I'm sure you are all aware that VP Joe Biden is trying to negotiate some grand bargain with Republicans over the deficit and has been for a while now:
The White House and lawmakers are negotiating a budget package that would serve as a “significant down payment” toward cutting the deficit by $4 trillion over the next decade, Vice President Joe Biden said Thursday.
The remarks suggest the bipartisan group is working on a more limited plan than the comprehensive package offered in December by the White House fiscal commission. The Biden-led talks may not aim at solving all of the country’s budget challenges in time for a crucial summer vote to raise the debt limit. Instead, they could act as an initial step toward bigger deficit-cutting goals.
“Look, it’s premature to be optimistic, but I am clearly not pessimistic,” Biden told reporters after a more than two hour meeting at the Blair House. “I genuinely believe we are on the right track here, and there is a real shot for making significant progress defined as making a down payment.”Despite what Republicans say publicly, Biden continued, taxes remain part of the mix.
That article was from May, 12th. yesterday it was reported that five Senators wrote a letter to Biden to tell him not to mess with Medicare and some of them are Conservadems:
Five Democratic senators are calling on Vice President Joe Biden to reaffirm his commitment to leaving Medicare unchanged during budget and deficit negotiations.
Sens. Claire McCaskill, of Missouri, Jon Tester, of Montana, Sherrod Brown, of Ohio, Ben Cardin of Maryland and Bill Nelson of Florida express their concerns in a letter sent Monday to Biden. The letter was obtained by The Associated Press.
They note Biden has made progress in negotiations and say that as talks move to areas with less consensus the vice president must insist that significant changes to Medicare are off the table. They say that's important because Republican leaders have said their Medicare proposal is still a part of negotiations.
Medicaid should be part of their letter too, but at least it puts more pressure on Biden to not sink us all and coming from Nelson, Tester, McCaskill is good news for us.
