A Few Loose Ends

On Monday, Paul Krugman wrote a good column ($) on government outsourcing. A key point: It's now clear that there's a fundamental error in the antigovernment ideology embraced by today's conservative movement. Conservatives look at the virtues of market competition and leap to the conclusion that private ownership, in itself, is some kind of magic elixir. But there's no reason to assume that a private company hired to perform a public service will do better than people employed directly by the government.

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Entitlements II: This Table Needs a Taster

A Washington Post article today reprises the "table talk" from yesterday about entitlement reform.

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Entitlement Spending Solutions: Table This

Entitlement growth is a growing problem, budget policymakers in Congress and the Administration agree. Time to deal with it is of the essence, with the '08 campaign soon likely to make debate on solutions too hot to handle, both sides agree. "Everything is on the table," incoming Democratic Budget Committee chairmen, Rep. John M. Spratt Jr. and Sen. Kent Conrad say. Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr. and White House Office of Management and Budget Director Rob Portman have not ruled anything out.

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CBO Directors Gloomy about Health Care

CongressDaily AM($) picked up a meeting of three former CBO directors who aren't very optimistic about the nation's fiscal health. Pessimistic about Congress' willingness to address looming fiscal shortfalls in federal healthcare and Social Security programs, three former CBO directors said Tuesday the outlook is bleak for heading off the problems.

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Medicaid Costs Stablizing

USA Today reported yesterday that Medicaid costs have been decreasing over the last year, and editorializes (opinionates?) on the subject today. Like other social welfare programs, Medicaid has been a victim of its own success. It will cost taxpayers $300 billion this year (about 70% of the Pentagon's budget) and serves 56 million poor Americans. It has been the fastest-growing expense for states over the past decade, threatening to break budgets and force service cuts. Until now.

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Children's Health Imperiled by Funding Shortfall

If Congress does not take action soon, nearly 630,000 children may lose their health care. Why? A funding shortfall in a quirky health care program called the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP). SCHIP was created in 1997 to shore up Medicaid. It covers children whose families have incomes that exceed Medicaid eligibility levels, but are still struggling to get by. This design has been remarkably successful- the share of low-income children who are uninsured has fallen by one fourth since 1997, despite a decline in employer-provided benefits. Hundreds of thousands of enrolled children may get cut off the program now, though, for two reasons:

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State Medicaid Directors Balk at Backdoor Cuts to Program

State Medicaid directors from around the country gathered this week in Washington, D.C. for their annual meeting and continued to express frustration and displeasure with the Bush administration's plans to continue to stick it to the states through the Medicaid program.

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Big Profits for Big Pharma

Recently, defense contractor Lockheed Martin reported that it was making handsome profits at taxpayer's expense. In similar spirit, several pharmaceutical companies have reported huge profits as well, in part due to new business from the federal government. The now-online Medicare drug benefit, which does not let the federal government negotiate prices with drug companies, has provided much of the boost.

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Time for Miracles?

In an op-ed today in the San Fransico Chronicle, Bill Frenzel and Leon Panetta call for a "Budget Summit" to hash out the difficult budget issues:

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Bernanke on Budget Cuts

Another sign that the Bush Administration may push for "entitlement reform" (read: massive cuts to Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid) after the election. From CongressDaily ($$):

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