Failed Debt Raise May Help Reform Medicare

The Huffington Post reports

Republicans are using the lopsided outcome of Tuesday's failed debt ceiling vote as a means to push through Medicare reforms.

Not everyone was open to the idea, pushed by Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), that a plan by Rep. Paul Ryan to privatize the program for future seniors remain "on the table" for debt limit talks. But what was clear from Tuesday night's vote, in which a clean debt ceiling bill went down 318 to 97, was that GOP lawmakers felt emboldened to try to push entitlement reform yet again.

"There's no way to get there without having some examination of the entitlement programs that we have," Freshman Rep. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) said. "There's no question that to get the House back in order, we're going to have to do something revolutionary."

Vice President Joe Biden is leading talks with both parties over the debt limit, which was reached on May 16. The Treasury Department estimates the government would begin to default on its loans by August 2 if Congress does not vote to raise the debt limit, a move that Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner has warned have a "catastrophic economic impact."

Few details have emerged from the bipartisan debt talks, but both parties have laid down certain guidelines for what they want in a final deal. The Republican line, in particular, demands major spending cuts in the short and long term.

McConnell, the leading Republican in the Senate, has said that he would not vote to raise the debt limit unless the accompanying legislation included cuts to Medicare, perhaps based on Ryan's 2012 budget. The Ryan budget proposal, which passed the House and won 40 GOP votes in the Senate, would replace Medicare with a voucher-like system for future seniors that could lead to high costs.