FLASHBACK: A Year Ago Today, Obama Warned Of Medicare’s Fiscal Challenges

August 17, 2011: Obama Said That “If We Didn’t Do Anything, Then Medicare And Medicaid Would Gobble Up Basically The Entire Federal Budget.” OBAMA: “The bigger problem is Medicare and Medicaid. And the reason that’s a problem is because healthcare costs keep on going up faster than inflation, people’s wages, people’s incomes, at the same time as folks are getting older, so we’ve got more people into the system. And if we didn’t do anything, then Medicare and Medicaid would gobble up basically the entire federal budget.” (President Barack Obama, Remarks At A Town Hall , Alpha, IL., 8/17/11)

Yet Obama’s Record On Medicare Reform Is One Of Doing Nothing

“When It Comes To Deficit Reduction And Entitlement Reform, President Barack Obama Has Been A Master Of Mixed Signals.”(Carol Budoff Brown, Glenn Thrush and David Nather, “Showtime For President Ambivalent About Deficit,” Politico, 4/12/11)

Obama Doesn’t Have A Plan To Control The Nation’s Entitlement Programs In The Long-Term. “However, he isn’t proposing the structural changes that experts say are needed to control spending in these programs over the long term. For instance, Mr. Obama won’t suggest raising the Medicare eligibility age, as he was willing to do over the summer during bipartisan budget negotiations that failed to produce a deal. He also doesn’t plan to propose changes to Social Security.” (Laura Meckler, “Budget Plan Has Familiar Ring,” The Wall Street Journal, 2/7/12)

·        Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner Admitted The Administration Doesn’t Have “A Definitive Solution” To The Long-Term Problems Posed By Our Entitlement Programs. REP. PAUL RYAN: “Because we got 10,000 people retiring every day, and healthcare costs going up…” TREASURY SECRETARY TIMOTHY GEITHNER:“That’s right. We have millions of Americans retiring every day, and that will drive substantially the rate of growth of healthcare costs. You are right to say we’re not coming before you today to say we have a definitive solution to that long-term problem. What we do know is, we don’t like yours.” (Testimony Before The House Committee On The Budget, U.S. House Of Representatives, 2/16/12)

 “Obama Has Long Resisted The ‘Entitlement Reform’ Movement.”  Obama has long resisted the ‘entitlement reform’ movement, which is currently focused on establishing a blue-ribbon commission that would present Congress with a finished proposal — presumably calling for steep cuts in the nation’s bedrock social safety programs — for an up-or-down vote. (Dan Froomkin, “Obama’s Sense Of Entitlements,” The Washington Post, 2/20/09)

·         USA Today: Obama’s Failure To Tackle Entitlement Programs Was “Irresponsible.” “That’s mostly because Obama failed to take on the entitlement programs, by far the biggest drivers of future spending. Thanks to a weak economy, Baby Boomer retirees and payroll tax cuts, Social Security is already running in the red. Congressional Budget Office projections show it will add a half trillion dollars to the debt over the next decade, making Obama’s refusal to tackle it now irresponsible.” (Editorial, “Editorial: Politics Takes Priority In Obama’s Deficit Plan,” USA Today, 9/19/11)