On the other hand I’m really not sure how much I should care about Congress’s being on the brink of repealing the “Sustainable Growth Rates”, Congress’s 15 year old attempt to contain Medicare costs which, since the Congress doesn’t have the guts to stick by its guns, has resulted in the annual (or thereabouts) farce known as the “doc fix” where they absolve themselves from controlling the growth of Medicare costs.
The move will allegedly add a couple of hundred billion to the deficit but that’s kabuki, too, since the estimate is predicated on “existing law” which means the SGR which nobody really believes they’ll allow to take effect.
As best as I can tell the only reason this is in the news is the surprising spectacle of the Senate actually passing something, a rara avis during the Reid Senate. It’s pretty pathetic when a Senate move to reduce the workload of future Senates is a big news story.
