McConnell: Medicare Reforms Mandatory

The New York Times reports

WASHINGTON — The Senate minority leader,  Mitch McConnell, said Thursday that the debt ceiling debate provides Congress with a rare opportunity to make sweeping changes to entitlement programs and spending, and that he would not vote to raise the level without significant budget cuts and revisions to Medicare and Medicaid.

“Divided government is the best time — and some would argue the only time — where you can do really big stuff,” Mr. McConnell said at a news conference after a meeting between President Obama and Republican senators. He said he had thought the meeting would be a waste of time but was pleased that it was a “candid exchange.”

Mr. McConnell, until now in the background of the fight over the debt ceiling, put himself in the center of the debate Thursday, laying out, though without specifics, some indication of what it would take to get him and presumably other Republicans to agree to increase the limit.

Saying it was unlikely that the Republican-controlled House would come to a budget agreement this year with Democrats in the Senate and White House, Mr. McConnell said that he would look for an agreement to reduce spending on discretionary federal programs in the 2012 and 2013 fiscal years and to put caps on spending for 2014 and beyond.

“There will be no tax increases in connection with raising the debt ceiling,” he added.

Under such a plan, appropriators could finance the government without the need to pass a string of short-term spending agreements like those that nearly led to a government shutdown this year.

Mr. McConnell did not call for approval of the House plan that seeks to convert Medicare into a program that subsidizes future retirees in private insurance plans. But he did say that he would require significant changes to both Medicare and Medicaid, possibly in terms of eligibility, and that Mr. Obama’s fiscal commission had made numerous recommendations from which a solution could be culled.