Posted on 05/29/2011 11:45:47 AM PDT by Conservative Coulter Fan
Take a look around sometime and maybe you'll notice that despite all the talk about Obamacare or socialized medicine, you never hear conservatives or libertarians go after Medicare. Is it really constitutional? Is this good socialized medicine? Why can't anyone articulate a plan to get out of Medicare?
People like David Frum are already acting like even the most modest reform via Ryan's proposal is akin to Barry Goldwater's presidential campaign suggesting political slaughter. Democrats have found a rallying call in sea of bad news by latching on to the issue. So is Medicare really a third rail in American politics and are we really going to stand on a platform of small government or fiscal conservatism while at the same time saying nothing about the second largest government program in existence that eats up a huge portion of the federal budget while remaining outside the discretionary spending budget Congress debate yearly?
Basically my questions is are we too afraid to suggest Medicare is a horrible program that exemplifies big government, big spending, waste, fraud, unsustainable debt, deformation of the Constitution, socialized medicine, and America is better off without it? Are too many seniors dependant on the government and are too many Americans banking on it when they become of age? Was Ronald Reagan right in 1961 when he quoted he quoted Norman Thomas saying that Americans would not vote for Socialism, but under Liberalism they would vote for every fragment of it? Didn't even the Gipper disavow his own campaign against Medicare when he became President?
Are we against Medicare or are we for it?
I understand, but people WILL kick and scream.
I’m of the mind that we need to kill the job killing regulatory agencies first. Then we can start chopping away at the entitlements.
I agree with that sentiment completely. So, should conservatives oppose Medicare it on principle or not?
Why can’t the Republicans hire a good public relations firm to show them how to get their message out? The Dems are very good at staying on message by appealing to people’s emotions. The Republicans, on the other hand, sometimes sound like they are at a business meeting pointing to their graphs and charts. They come across as cold fish. Republicans have to learn how to sell their message. It is not only about telling the truth but telling it in a way that most people will understand and believe. The Dems are very crafty and underhanded, liars are often more believable than people who speak the truth. It is unfortunate but it is true. The Republicans have to get their act together message-wise.
I wish Ryan had just stayed clear from the issue. He was bound to lose anyway and the dollar must and WILL crash soon. I would have preferred that the Republicans play defensive (relatively speaking) and win back the Senate and White House in 2012
My fear is that the Dems will somehow stay in power when the dollar crash sends us into a depression that will make the 1930s look like a cakewalk. At that point, if the Democrats are in power, they will have a wounded animal (i.e., the United States economy) by the neck and can finally get around to putting the final knife in.
...and their dreams from college will be fulfilled.
How about e-verify for Medicaid, food stamps and other government welfare programs? These measures would get lots of support from the vast majority of Americans; Republican, independent and Democrat alike. Everybody knows that there is a tremendous amount of waste in the welfare programs. Even many illegal aliens are receiving these programs even though they are not supposed to.
If the Republicans started with these issues, they would get a big round of applause from the American people, would save billions for taxpayers’ dollars and would build up a lot of trust from the voters so that that the Republicans would be seen as the responsible and trustworthy party. When you go after Medicare first, you are waving a red flag in front of the bull and just causing a lot of animosity for yourself. Fix the problems of the freeloaders first and then address the entitlements that apply to honest working Americans.
The idea is a fallacy. Medicare is not going away. At some future time, it will be reformed. How far that reform goes and what it looks like is anyones guess at this point. No matter what happens, the Demlibs will continue to demagogue ANY reform proposal Republicans put forward. The left will use class warfare and scare seniors to keep their power base and perpetual idea of bigger government as far as they can push it.
If the GOP takes control of the Senate in 2012, good chance some substantial reform of Medicare will happen. With the right Republican in the WH, serious reform is assured.
Otherwise, its status quo, from here to eternity, or until financial collapse of the system.
You are right. People are addicted to their handouts and freebies. I say lets drive this bus right off the cliff. That will be the only way that reality will dawn on most people. That is as they are kicking and screaming as the bus plunges into the canyon.
I’ve come to the conclusion that the only hope is for this country to collapse and then start it back up from scratch.
I disagree. If the republicans cannot even sell the American public on a modest reform, how are they going to win an election in 2012.
I think it’s to big at this point.
We should have never gone down this road to begin with.
People are begging Ryan to run for president. How exactly did he get burned? Because of some bizarre ace in NY?
It is not a fallacy. Medicare isn’t going to go away because no one will articulate why it should go away. We hear how bad big government is, how bad the spending is, how bad government-run health care is, how unsustainable entitlements are, but want to go after the largest example of the problem because so many million of Americans are too dependent on the government. I disagree with your assessment that Medicare could be reformed with a GOP Senate...we had a GOP Congress pass the largest expansion of Medicare since it began in 1965 with prescription drug coverage. The GOP failed for 8 years to reform Social Security. I see republican senators like Scott Brown and others as major obstacles to meaningful reform of entitlements. How do you reform something that by it’s very nature is fundamentally flawed and goes against everything you stand for from small government to the Constitution of the United States to socialized medicine?
Are you saying Medicare is too big to fail? LOL...just kidding. Well, maybe when that 80+ trillion tab comes due in unfunded liabilities, the program will go away along with a lot of other things.
I’m saying it will have to collapse for there to be change.
You need to ask why is that. Health care + government = a perverted market.
How much would lawn care cost if there were a government landscaping plan with copays? How about getting your driveway plowed under a government snow plan? How much would a new car cost if the government offered transportation plans? And what a ßhitbox you'd be driing!
In order to impose discipline on costs, we need to remove government from direct involvement as much as possible. Ryan's plan is a step in that direction. You get to choose your insurance plan from among a large selection of competitive plans. The government is no longer involved in micromanaging health care delivery. There is no 15-member Obama Death Panel there to control costs by fiat. Instead, we control costs by relying on the market, same as for lawn care, snow removal, and cars!
Because of a self-styled Tea Party ace moron who ran third party and because of the morons who voted for him. People need to realize voting has nothing to do with principle. It's simply a political act to be done to maximize tactical advantage.
“I disagree. If the republicans cannot even sell the American public on a modest reform, how are they going to win an election in 2012.”
Hell, half the older people on THIS SITE have ABSOLUTELY NO PROBLEM with this country crashing and becoming Third World (as long as their precious Social Security and Medicare don’t get touched)...how on Earth can any political party have a prayer at changing these things?
Bottom line...we MUST crash, the welfare state has won. It’s only a question now of who’s in power over the carnage. If it’s the Dems, they will make damn-sure that the United States, as we knew it, NEVER rises again. If it’s the Republicans (or really the right Republican), we will have a chance.
But, for now, it’s simply just a matter of waiting. No one can lead, because the people that count (the old people sucking us dry) simply don’t want to be led. It is over, at least for a while.
Modern allopathic medicine is second-to-none in dealing with acute and critical care interventions but is dreadfully deficient in emphasizing the critical importance of proper nutrition, exercise, and lifestyle choices in managing wellness. This end of the medical spectrum is almost entirely under the patient's control, which is why it is ignored. The sad reality is there is no constituency for true "health care", only for "disease care", so the result is a system designed to create as many "sick" people as possible who can demand ever greater and more costly levels of "care" for their conditions.
......Bottom line...we MUST crash, the welfare state has won. It?s only a question now of who?s in power over the carnage......
I am sort of amazed more people cannot see that......we are already over the brink and nothing will change until vast numbers of people are hit with this stark reality that the state can no longer take care of these that refuse to be self sufficent
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