Herman Cain is certain to face tough questioning about his personal behavior in tonight鈥檚 CNBC debate among the Republican presidential hopefuls. But one of the candidate鈥檚 recent policy proposals might merit more attention from the debate鈥檚 moderators:聽 Just how does Cain propose to fix Medicare鈥檚 finances?
During his , Cain made a reference to Medicare that indicated that he either doesn鈥檛 know that Medicare, the program for the elderly and disabled, is run and financed solely by the federal government — or that he thinks it shouldn鈥檛 be. Medicaid, the safety net program for the poor, is the program jointly financed by the states and the federal government.
Judge for yourself by viewing the video above. 聽A transcript follows:
The way that I am going to help all of us convince the American public that we鈥檝e got to restructure Medicare and not just change the benefits and retirement age is to paint a real clear picture of the disaster path that we鈥檙e on. That鈥檚 #1.
Secondly, back to one of my guiding principles, talk to the states, talk to the doctors and find out what can we do first to reduce the Medicare bureaucracy that鈥檚 imposed on doctors and health care providers and hospitals. I believe, based upon listening to doctors, that there鈥檚 a lot that can be done.
Much of the over-regulatory burden that鈥檚 imposed by Medicare is driven by the fact that the bureaucrats don鈥檛 trust states and hospitals. I do. I would rather error on the side of trusting the states and maybe five of them won鈥檛 get it right, but that the other 45 are going to get it right and we all will benefit.
The question here is: Does Cain propose shifting some of the responsibility for Medicare to the states? That would be a bold reform. When Texas Gov. Rick Perry made a similar proposal about a state role in managing Social Security, it led to a firestorm of criticism, but Cain鈥檚 ideas about Medicare have generated nary a ripple.
Alternatively, does this businessman running for president not realize that states don鈥檛 have the same shared role in Medicare as they do in Medicaid?
Cain鈥檚 opponents who have served as governors — Perry, Mitt Romney and John Huntsman, who have had to deal with Medicaid budgets 鈥 aren鈥檛 likely to forget which program is which. Maybe they will ask Cain about it in tonight鈥檚 debate.
Emails to the Cain campaign were not returned.
