Thursday, March 26, 2015

Pelosi, Boehner Rekindle Bipartisanship With $214 Billion Medicare Deal




Recently, House Speaker John Boehner and Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi have come to an agreement on the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015. This $214 billion package would close the massive funding gap in the current Medicare, impose long-term spending cuts, and extend health care for poor children. The bill is appealing to both parties in that the Democrats support the two-year extension of the Children's Health Insurance Program, while the Republicans support its $70 billion offset. The bill has been unanimously voted into a Thursday floor vote by the House Rules Committee; however, some of the Democrats in the Senate are a bit wary with the details and have yet to make a decision on how they feel about the bill.

In general, the bipartisan agreement is well-received by both Congress and the president, as it is quite a change from the usual split between the Democrats and the Republicans. President Barack Obama is very pleased by the developments— this sentiment somewhat ties back into his hopes of seeing more bipartisan agreement, as expressed in this year's State of the Union address.

What are your opinions and thoughts on this bill? Do you support the plans laid out so far, why or why not? Will this bill most likely benefit or hurt the public?

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