Today's battle in the Senate, according to David Herszenhorn, will center on proposed cuts to the Medicare Advantage program:
Senator Orrin G. Hatch, Republican of Utah, has proposed an amendment to block the cuts, which would reduce spending on Medicare Advantage plans by about $120 billion over 10 years. About one-quarter of Medicare recipients are enrolled in Medicare Advantage plans, which were intended to save the government money. But Medicare Advantage now costs an average of about 14 percent more than traditional Medicare. The Democrats, in the health care legislation, essentially seek to end subsidies for Medicare Advantage plans that cannot match or beat the cost of traditional Medicare.
Defense and Medicare Advantage have long been the two government programs that Obama actually wants to cut. Why Medicare Advantage? In a recent article, Fred Barnes wrote: "Frugality, however, is not [the Democrats'] motive for bludgeoning MA. There are three things about it that Obama and Democrats loathe: (1) It's a Republican program, enacted as part of President Bush's prescription drug bill in 2003; (2) it brings free market competition and private, profit-making insurers into Medicare; (3) it uses a pool of money they'd rather spend on other programs." In other news, the Times reports that Rhode Island Democratic senator Sheldon Whitehouse will propose a "sense of the Senate" "promising that savings resulting from the bill for the Social Security Trust Fund be reserved for Social Security." If you didn't fall asleep reading the previous sentence, congratulations! You are officially a wonk.