The Federal Budget

I'm actually rather encouraged by the developments of the last few days. It sounds as though we're going to have a Republican budget out of the House budget committee and probably passed on the floor. I'm not going to like it, but at least, we will have that side represented. And then with any luck, we will get a Democratic budget out of the Senate and a compromise between the two. We've got to get back to the regular budget process. We've abandoned that with super committees and all kinds of other things that haven't worked. So I'm hopeful.

The steps that I think are most promising are really about changing payment methods to reward providers for better health outcomes.

In watching Congress for more than 40 years I've never seen such a total mess. We really are entering the worst of all worlds. The result is awful. The process is a disgrace. The Democratic and Republican leaders are talking at each other, not with each other. And we have a president who doesn't want to lead on fiscal matters. I don't see how this ends well.