Dem leader: GOP bears burden on entitlements

Proposing reforms to the nation’s entitlement programs is the Republicans’ responsibility, a House Democratic leader charged this week.

GOP leaders have blasted Democrats – particularly President Obama – for largely sidestepping reforms to Social Security, Medicare and the other entitlement programs this year. But Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-Texas), vice chairman of the Democratic Steering and Policy Committee, said Thursday those criticisms are misplaced.

{mosads}”There was an election in November; the Republicans won,” Cuellar told reporters at the Capitol. “As the governing majority, they should come up with the proposals.”

The House this week is expected to pass a Republican bill to cut at least $61 billion in federal spending – a proposal that targets discretionary programs but not entitlements. Similarly, President Obama’s 2012 budget plan, which he says would trim $1.1 trillion in federal spending over a decade, focuses the cuts almost exclusively on discretionary funding.

Republicans have pounced on the president’s budget for that reason, arguing that it doesn’t make the tough choices needed to rein in national deficits, projected to hit $1.6 trillion this year alone.

Democrats “have offered no credible plan to get Americans back to work or seriously address our debt,” Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) said earlier in the week.

“I didn’t know they were taking our suggestions,” Cuellar quipped.

Republicans have vowed to reform the entitlements as part of their 2012 budget plan, which is expected in the spring. It remains unclear, though, what changes GOP leaders have in mind.

Although Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) has championed legislation to reform the entitlements, the bill is controversial for its privatization of Medicare and Social Security. Indeed, Cantor and other GOP leaders have declined to endorse it.

“We have to have a family conversation to get consensus,” Ryan said this week when asked if parts of his legislation would make it into the GOP’s budget bill.

Meanwhile, Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said entitlement reform is very much on the Democrats’ radar as party leaders begin to examine “all aspects of reducing the deficit.”

“We should subject every dollar to the harshest of scrutiny,” she said Thursday, just hours after meeting at the White House with Obama to discuss budget issues. She noted that nothing – not entitlements, and not defense spending – would be off the table.

Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-N.J.) disputed the idea that Democrats have ignored entitlement reform, calling that criticism “an absolute myth.”

Healthcare reform, he said, was “a direct response” to the spending crisis facing Medicare, extending the solvency of the seniors’ program for 12 years.

“We have approached entitlements,” he said. “I’m waiting to hear the response from the other side.”