Bush 2009 Budget Request Would Cut Medicare, Medicaid, NYT Says

[Lone_Star_Dem]

Source: Bloomberg

Jan. 31 (Bloomberg) -- President George W. Bush is expected to propose cuts in Medicare growth and seek more savings from the Medicaid program in his fiscal 2009 budget, the New York Times reported, citing unidentified White House officials and budget documents.

The spending request may be the first $3 trillion plan proposed by a president, the Times said.

Medicare cuts would save $6 billion in the next fiscal year and $91 billion from 2009 to 2013, the Times said. For Medicaid, an insurance program for low-income people, savings would total $1.2 billion next year and almost $14 billion over five years, the Times said. The savings would help keep the U.S. reach a budget surplus by 2012, though higher deficits are expected in 2008 and 2009, the newspaper said.

Read more: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=a6bq9iuR6Q_w&refer=home

---

Found the NYT article.

Bush Seeks Surplus via Medicare Cuts

WASHINGTON — In his new budget, to be unveiled Monday, President Bush will call for large cuts in the growth of Medicare, far exceeding what he proposed last year, and he will again seek major savings in Medicaid, according to administration officials and budget documents.

Over all, the 2009 budget is likely to be the first $3 trillion spending request by a president.

Health care savings are a crucial part of Mr. Bush’s plan to put the nation on track to achieve a budget surplus by 2012. But before then, the officials said Wednesday, the White House anticipates higher deficits in 2008 and 2009, reflecting the current weakness of the economy and the cost of a stimulus package.

The president’s budget will not seek money for another full year of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Pentagon officials said the administration would request $70 billion for the fiscal year that begins on Oct. 1. That would be enough to continue combat operations for several months, until the next president takes office.

Mr. Bush has repeatedly said that the costs of Medicare and Medicaid, which dwarf spending for lawmakers’ pet projects, are unsustainable. The two health programs account for nearly one-fourth of all federal spending, and their combined cost — $627 billion last year — is expected to double in a decade.

Budget documents show that Mr. Bush will propose legislative changes in Medicare to save $6 billion in the next year and $91 billion from 2009 to 2013. In his last budget, by contrast, his legislative proposals would have saved $4 billion in the first year and $65.6 billion over five years.

The president’s budget also takes aim at Medicaid, the insurance program for low-income people. He would pare $1.2 billion from it next year and nearly $14 billion over five years.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/31/washington/31budget.html?em&ex=1201928400&en=89469080a363adf5&ei=5087%0A

[Roland99]

1. Unfortunately, it's necessary (*but* coupled with expiring the tax cuts)

Google "concord coalition"

[OKthatsIT]

15. Bush is requesting $550 Billion for the Pentagon

[flashl]

2. Stop Medicare fraud ...

Medicare fraud costs Medicare billions of dollars every year.

[cutlassmama]

3. HIS war caused this. So let's cut out the healthcare for the poorest

of the poor in this country...the elderly and disabled already live WAY BELOW the poverty line. Let's just let them all die then.

[plantwomyn]

4. I'd heard that medicare and medicaid

were the two best administrated government programs. The cost to run them is minuscule compared to other programs. If they did more oversight and fined those found guilty of fraud huge amounts and make them pay court costs, both programs would make money. Hell oversight would even put people to work.
Everyone should be on one or the other. Yes that means single payer medical coverage. Take the money everyone is paying to insurance companies and invest it into covering everyone. It would save at the minimum the 21% profit margin insurance companies make now.

[donkeyotay]

5. George and his reverse Midas touch. Billions for cronies, bubkiss for citizens.

Remember the Medicare Bill? Remember the fraud with hiding the true cost from the repos, an extra $140 Billion? Remember the vote being held open into the wee hours and bribes-threats being issued? Remember that the repos wouldn't even allow the US to negotiate prices with the drug companies? Donuts, anyone?

http://oversight.house.gov/investigations.asp?ID=229

Medicare Drug Benefit May Cost $1.2 Trillion
Estimate Dwarfs Bush's Original Price Tag

By Ceci Connolly and Mike Allen
Washington Post Staff Writers
Wednesday, February 9, 2005; Page A01

The White House released budget figures yesterday indicating that the new Medicare prescription drug benefit will cost more than $1.2 trillion in the coming decade, a much higher price tag than President Bush suggested when he narrowly won passage of the law in late 2003.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A9328-2005Feb8.html

Medicare bill a study in D.C. spoils system
By Christopher Rowland, Globe Staff | October 5, 2004

...

What once began as a proposal for $253 billion in drug coverage for seniors four years ago grew to a $400 billion grab bag for a broad spectrum of players in the health-care economy. The staggering costs rose yet another 33 percent when the Bush administration unveiled an estimate this year that it had kept quiet during the 2003 debate over Medicare: $534 billion.

...

The additions, which some supporters say were necessary to win support for the bill, help explain how such a massively expensive bill, contributing to record 17.4 percent Medicare premium increases this year, could provide a prescription drug benefit that is viewed as inadequate by many seniors. The actual costs of the bill are still being debated 10 months after its passage, triggering calls in some quarters of Congress to roll back some provisions.

...

To date, most attention has focused on increased payments to Medicare HMOs worth up to $46 billion and new profits that pharmaceutical companies will get after the full drug benefit begins in 2006. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. said the bill would increase drug industry revenues by 9 percent, or $13 billion in the first full year, or more than $100 billion over eight years. A Boston University researcher who is a critic of the drug industry estimated new profits at $139 billion over eight years.

...

The White House defends the bill as a total revamping of Medicare, including the introduction of long-term, systemic changes that rely on private competition and other market forces that will make it efficient and affordable.

"The president promised seniors not just a drug benefit, but a stronger, more modern Medicare system," said White House spokesman Trent Duffy.

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2004/10/05/medicare_bill_a_study_in_dc_spoils_system/

(emphasis added)

[awoke_in_2003]

6. Wow, 6 billion a year

that helps retirees and the uninsured vs. the same amount of money spent every 2 months in Iraq and Afghanistan. Guess I know where our priorities are.

[Deny and Shred]

7. Gone the way of Social Security

All that 'Locked Box' pandering from 2000. He was obviously just making campaign promises with no intention of keeping them. I hope the people who swallowed his line about Medicare/Aid and Soc Sec think twice before voting Republican again. Their benefits built the Green Zone.

[kirby]

8. Lame duck budget, it means nothing n/t

[bemildred]

9. It's never too late to try to screw the old and the poor one more time. nt

[Lasher]

11. Well this time it is.

The Democratic congress is not going to pass another appropriations bill until the next president is in office.

[cal04]

10. Bush 2009 budget to freeze many programs

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080131/ap_on_go_pr_wh/bush_budget

President Bush's 2009 budget will virtually freeze most domestic programs and seek nearly $200 billion in savings from federal health care programs, a senior administration official said Thursday. The Bush budget also will likely exceed $3 trillion, this official said.

Bush on Monday will present his proposed budget for the new fiscal year to Congress, where it's unlikely to gain much traction in the midst of a presidential campaign. The president has promised a plan that would erase the budget deficit by 2012 if his policies are followed.

Bush will propose nearly $178 billion in savings from Medicare — a number that's nearly triple what he proposed last year. Much of the savings would come from freezing reimbursement rates for most health care providers for three years. An additional $17 billion would come from the Medicaid program, the state-federal partnership that provides health coverage to the poor. The cuts would come over five years.

The official, whose spoke on condition of anonymity because the budget has not yet been released, said the budget for domestic programs would look like last year's.

[Triana]

12. always taking it out of the hides of the elderly and the poor...

..psychopathic bastard.

End the goddamn Iraq debacle and cut HIS salary in half - that'd take care of it.

[pookieblue]

13. I read this article and it made me sick...n/t

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

14. It's OK. Because he wants $515 billion for "Defense."

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x3166026


:crazy: priorities.