Seniors under the Affordable Care Act

The supporters of the Affordable Care Act have tried to create a celebratory atmosphere around its passage and its validation by the Supreme Court. Whatever one's opinions may be about the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act, all left-leaning individuals must be wary about what the Act intends to do about funding for Medicare. It appears strange that Medicare spending will be cut under the Affordable Care Act while a lot of the money for the Act will be obtained from Medicare tax increases. While the wealth transfer part of the provisions of the Affordable Care Act may be theoretically consistent with left-leaning views in the US, the part about cutting funding for certain seniors does not jell well with the broad thrust and the symbolism of traditional leftist legislative activism in the US. Something just isn't right when Democrats allow this kind of dilution of Medicare because of tight fiscal conditions.

It is almost as if the Democratic Party has lost coherence in the kind of legislative agendas it is pursuing and in the way it bargains with ideological opponents in the Congress. It is not yet time for the Democratic Party to pat itself on its back about the Affordable Care Act. When srcutinized carefully, it looks more like a capitulation than like an achievement.

by C. Jayant Praharaj ( send comments to cjpraharaj.blog@gmail.com )