Why Oh Why Can't We Have a Better Press Corps?: New York Times/David Brooks Edition

Outsourced to Don Taylor:

[David Brooks's] statement that the [Bowles-Simpson] fiscal commission [chairmen's mark did] nothing to address Medicare is absurd.

The commission chairmen’s mark assumed the implementation of the Affordable Care Act, took faster, more direct steps to limit the tax advantage of employer paid health insurance than the cadillac tax, had more aggressive cuts to Medicare than anyone has called for so far, called for a new physician payment system to end the SGR charade, mandated a move of dual eligibles to managed care, would have implemented the malpractice reforms that Republicans wanted, and called for a strengthened Independent Payment Advisory Board (IPAB) by allowing it to focus on hospitals beginning in 2014…. You don’t have to like or agree with the ACA, but it does plenty to reform Medicare (see title III). And the deficit commission went even further by correctly saying that the ACA was the only horse we have to ride so lets ride it, and here are some more steps to go further…