Back when Medicare was first rolled out, it cost a measly $3 billion, and it was estimated that it'd reach $10 billion over the next 25 years. In fact, Medicare was costing over $100 billion during that stretch, and now requires over $700 billion in federal funds, taking up a quarter of the entire national budget.
Regarless of what Orszag actually thinks Obamacare will end up costing, the new commission is established to cut existing benefits, particularly Medicare, and redistribute these funds to the commission's preferred beneficiaries. This won't be noticed by seniors, according to Orszag, due to what he giggly refers to as "the political economy of delayed implementation," which sounds a lot like boiling a frog.
To get an idea of what might happen, one could turn to Robert Reich's 2007 lecture at Berkeley in which he gave a speech like the one, he said, a liberal presidential candidate would give if he weren't a liar. He promised young people that they'd pay more and old people that they'd die sooner -- to the applause of the undergrads in the audience. (Hat tip: Richard Hoste.)
I have a hard time defending the Medicare system... but to be frank, I think "Death Panels" seems like a pretty accurate description of the new Independent Payments Advisory Board.
