“Official Washington was in celebration mode on New Year’s Day after kind of averting a completely unnecessary crisis that was entirely of its own creation.” The Borowitz Report
This was our favorite headline from the hundreds of stories flooding our email boxes during the holiday “fiscal cliff” debate. The fact that it’s satire really doesn’t diminish the underlying message. Crisis creation seems to be what Washington does best these days. Even so, there was good news in this deal for seniors including: the end of the Social Security payroll tax holiday (which should never have been implemented in the first place), a one year doc fix preventing a massive cut in doctors’ Medicare reimbursements and extension of a number of Medicare programs that would have expired December 31st.
So while America’s seniors can breathe a sigh of relief that Congress finally came to its senses and removed benefit cuts for millions of middle-class and poor Americans from the fiscal cliff deal, that relief will be short-lived. Tomorrow, with the swearing-in of a new Congress, theassault on Social Security and Medicare begins all over again.
Read more here.
