Congress told "Hands off our Medicare!"
By: Cahir O'Doherty | Published Sunday, June 19, 2011, 9:06 AM | Updated Friday, September 9, 2011, 10:15 PM
Paul Ryan's gone and done it, the sleeping giant has awakened. Ryan's far-reaching reforms reached too far.
Just as the majority of Americans have finally grasped that tax cuts that benefit the superrich never benefit anyone else, it seems like America's seniors have figured out the GOP's plan to fundamentally restructure Medicare and cut social safety nets like food stamps and Medicaid will most likely leave them exposed and out of pocket.
The GOP plan passed by the House this month intends to gut deficits by a total of $6.2 million over the next ten years. One deficit reducing shell games will be to "transform" Medicare in a voucher-like system where private insurers and not the government pays the medical bills.
But it seems like the shadow of Joe Sixpack is back to call halt to this.
Most people understand the GOP really want to phase out the costly program, not save it. So why not tax the rich to help reduce the deficit instead, they ask - aren't billionaires like Bill Gates, Warren Buffet and Mark Zuckerberg telling the government they would be "cool" with paying their share?
Americans can take diverging views over the nations social programs, but when it comes to their own health things come into focus fast: that's why Rep. Daniel Webster got a Bronx cheer from his own constituents in Florida yesterday.
His town hall meeting in Orlando echoed to a constant stream of cat calls and boos from the crowd of about 300.
"Let the Bush tax cuts expire," shouted one participant. Another added: "He says Medicare is unsustainable. That's because medical costs are out of control. Why isn't he attacking it at that level?"
Vouchers are all very well, but the thing is they get used up quickly and then what? What are your options then? Who gets saddled with that burden? Your kids and your grandkids?
By picking pure ideology over people the GOP have painted themselves into this corner themselves. Let's see if they have the stomach to stay put.
12 Comments
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Switch to the desktop site to post a comment.Pittsburghkid | Apr 28, 2011, 09:59 PM EDT
Obamacare took 500 billion out of Medicare, and gave it to drug addicts on Medicade. I guess the idiot with the sign was unaware of that.
peterpiper | Apr 28, 2011, 06:25 PM EDT
NO NO NO NO and again No
Searlit | Apr 28, 2011, 10:49 AM EDT
The US is in debt to Social Security. Does everybody realize that? 42% of the National Debt is owed to SS. The government has been using these funds, created by our tax dollars. The GOP want to privatize Medicare so the pharmaceutical and insurance industries can create another bubble. I, for one, say No! The Speculator(gambler)insanity needs to stop!
bunkerhill | Apr 28, 2011, 10:32 AM EDT
Many Americans are signing a request for a new Constitutional amendment which will impose term limits for pols, along with putting them on Medicare and Social Security like the rest of us. No life time pensions and special health care would be extended to them. It irks me to hear pols calling social security an entitlement. The Social Security money was out of our pay checks from the day we went to work and we could have used it over the years. We probably could have invested and made more money then we are getting. The number of Congressmen and Senators in Washington DC is 545 and they are controlling three hundred million Americans whom they are supposed to represent. Instead they seem to think they are the new royalty. I feel especially sorry for the Americans in their forties and fifties. They have paid in for many years and now may be left on their own. Another thing, if there is no Social Security, where are people going to invest their money? People are just beginning to realize bank failures are engineered on a regular basis, and the stockmarket is gambling with your money. Our beautiful country is in a terrible dilemma, but we have come through worse.
seamusmoore | Apr 28, 2011, 08:36 AM EDT
Medicare needs to be MEANS tested period. When it is created in 1965, those over 65 were the poorest segment of the population, they are now the wealthiest. Just look at the appreciation in home prices since the early 1980's. As for Hollabackgurl Cahir, he would like to see America as bankrupt as the country he was forced to flee as an economic refugee. To quote the most American of rockers, Tom Petty, "You don't have to live like a refugee" (at least in America.
eiriamach | Apr 28, 2011, 07:25 AM EDT
I also think mayoman summed up the situation well. The Democrats, however, still need to find solutions to out-of-control costs of medical care. The GOP is not interested in that dimension of the problem--they'd let the medical equipment manufacturers, the MDs, and the hospital owners and administrators take their millions from, ultimately, the public treasury via Medicare and Medicaid. Controlling costs is still the key to sustaining Medicare and Medicaid. We should never have allowed private entrepreneurs to use these programs to soak the government. I remember seeing an MD in Ireland back in '06. He charged 30 Euro for a thorough exam--and wouldn't take the money from me because I was a volunteer worker! The average MD in America has five times the income of Irish doctors and ten times the average income of other professionals. That's the out-of-control problem we have to solve. I think it's called greed.
hancock | Apr 27, 2011, 09:16 PM EDT
Who will pay for this socialist utopia?
jamthecat | Apr 27, 2011, 09:02 PM EDT
Big surprise. Yeah. Who could have seen THAT coming...aside from the dirty-rotten-hippies on the left who've been warning about it for years? But nobody pays attention to us, anyway; we're just the "professional left" out to make life hard for the poor little right-wing -nuts and sad little richer-than-s**t scum who own them.
kerryboy | Apr 27, 2011, 08:25 PM EDT
Not the medical so much as the insurance & pharmas. Medical people really do want to care for people as best they can.Very few people (except some physicians & drug reps) get wealthy in the medical field. Well said, Mayoman, indeed. Do people not realize that Medicare is not free for the participants? They pay a premium, too, albeit not as huge as insurance premiums would be. But, they have worked all their lives, & don't have the ability,health,or opportunity to continue working a job with benefits (if there is such a thing any more).They have paid without complaint many years, and can no longer work. And, those who do have some means, pay more for "gap" coverage. So, health care in the golden years is still not cheap, just less expensive, based on (theoretically) having paid in all those years & no longer in a working mode of life due to age or inability. And, btw, would everyone's Medicare deductions be reduced under this farce of a plan? I doubt it!!
olovely | Apr 27, 2011, 03:45 PM EDT
The medical and pharmaceutical industries are two of the most evil exploitative things ever unleashed on mankind and they're the ones the GOP think we should entrust our healthcare to? Get real.
Searlit | Apr 27, 2011, 12:06 PM EDT
Well said, mayoman!
mayoman | Apr 27, 2011, 11:34 AM EDT
Under the pretext of lowering the budget and the national debt, Paul Ryan and his associates are trying to destroy Medicare, and turn the profits over to their buddies in Big Insurance. Why not, at least, suggest a word about taxing the wealthy, or ending Corporate Welfare to the likes of Exxon/Mobile? Why did G.E. pay no taxes last year? Or The Bank of America, for that matter? Why not cut the huge and wasteful Defense Budget, which is the largest in world history bar none, and which is annually larger than the combined defense expenditures of the next ten countries? Why screw the people who have worked all their lives, and have contributed into the Medicare Fund? Ryan is insane. And his insanity will not fly.