Sen. King: Entitlement changes likely, but no benefit cuts

Senator Angus King (I-ME), who is on the conference committee to negotiate budget issues, said that there will likely “be some entitlement changes,” including tax considerations and means testing for Medicare recipients. Sen. King told “New Day” Anchor Kate Bolduan that the conference could resolve differences “in a day if people were willing to put their ideological blinders aside.”

Reflecting on the government gridlock and last night’s ninth hour deal, Sen. King said, “I didn’t like that we had to do it and I also didn’t like that it was so short. It’s really three or four months, as you’ve already reported. I just don’t like this business of trying to govern from crisis to crisis…. Everyone’s feeling good this morning, but it’s like the kid who beat his head against the tree and somebody said why are you doing that, he said because it feels so good when I stop. This has been a brutal couple of weeks and pretty much unnecessary.”

On the upcoming fiscal negotiations, Sen. King said, “I think what [Americans] need to be prepared for is some things that everybody’s not going to like…. In order to ameliorate the sequester, there are likely to be some entitlement changes – not cuts in benefits, but things like, for example, right now on Medicare, the tax stops at $100,000 a year. In other words, you pay zero after that as incomes go up. The disparity on that has crept up over the years…. There may be some means testing for wealthier Medicare recipients.”

“New Day” airs weekday mornings from 6-9 a.m. ET on CNN.

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