Dems Won't Take Part in Medicaid Panel From Yahoo! News

By KEVIN FREKING, Associated Press Writer

Democratic lawmakers said Thursday that they would not participate on a commission that will recommend how to trim Medicaid by $10 billion over the next five years.

Michael Leavitt, the secretary of the Health and Human Services Department, announced last week the framework of the commission, which was mandated by Congress. He will appoint up to 15 voting members and 15 non-voting members.

Republican lawmakers were invited to designate four lawmakers to serve as non-voting members, and Democrats were invited to do the same.

Sen. Harry Reid, the Democratic leader in the Senate, and Rep. Nancy Pelosi, the Democratic leader in the House, said that they would not accept an advisory role for lawmakers rather than a voting role.

"Unfortunately, the partisan nature of the commission and the lack of voting rights are not our only reasons for refusing to appoint members," the two lawmakers said in a prepared statement. "We fundamentally disagree with the premise that this commission should make recommendations on how to cut Medicaid outlays by $10 billion by Sept. 1."

The senior Democrats on the congressional committees overseeing Medicaid also declined to participate.

I say good on the Dems. Bushco broke (by not telling us the true cost of) Medicaid, so he owns it, so let him make the cuts. Then in 2006 and 2008 exploit this fact. If we had voting rights on the panel then help fix it.

Semper Fi