Obama and the "Doc Fix"

US doctors who take Medicare patients are looking at a 21 percent reduction in their pay as a result of Congressional inaction on passing the "Doc Fix", an annual exercise in budget prestidigitation in which habitually underfunded Medicare levels are "fixed" with special legislation. Why is this all of a sudden a big issue? Why, because we just passed a trillion dollar government takeover of the healthcare system, that's why. In the "old days"--that is, before our accelerated slide into Euro-socialism--the cost of the "fix" was considered a cost of doing business, just another one of the budget tricks played with such skill on Capitol Hill. But now, the addition of $80B to the deficit starts to look like real money--as the nation falls increasingly into unsustainable debt. What must be remembered here is that the Administration healthcare proposal did not include the "Doc Fix" in its cost--even though everyone knew it had to be taken into consideration. The President is of course now hectoring Republicans for hazarding the nation's healthcare system--even as he hazards its entire system.