Trump’s Pick For OMB Director Has Vowed To 'End Medicare As We Know It'

Another example of what will be tsunami of "things we didn't vote for".
Who among Trump's voters and rally goers thinks cutting Social Security and Medicare benefits and raising premiums and co-pays is a good idea?

These problems can all be addressed by a higher cap on Social Security taxes, perhaps Medicare too, and moving toward the efficiency of single payer system - such as by lowering the Medicare eligibility age. - gwc

Trump’s Pick For OMB Director Has Vowed To 'End Medicare As We Know It'
ByTIERNEY SNEEDPublishedDECEMBER 20, 2016, 1:36 PM 

Talking Points memo

Rep. Mick Mulvaney (R-SC), President-elect Donald Trump’s pick to direct the Office of Management and Budget, has been an ardent supporter of budget proposals that would privatize Medicare and has made overhauling the program a key issue in his approach to governance.

“We have to end Medicare as we know it,” Mulvaney said in 2011.

A Tea Party budget hawk who led the opposition to many of the funding compromises during the Obama era, Mulvaney vocally championed proposals by then-Budget Committee Chair Paul Ryan (R-WI) and others to privatize Medicare or impose other major changes to the program. He relentlessly argued that cutting retirement programs like Medicare was the only way to “balance the budget,” the Tea Party call to arms. He hasn't been shy about calling for a drastic refashioning of Medicare.

“Medicare as it exists today is finished," Mulvaney said at a townhall in 2011. As OMB director, Mulvaney would have major sway within a Trump administration, and would play a key role in determining the administration's position on mandatory programs like Medicare and Social Security, which Mulvaney once called a “Ponzi scheme.” The post requires confirmation by the Senate.

“The OMB director is one of the three most senior economic advisers to the President. In that role as an advisor to the president, he or she has a huge influence on all policy matters,” said Ken Baer, a former associate director at OMB in the Obama administration. “OMB director also has a huge influence over Medicare policy. Next to the [Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services] administrator, who actually administers the program, and along with [Health and Humans Services] Secretary, OMB director is equally important.”

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