Will Obama pay the price for cutting Medicare?

(By Byron York, Washington Examiner) - In the health care debate, Barack Obama is getting away with the rhetorical equivalent of murder.

To pay for the bulk of his proposed remake of the health care system, the president has a two-part plan. Half the money would come from tax increases, and the other half from reduced spending on Medicare.

Obama proposes to come up with improvements in the vast Medicare system that will allow him to extend health care coverage to millions of currently uncovered people, make no cuts in existing Medicare benefits, and save money in the process. "We will find the money through savings and efficiencies within the health care system," Obama said at his July 23 news conference.

Unlike a number of experts, many of the president's Democratic colleagues apparently believe that. And in doing so, they are singing a far, far different tune from the last time Medicare was the subject of an all-out political battle.