Jan
8
By Paolo von Schirach
January 8, 2012
WASHINGTON – The AP reports that Newt Gingrich indulged in selling to his New Hampshire audiences the old and worn lie that you can fix a big chunk of Washington’s spending problems by finally addressing fraud. He said that in Medicare and Medicaid alone it is possible to save about 100 billion a year by vigorously prosecuting fraud.
All about “fraud, waste and abuse”?
While he apparently omitted that the Obama administration Justice Department is agrressively going after Medicare fraud, Gingrich’s observation may lead the average listener to believe that over spending in this key area is mostly about fraud. Fraud is an issue, no doubt. But, given growing costs and changing demographics, there is no way to change the course of federal health care spending without serious reform aimed at drastically cutting expenditures (and that means benefits) that rise every year at a rate faster that economic growth and faster than any other areas of government spending. In other words, fighting “waste fraud and abuse”, while necessary, will not cut it.
The only way out of debt is serious entitlement reform
Indeed, any serious conversation about getting the US on a path to fiscal sanity will have to involve a serious reform of all major entitlement programs, first and foremost Medicare and Medicaid. (Look at Paul Ryan’s plan). But Gingrich (and the other GOP contenders too, of course) is campaigning. And this endeavor apparently does not include serious conversations. This is mostly about blowing smoke, by letting people believe that there are easy and pain free solutions for America’s problems.
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