Posted on 06/09/2011 2:03:56 PM PDT by Sub-Driver
Yeah, it's a shame seeing some folks hitting the populist leftwing tariff and trade war talking points that you normally get from the AFL CIO.
Medicaid expenditures are 2/3 Medicare expenditures. Medicaid is 0% funded by dedicated taxes and premium payments. Medicaid recipients are far less likely to be GOP voters. So what does the GOP go after? Medicare...
I’d like to think my positions are closer to those of Duncan Hunter or even Pat Buchanan.
(bracing for the Buchanan/you know what distractions)
Neither in any way, on the left.
For the GOP, the best time to talk about Medicare is after the election. Talking about food stamps and Medicaid before the election will help win it. Talking about Medicare is a recipe for political oblivion. My personal view is that the most politically palatable option is to raise the age of eligibility. (Ironically, the one really effective way to cut health costs in the country would be to ban health insurance - public or private).
If I could wave a magic wand, the best long-term solution would be to phase out both Medicare and Social Security gradually and as equitably as possible.
What you said.
People get much more in benefits than they paid into the system. Medicare is a wealth redistribution scheme. It is a pay as you go program. Today's workers are paying for your father's benefits.
Analysis illustrates big gap between Medicare taxes and benefits
"Consider an average-wage two-earner couple together earning $89,000 a year. Upon retiring in 2011, they would have paid $114,000 in Medicare payroll taxes during their careers. But they can expect to receive medical services - including prescriptions and hospital care - worth $355,000, or about three times what they put in."
Are you aware, by law, that 75% of the costs of Medicare Parts B and D come from the General Fund? Only 25% of the costs are covered by premiums.
It has never been tried. Way too many are get rich with the fraud and abuse. Cutting out the waste fraud and abuse of Medicare would go a tremendous way to solving the problem.
That ship has sailed. Virtually every House Republican and most Senate Republicans (except the RINO's which should tell you something) voted for the Paul Ryan plan. It's done, they are on record. Now are you going to sit around and help Trump the clown tear the Republicans to pieces and deliver the House back to the Democrats, or are you going to get out and fight and explain to people that entitlement reform is absolutely necessary to avoid total economic bankruptcy, default and collapse?
My father is talking about voting Democrat for the first time since 1960.
Then he is completely ignorant about the issue. Perhaps instead of railing about Ryan's plan, you could educate your father. As he is over 55 there will be NO change to his Medicare. None, nada, zilch. Maybe explain to your father who is thinking of voting Democrat that if Medicare is not reformed it will NOT be there for the next generation. This would be a good place for you to start.
I like Buchanan, he is just completely wrong on the protectionist stuff and his positions were never popular enough to win anything. The world has changed, this ain't the 50's, the world is fully globalized, and these days pretty much every country is capable of manufacturing stuff on a large scale. We're increasingly a knowledge economy, and were just not going to be in the business of making cheap box store merchandise. We shed those jobs to other countries and they do them till they grow and shed them to the next cheap labor nation that uses them to get a leg up themselves.
Trying to stop this won't solve our problems, slashing taxes and regulation, cutting spending, making our nation more business friendly, curtailing union power, etc, will help create new businesses and bring investment back home. Making America THE place to do business should be our goal, not fighting for a past we can never go back to.
Fine, but elderly voters will not listen to your green eyeshade arguments. Trump may be a flake on many issues, but the recent results in NY have validated his prediction that Ryan’s position will cost elections. Freepers are shooting the messenger.
We are in dire financial straits that threaten the survival of this country. When do national interests start trumping partisan political advantage? And frankly, it is too late to unring a bell. The Ryan budget passed the House. We have crossed the Rubicon.
Every birther who is still supporting Trump should ask himself "What about all those 'investigators' in Hawaii???"
That was all pure Trump bull$hit, just like the bull$hit he has peddled to many a gullible investor over the decades.
See my post #66 and go to the link. Cutting waste, fraud, and abuse will not save Medicare. It is unsustainable.
Spot on, kabar. Trying to fix Medicare by dealing with “fraud and abuse” is like trying to fix a sucking chest wound by spraying its edges with Bactine.
Nonsense, it wouldn't even put a dent in the problem. This is a perpetual campaign slogan used by both Democrats and Republicans (and now Trump apparently) and never amounts to squat. If it were that easy to cut waste, fraud and abuse (or there was that much of it in first place) it would have been done long ago.
Here is an absolute political truism, when you hear a candidate or party run on saving money in ANY program by cutting "waste, fraud and abuse", it is safe to assume they won't be doing anything at all about the problem. That slogan is literally code for "I won't actually do anything about this, but plan to spend the theoretical savings on other programs to buy off voters and get elected".
Elderly voters are not affected by the changes proposed by Ryan. It is idiots like Trump that make them think it will. Trump is just feeding into the Dem Mediscare tactics. If nothing is done to Medicare, then many on Medicare now, including myself, may see the program go into the dumpster in our lifetime. Some folks give it 9 to 12 years. 12% of doctors now don’t take Medicare patients and that number is increasing.
The fact that you hear a lot of this here on FR is enough to make me despair of convincing the electorate at large.
I think this is true, but, its in part due to the failure of the GOP to explain the problem and sell the solution.
I agree with your position here. Making straw brooms and beach flip flops is never coming back unless Americans demand it with their wallets. Trump is all over the place sometimes in his rhetoric. China was dumb enough to base their whole economy on exports and building some elaborate infrastructure of high speed trains. Theywere stupid enough to invest in the country they were ripping off to the tune of trillions. We will default on our debt and they are going down with us. If you really comb the net for the truth their workers are about at revolution stage. Factories are sitting on 2 years of inventory and running out of warehouse space. They import 50% of their food, 75% of their energy and have truely destroyed their environment. All of their cities over 250k have been found hazardous or very harmful to live in according to the WHO, because of the flithy water, dirty air and the mountains of garbage. China is a catastrophe that will make WWII look like a little incident. Maybe 500 million dead by starvation, war and government genocide. China’s whole empire is cr*p, a charade of funny money, corrupt bureaucrats and populace which historically acts about one step above common livestock.
Well, everyone gets fooled sometimes. You realized it and moved on. When it comes to politics, it is a rare person that owns up to an error in judgment and doesn't try to make a bunch of excuses for why they were actually right all along. I salute you!
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