Dems seek to stop Medicare "trigger" cuts

In the latest effort to roll back the automatic cuts triggered by the failure of the supercommittee, Democratic Rep. Ed Towns of New York this week introduced a bill to keep payments to Medicare providers in tact.

Since the so-called congressional supercommittee failed to agree to $1.2 trillion in budget savings before Thanksgiving, across-the-board cuts -- with half hitting defense spending and half hitting non-defense spending -- are slated to go into effect in 2013. Almost immediately following the supercommittee's failure, some lawmakers started talking about reversing the "trigger cuts" -- but most of the discussion so far has focused on the $600 billion in defense cuts.

Now, however, some Democrats are re-thinking the scheduled 2 percent cut to Medicare providers (amounting to $123 billion in cuts to the government health program).

"Cuts like these will severely harm patient access to care and undermine an employment base that supports over 700,000 jobs in New York State," Towns said in a statement. "We simply cannot balance the nation's budget on the backs of seniors, while simultaneously harming jobs."

Towns' office confirmed to CBS News Political Hotsheet that his bill to exempt Medicare from the sequester cuts has six Democratic cosponsors in the House.

In his statement, Towns argued that Medicare can't afford to be hit with anymore cuts, since President Obama's health care overhaul already cut billions from the program.

"Hospitals in New York are already slated to experience $15 billion in Medicare and Medicaid cuts under the Affordable Care Act over the next ten years," he said. "If sequestration occurs, hospitals will lose another $2.6 billion - or over $116 million in my district alone."

By pointing to the cuts to Medicare in Mr. Obama's health care law, Towns highlights the problem Democrats may have as they try to blame Republicans for supporting cuts to the popular program.

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, the campaign arm of House Democrats, on Wednesday launched a campaign targeting 30 vulnerable House Republicans, blaming the GOP for the supercommittee's failure and the subsequent Medicare cuts.

The campaign includes robocalls in those Republican districts, which tell voters, "the super committee failed because Republicans insisted on extending the Bush tax breaks for millionaires and refusing to include a jobs proposal - while ending the Medicare guarantee! That's something that Democrats stand strongly against."