive agreement that Obama and Boehner, R-Ohio, had been trying to reach. The president has scheduled a meeting Sunday with congressional leaders to keep pushing for a compromise that would reduce future deficits in exchange for lifting the $14.3 trillion cap on the national debt. Action is needed so the government can keep paying its bills beyond Aug. 2. ... But many of the health-care options that negotiators were considering have been available for months. ... For Medicare, possibilities included higher premiums for upper-income retirees and new copayments and deductibles that affect all but the poor (Alonso-Zaldivar, 7/9).
US News and World Report: "Medicare, which experts say is the single biggest contributor to the nation's long-term debt, is tied into the rising costs of the nation's healthcare. Beyond long-held Democratic policy positions on how to cut Medicare spending, including allowing the program to negotiate on prescription drugs and cutting Medicare fraud, the options for restraining the program's future growth get trickier" (Parker, 7/10).
This article was reprinted from kaiserhealthnews.org with permission from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. Kaiser Health News, an editorially independent news service, is a program of the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonpartisan health care policy research organization unaffiliated with Kaiser Permanente. |