Oh, come on now. Scaring the shit out of Americans has been a key feature of the republican play book since Joe McCarthy. I read an interesting book about the 1992 election the posited the theory that HW couldn't articulate a vision because the party was so closely tied to being the foil to communism and in scaring the electorate that the democrats couldn't keep this country safe. GHWB was a political victim of the success that he had a hand in creating. Fast forward to the "mushroom cloud" and all the scare tactics that were used to sell the Iraq war. Peter King and his Islamist hearings. Health care scares? Google "death panels" my friend. The republicans have used ever scare tactic they could find on health care, from costs to quality, right up to government bureaucrats deciding if grandma lives or dies. And now that Ryan is proposing the elimination of medicare -- a single payer system that has provided coverage to millions of elderly Americans -- you accuse democrats of using scare tactics when pointing this fact out? I do not jest and quit calling me Shirley.
Given that Paul Ryan is projecting unemployment to be at 2.1%* in 2020, we should be doing so well as a country that you'll be able to retire by that point and live in any of them like a king for at least a few months. *Which can come about only if we instituted slavery for employees or killed the unemployed. Although, in Paul Ryan's America, the unemployed would be killed due to no health insurance. So maybe that really is his plan.
I've been following the SS debate since 1983. Everytime even a modest change is proposed the left claims the GOP wants to end SS. EVERY.F*CKING.TIME! Now even you do it.
Strange, $1.4 trillion of Ryan's $6.2 in savings come from repealing the Affordable Care Act, yet the CBO has stated that the repeal of the ACA would increase the deficit by $200 billion. And Ryan could only state today that the CBO said that his numbers were correct. Judging by this and the 25% of the cuts which come from non-disclosed discretionary spending programs (that the Economist has mentioned), I would be that at least half of the cuts in Ryan's plan don't exist.
Yeah that's true. Both parties demogogue. LBJ showed a little girl picking daisies until the nuke exploded ... apparently, voting for Goldwater would lead to nuclear annihilation. Who knew?
No. When the GOP wants to end SS and set up private accounts that are at the mercy of the markets, we say that the GOP wants to end SS. I don't recall EVER saying, "THE GOP WANTS TO END SS!" when we talk about raising the cap, means testing or any other plan to extend solvency of the program. But, please feel free to quote me if I do or have done this. In this instance, isn't Ryan talking about an end to medicare? Shouldn't people be concerned with a proposal that will toss us all off of a single payer system into a system that has already denied many of us coverage for pre-existing conditions long before we reached medicare age? Given the radical change he is proposing (which is way, way, way more radical then the health reform law) are we not able to question the boy genius on what will happen to us after he repeals the law that requires coverage for pre-existing conditions and then throws us back into the private insurance waters when we are old? EDIT -- to simply add that I'm not giving the democrats a pass on the idea that they will scare people for political gain. Both sides do, but I think it is clear that the republicans have the upper hand in this. I was only speaking for myself above.
Bullshit. It cuts them off. There is no free market health care in America. We have artificially inflated costs for Health Care thanks to Insurance Companies, and NO ONE knows the real cost how much it costs to deliver care in America. Their choice is to die or sacrifice their retirement.
I wasn’t talking about your views on SS reform per se, but your knee jerk reaction to Ryan’s Medicare reform. Would it surprise you to learn it was actually a bi-partisan solution? Oh, and had we gone with a SS reform plan that weaned us from the insidious PAYGO system back in 1983 we’d all be in high cotton right now. But Dems could never allow that. BTW Shirley, I want a book report on your KC trip.
Ryan's plan saves the feds money by cutting health care for the lower and middle income elderly. That's the deal. OK, it's not today's elderly, because they will revolt. It's the next gen's elderly, who presumably are too placid and noninvolved to realize how screwed they will be unless they are upper-income.
You are right, there is no free market in our health care system. That is why we are so boned. Still looking forward to your proposals.
Just so people know what is actually being discussed by Ryan. These numbers are from table S-4 in the Appendix of the Ryan Proposal; estimates are the total of cuts from 2011 to 2022, compared to President Obama's budget: $0 cut from security $0 cut from global war on terror $923 billion cut from non-security $735 billion cut from Medicaid $389 billion cut from Medicare $1.403 trillion cut from repealing "President's Health Care Law" $1.810 trillion cut from other mandatory spending $965 billion cut from interest payments on national debt $11 billion added to Social Security Add this together and that's where Ryan's $6.2 trillion number comes up. The 2 largest numbers in that group look fishy to say the least.
A) Cut the Waste & Fraud B) Temporarily Raise taxes on everyone for the next 20 years to cover the Baby Boomers C) Let Health Care Reform do it's job by enacting any number of experiments designed to reduce costs and set up the Health Care Exchanges, all of which will combine to start lowering costs of Health Care Delivery over the next 20 - 30 years Your welcome
Nationalizing health care would be ideal, but alas not politically feasible. So we'll have to find a weaker option that will sell.
You are aware that the Ryan proposal has similarities to ObamaCare’s medical exchanges, aren’t you? Apparently not. And who isn't against cutting waste and fraud. And who believes that will save a system being swamped by demographics. Do you really believe your well thought out proposals deserve a thank you?
There's a huge (or Yooooge if you're a Trump fan) difference. The Obama plan deals with the public at large, where the risk pool is greatly different. When you're talking about seniors, the dynamics of the risk pool change dramatically e.g. if I'm an insurer, I may be willing to cover a millions 25-40 year old people since a relatively small number of them are likely to require high costs in treating, for example, cataracts*. I'm less willing to cover a million people 65+ because cataracts are much more prevalent in that age group, and I'm much more likely to incur increased care costs. Add a high-risk profile with no protections (and the Ryan plan eliminates those protections) and healthcare costs for the consumer (read: the elderly) are likely to skyrocket. * I chose cataracts for no reason other than I imagine older folk are more likely to have this problem.
You're going with Medical Exchanges? Really? That's it? And yes, my plan would work, it's also the simplest solution. No politician has the guts for it though. Not even Obama. Especially not Republicans because they'd have to answer to their corporate and rich over lords. Either stop whining or raise taxes. Don't cut people's entitlements. Or if you are, stop being a p*ssy and just say you plan to cut people off entitlements, and not lie and say you're trying to protect the program.
Any proposed health care scheme for old people that doesn't include a Soylent Green option is weak sauce.
Pvck soylent green...imagine the possibilities of using our football and baseball stadiums for logan's run style laser light shows [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xSnLU9nyFSA"]YouTube - Logan's Run[/ame]
Interest rates are the reason for high oil prices. Its been addressed in another thread - when I posted a paper from a Harvard prof the subject went silent. No rebuttal, none. Interest rats are the same reason that gold is soaring. Unless you believe that people will invest in gold when the economy is recovering as you suggest.... And commodities aren't traded in other currencies. They are traded in dollars. How is the USD vs currencies world wide. That's where your argument should start.
Right. So, I assume Ryan is cutting a whole bunch of spending from the military budget, right? After all, it's the spending.