How should the Republicans handle the issue of entitlements over the next two years (assuming that the GOP controls the House and that the Senate is close to a tie after the election)?
First, the worst thing that the GOP can do is to do nothing. Even if no bills get passed and signed by Obama, just doing nothing is not acceptable. The new congressmen and senators were not sent to Washington to hide from the big problems.
On Medicare, the issue of what to do is not difficult. First, the GOP should push for the finding and removal of waste and fraud in the system. After all, Obama told us that Obamacare would be paid for by cutting half a trillion dollars of waste and fraud from medicare. Obama and the Obamacrats will be hard pressed to argue against enforcement plans to get rid of the waste and fraud. And we all know that there is an extraordinary level of waste and fraud in this program, so cutting it will help every American (other than those who are stealing public funds through the fraud.) Second, the GOP should engage in programs that will educate the public to the other problems in the system. What if the House were to hold hearings on possible changes to the reimbursement methods used in medicare. Why should the doctors be paid per procedure as opposed to some other form of payment. Payment per treatment incentivizes the furnishing of additional and unnecessary treatments to patients who may not realize that the treatments are superfluous. Even Obama might sign on to a program to explore alternatives to the current payment methods. The scope of coverage should also be examined. If the American people see that the GOP is doing a careful and complete review of the program, it will be less likely to buy into the meme that the GOP is destroying Medicare. Indeed, at the same time the GOP has to keep explaining that Medicare is going broke and has to be fixed.
On Social Security, the GOP should try to make a deal with Obama. There needs to be a change to the retirement age. That age was set at 65 back in the mid 1930's when the program was passed. Since then, it has been moved back by two years at the most even though the length of the average life for an American worker has increased by much more than that. The program needs to be repaired or it will go broke, so doing nothing is not a possibility for any responsible group. Just changing the retirement age to 69 would save the program for decades -- and that assumes that those close to retirement age and already in the program remain unaffected. There can also be a phased in increase in the payroll tax, although this should be minimal since it will be necessary to avoid damaging the economy right now.
Another entitlement that has to be addressed is unemployment compensation. Right now the feds are paying to keep people on unemployment for two and a half years. While no one wants to put people under, the constant extensions have to end. Those who cannot afford their living expenses can then go one welfare if needed. Those who are getting unemployment but who could find another job need to be forced to do just that. There are a myriad of studies that show that a large percentage of those on unemployment find work when their benefits have less than two weeks to go. Let's force this to happen sooner.
Medicaid is the last of the big programs that has to be addressed. This is supposedly a state program, but it is pushed by federal rules and regulations into one of the biggest state expenses in nearly every state. Even so, There are major variations on a state by state basis. for example, spending per person in New York is more than double that in other states, but the standard of care received in NY is no better than elsewhere. States should be encouraged to reduce their costs through efficiency and cutting waste and fraud. This could be done by making sure that all funding to states for Medicaid programs are made as lump sums. The federal government should never pay a percentage of state expenditures. If New York wants to waste enormous sums on medicare, let it waste the money of the people in that state and not get subsidized by the rest of the country. Such a move would force the program to be streamlined in the states with extravagant programs.
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