Congressional Republicans and Democrats used a dire report from the Social Security and Medicare trustees to underscore their opposing views on health care reform.
The annual report released Tuesday indicated that by 2037, the Social Security trust fund will be depleted and that by 2017, part of the Medicare trust fund will be empty as well.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said the report highlights the need for fast and comprehensive health care reform but should not be used as “an excuse” to privatize or cut Social Security benefits.
“This report underscores the urgency of reforming health care,” Reid said. “It reminds us that we must reduce costs not only for middle-class families, but for Medicare and the federal budget as well. Until we get health costs under control, it will be harder for Americans to make ends meet and harder for Congress to keep Medicare solvent.”
Not surprisingly, Republicans viewed it differently.
“The Social Security and Medicare trustees‚ report confirms what we already knew – our nation cannot afford to continue this reckless borrowing and spending spree,” House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, said.
Republican Study Committee Chairman Tom Price, R-Ga., an orthopedic surgeon, said the report “should give pause to all those who, like the President, propose a government takeover of private health care. It should be obvious that putting more people under the inflexible control of Washington is no way to bring down medical costs, and it‚ is certainly no way to provide health care of the highest quality.”
The trustees, who include Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, said it is important that “action be taken soon” to help control the costs that are jeopardizing the financial stability of both entitlement programs, but particularly health care costs in relation to Medicare.
The trustees suggested balancing the books on Social Security “with an immediate 16 percent increase in the payroll tax (from a rate of 12.4 percent to 14.4 percent) or an immediate reduction in benefits of 13 percent or some combination of the two.”
