What editorial writers are saying about Obama's fiscal 2012 budget

Editorial writers are questioning some of Obama's budget spending on health care issues and calling for bipartisan solutions to money problems for Medicare and other programs.

Obama's budget ducks tough choices

If fiscal sanity is to be restored, Americans need to be told the hard facts -- not just that the national debt is out of control and that deficits can't go on and on, but that getting the nation's finances in order will require going everywhere in the budget: domestic programs, defense spending and the big entitlement programs such as Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid that already consume three of every five dollars the government spends.

USA Today, Feb. 15

Get serious on budget

When it comes to spending for programs like Social Security and Medicare, the politics demand a bipartisan solution. That means Republicans can't simply oppose anything Obama proposes, which led to them criticizing his proposal to cut Medicare spending as part of health care reform. If Republicans oppose cutting Medicare spending, does that mean they support higher taxes to fund it?

Pensacola (Fla). News Journal, Feb. 17

Obama's overly tame budget

The rising health care costs that are driving up Medicare and Medicaid expenses are especially important factors in the long term. But the budget has little to offer on health care costs, and proposes to pare defense spending no more than the Pentagon brass wants to.

Los Angeles Times, Feb. 15

President Obama's budget plan falls short

No doubt he would have been less skittish if Republicans hadn't hammered him relentlessly, and unfairly, for the provisions in last year's health reform law that would slow spending growth in Medicare by $500 billion over the next decade.

Orlando (Fla.) Sentinel, Feb. 15

Obama and GOP Congress still jousting at the margins

Obama reasonably proposes to eliminate many business tax breaks that no longer stimulate employment. And he has improved the overall budget process by reckoning the cost of the annual fixes for the alternative minimum tax and Medicare doctors' fees in his proposal. Congress has for years handled those two items separately, adding to the deficit while never acknowledging the fact.

Asheville (N.C.) Citizen-Times, Feb. 15

President Obama's budget plan too timid

The failing in the president's budget is that it is timid. He offers no changes to runaway spending on Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. These entitlements stand to eat up a bigger and bigger share of federal spending. The debt commission plainly spelled out the need for action; Obama's spending plan does not.

Jackson (Mich.) Citizen Patriot, Feb. 18

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