Why not defund Medicare Part D instead? [View all]

[Recursion]

I'm straw polling my conservative friends on this via Facebook, and this seems to have a little traction.

When all is said and done with this fiasco, conservatives are going to need a scalp. If they don't get one, they'll make one up. Nothing is wrong with just having them make one up, of course, but then there's Medicare Part D.

To liberals, it's a giant giveaway to drug companies that uses government money but refuses to use government purchasing power to use that money sensibly. To conservatives, it's an embarrassing reminder of how they got duped by Rove and company into expanding rather than decreasing entitlement spending.

Like the ACA it's a Federal intervention into healthcare. Unlike the ACA, it increases the deficit over the next decade. Repealing it would be one of those rare things that lets both parties shore up their outside flank a little bit, and scores well with CBO.