John Boehner: Social Security and Medicare Cuts Are “On the Table”

The rush to restrict spending on government safety nets took another lurch forward on Tuesday as Republican Speaker of the House John Boehner (OH) for the first time expressed a willingness to put potentially massive cuts and changes to Social Security and Medicare “on the table” during budget negotiations with the White House.

Boehner dodged specifics but said that he would “let Paul Ryan and the Budget Committee do their work” on slashing “entitlements” that Republicans and moderates in Congress as well as President Obama are increasingly eager to target for “deficit reduction.”

The president’s official budget proposal included no changes to the biggest safety nets, leading Boehner to criticize Obama and say that Republicans will “no punt” on these “big challenges.”

A day after President Obama’s fiscal 2012 budget punted on entitlement reform, a clear divide is emerging among Republicans about how aggressively to tackle Social Security and Medicare.

Speaker John Boehner dodged a question Tuesday morning when directly asked whether the party’s spending plan will include reforms to these entitlement programs. He said that the GOP will “not punt, everything’s on the table.” The Ohio Republican added that the party will “put forward a budget that deals with the big challenges that face our country.”

When pressed, Boehner said he would “let Paul Ryan and the Budget Committee do their work. I have no doubt that all of these issues will be on the table.”

But on the Laura Ingraham show Monday, Boehner said that the budget will “deal with the entitlement crisis that we’re facing.”

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) answered more directly Monday. He said flatly that Republicans “will be presenting at the end of next month, towards the beginning of April, our own budget, a serious document that will reflect the type of path we feel we should be taking to address the fiscal situation, including addressing entitlement reforms, unlike the president did in his budget.”

On Tuesday, Cantor doubled-down by saying the GOP would “be specific about bold reforms.”

Before becoming Speaker, Boehner suggested raising the retirement age to 70 because “we’re broke.”

Speaker Boehner’s deference to Paul Ryan, chair of the House Budget Committee, for the specifics on the GOP’s alternative to the White House fiscal outline is meaningful and another signal that Republicans are forging ahead with what would be a politically unpopular fight to drastically change Social Security and Medicare through massive cuts to the iconic safety nets programs.

Rep. Ryan is well-known as the author of the Republican “roadmap” budget proposal that specifically calls for the privatization of Social Security and the replacement of Medicare and Medicaid with government vouchers for citizens to purchase private insurance.

For his part, President Obama said at a Tuesday news conference that he is prepared to compromise with Republicans and moderates in Congress on “entitlements” and is  “confident we can get Social Security done” and called Medicare and Medicaid “huge problems” that he wants both parties to address “in a serious way,” presumably through cuts.

On the budget, Obama said he is prepared to work with Democrats and Republicans to cut spending and decrease deficits and the budget.