House Republican leaders have made an unprecedented promise to tinker with Social Security and Medicare as they prepare their version of the 2012 budget.
But even as they inch toward tackling the two massive, popular entitlement programs that have long been the driving force behind the nation’s soaring budget deficits, they are wary of being lured into a political minefield by Democrats and President Obama.
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The president called on congressional Republicans to join him in reshaping the two entitlement programs to reduce their ever-expanding costs. But Obama then proposed a $3.73 trillion budget for 2012 that offered no specific reform proposals despite recommendations from his own deficit-reduction commission to rein in the programs.
“This is a punt,” House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, R-Wis, said after reading Obama’s budget proposal. “This doesn’t even include any of the significant recommendations from the fiscal commission.”
House Republicans, according to aides, decided it would be in their own political interests to take the initiative from Obama on entitlement reform. They promised they would include it in their 2012 budget plan, due in April. But now that they have embarked upon that course, they are finding the path forward on entitlement reform is fraught with political dangers.
Democratic strategist Doug Schoen warned that Republicans could be making a big political mistake by singling out entitlement spending for cuts without bipartisan support. He noted that the deficit commission saw the cuts as part of a broader budget-cutting process. “If they do it without a comprehensive plan, it can and will be dangerous,” Schoen said.
To accomplish any cuts to the programs, House Republican leaders would first have to sell an entitlement reform plan to their members, a difficult task with the 2012 elections looming. That could touch off a conflict within Republican ranks between the GOP’s large faction of freshmen who are determined to take on entitlements, and the more moderate GOP members from less conservative districts who are unwilling to back anything that might alienate senior citizen voters.
Many Republicans in both the House and Senate have also indicated that, despite the enthusiasm of House GOP leaders to take on entitlements, they want Obama to take the lead.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said he wants to talk to Obama about entitlement reform, but he bluntly rejected the idea of having the GOP tackle it unilaterally.
“The one thing I can tell you, there will be no entitlement reform without presidential leadership,” McConnell said.
Senate Minority Whip Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., said Senate Republicans are not willing to take the political risk without the cover of Obama’s support.
“It would be very important to do, but if the president doesn’t lead on it, it would be very hard to see how it gets done,” Kyl said. “He has to sign it and if he’s expecting someone else to take the lead so he can take potshots at them, that’s not very likely to happen.”
