That’s the message to members of Congress from policy analyst and Bush White House veteran Keith Hennessey. In a blogpost that is the strongest argument I’ve seen against the Democrats’ health care legislation, he argues that the bill would preempt the relatively easy solutions to the huge long-term fiscal problems caused by the trajectory of spending on Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. Here’s a sample, but please read the whole thing:
“[A]t best this bill makes our long-term fiscal problem no worse, while using up options to solve it. The pending legislation takes all of the easiest hard choices and uses them to offset the new promise. This leaves even harder and more painful policy choices when policymakers choose or are forced to address the long-term fiscal problem.
“The pending legislation raises taxes “on the rich.” When someone tries to close our long-term fiscal gap, these tax increases will no longer be available.
“The pending legislation slows the growth of Medicare spending, but then spends that money on the new promise. We still have the old unfunded promises, and those relatively easy Medicare policy changes will no longer be available to fund them.
“When you or your successors choose or are forced to solve our long-term fiscal problem, these tools will be unavailable.”
