Aug 2 2011
Politico asks if the agreement will muddy the Medicare waters. Meanwhile, USA Today examines the political damage that it may ultimately cause.
Politico: Does Deal Muddy Medicare Waters?
President Barack Obama's health care law has high negative ratings, and they're not getting any better. But House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan's Medicare plan has high negatives, too — and they're not healing either. It's almost enough to suggest that the two plans will just cancel each other out as liabilities in 2012, with the Democrats and Republicans fighting to a draw as they try to scare voters to their side. The big health care question of the election would be: Whose albatross is bigger? (Nather, 7/31).
USA Today: Political Damage Even If A Debt Deal Is Done
In the debate over raising the government's debt ceiling, President Obama has seen his approval rating fall to a new low, his political adeptness questioned and his liberal base enraged over compromises he made on line-in-the-sand issues such as protecting Medicare from cuts. … Cuts in Medicare and other entitlement programs are on the table. And, depending on how events unfold, both houses of Congress may be required to vote on a constitutional amendment requiring a balanced budget (Page and Schouten, 8/1).
 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.
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