The Obama administration
can't do anything about the sequester cuts to cancer treatment for Medicare patients, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services reiterated to Congress. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius had
already told Congress that, but hope—and the desire to pretend unpopular cuts are the president's fault—springs eternal among congressional Republicans.
"We do not believe that we have the authority under the Budget Control Act of 2011 to exempt Medicare payment for Part B drugs," acting CMS administrator Marilyn Tavenner wrote, noting that the budgeting flexibility the Health and Human Services Department retains "is separate from the agency's administration of Medicare payments, which are subject to the sequestration reductions."
Now Congress has to decide. Does it keep this damaging, outrageous cut in place because DEFICIT DEFICIT DEFICIT, or does it once again chip away at the indiscriminate, across-the-board sequester cuts that Republicans thought were such a great idea and should definitely be put in place rather than closing some corporate tax loopholes? Keep having elderly cancer patients turned away from clinics, or implicitly admit that there were problems with this whole plan to begin with? While clearly elderly cancer patients rank above Head Start kids on the Republican priority list, now we're going to see if they're up there with the business travelers Congress swiftly protected from sequester-related travel delays.