We As Taxpayers Have Been Assaulted And Insulted Again - Another “Dr. Fix”

Yesterday the House of Reps voted 402 – 2 to pass another version of the “Dr. fix.”  Back in the late 1990s Congress was trying to rein in Medicare and one of the provisions for doing so was an automatic cut to the payment schedule to doctors through Medicare if costs went over a certain level.  The threshold that would require cuts was reached years ago, but the cuts never happened.  Every year Congress is lobbied to push off the cuts in payments because it might disrupt the care given to those that rely on Medicare, as doctors would no longer treat patients because their pay went down. 

While the reduction in payment is supposed to be 5%, it has been put off so many times that if the automatic cuts were allowed to happen it would be a 25% reduction.  But don’t sweat it, the House (and the Senate on a cowardly voice vote) passed a measure to keep payments where they are for another year, which adds another $19 billion to the deficit.

Some might argue that 1) care providers should not suffer because of the lack of ability of Congress to better manage healthcare, and 2) that $19 billion in a several trillion dollar budget is trivial.  I agree on both counts.  But here’s the rub – our elected officials show absolutely no resolve to accomplish any task that involves pain.  They immediately cave to any and every group that solicits them EXCEPT taxpayers – those people footing the bill.  For all the lip service of the last eight months (during campaign season), fiscal discipline is nowhere to be found on the hill today. 

Think about what has happened SINCE the election - extend unemployment compensation beyond two years, keep taxes at current rates for all income levels, cut social security revenue, extend the Dr. fix, and I’m sure amend AMT to keep it from pummeling the middle class. 

All of this is happening so that the taxpayers/care recipients/workers/etc. won’t be immediately impacted on Jan 1, as if that particular date and these particular events would be catastrophic.  That’s a bunch of bull.  This is nothing but political cover.

Congress has before and will again implement laws that are retroactive.  There is no sudden axe that will fall, no Silver Sword of Damocles hanging in judgment above us.  These programs could be discussed, debated, and acted upon over the next 3-6 months and have rational, fiscally responsible answers reached if lawmakers wanted to do such a thing.  They don’t.  If the goal was to, say, govern, then all of these esteemed lawmakers would have spent the last two years working on these exact topics.  Not one of these items that are suddenly top of the table and must be addressed immediately is a surprise.  We knew them all.  We (through our lawmakers) simply allowed them to reach this point. 

Let them boil over.  Let them explode.  Let the problems be laid bare.  Let’s deal with them already.

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