CUTS DIFFICULT FOR DEBT COMMITTEE

Some of the most highly contested reductions to the budget which are shortly to be debated by the “super committee” appointed and charged with ending the budget crisis and bringing spending under control will include changes to Medicare and other social health care programs. Many people already figure that some of the trillion dollars of budgetary reductions slated for the next decade will include some significant changes to Medicare and with many people already relying on medicare supplemental insurance to cover the gaps in what Medicare payments won’t cover, that need for increased assistance may only grow.

The current legislation suggests that at least 900 billion dollars needs to be cut from the budget over the next ten years and that the deficit needs to be reduced by a trillion and a half dollars in that same period of time. If the panel is unable to find the amount of money required to be cut by the legislation it’s expected that Congress will take control of the budgetary cuts and attempt to make far reaching cuts that may include cuts to things like defense spending, Medicare and a host of other social programs.

There is not much time allotted for the committee to get its work done and the legislation suggests that if the panel cannot come up with its cuts in time or if Congress then does not pass the panel’s recommendations by late December that the cuts already on the books would become part of the law. Members of the special committee have said that the cuts won’t be easy but that they’ll try their hardest.