Medicare Is The Real Problem, Says Gregg

Former Senator Judd Gregg (R-N.H.) urged leaders in Congress on Monday to stop wasting time wrangling over discretionary spending cuts, and focus instead on reforming Medicare.

The nation’s largest federal healthcare program for seniors is about to create a serious problem for the nation as more people retire over the next few years, Gregg said.

“Yet our president and his budgeters bury their heads in the sand on this issue while proclaiming their fiscal prudence,” he wrote in an op-ed for The Hill newspaper.

Gregg, who served as the top Republican on the Senate Budget Committee, also blamed Republicans for dodging Medicare, arguing that even the new crop of “Tea Party” conservatives has chosen to unwisely attack the discretionary budget.

“The time has come to stop this middle-ages exercise in extraneous debate and actually move into the realm of making some real progress on the deficit and debt,” Gregg wrote.

“The way to do this is simple…House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) should call President Obama, or vice-a-versa, and say “You, me and maybe an adult from the Senate need to go in a room somewhere, quietly, and work this out, and not come out until we do (unless, of course, the president is needed for an international crisis), because there is nothing more important to this country at this time than this issue.””

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