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?
Sure it is. The only way Medicare is taken down entirely, is when the system collapses. Same for SocSec.
Granted, Medicare and SocSec are unconstitutional. No argument there. However, do the American people and more importantly, do voters see it that way? Hell no!
Reagan came into office in 1981 with a plan to privatize SocSec and offer personal retirement accounts to American workers. What happened? Tip O'Neil and the Dems engaged in demagoguery and labeled Reagan's plan, DOA. That is also about the time that the phrase was coined, "third rail of (American) politics", referring to politicians having a death wish when it came to reforming or abolishing SocSec. Instead, Reagan compromised and the Greenspan Commission was formed to reform SocSec and extend the life of the retirement system.
Unless the GOP holds the House, gets the Senate --- minus rinos like Brown, Collins, Snowe, et al --- and a conservative potus, the left will continue to get their way on entitlement issues. Obama and the Dems have set things up so that any reform of Medicare or SocSec will include increases in FICA taxes. Republicans MIGHT be able to swing some honest reform measures into legislation. But I don't see Medicare being abolished any time soon.
Maybe Norman Lloyd was right. I sure hope not.
I’ve got Medicare. I’m 66. I have Medicare Advantage, which AARP would like to GUT, and the idiotic thing is that AARP Health Care is through United HealthCare and SO IS MY Medicare Advantage.
1- The Government is untrustworthy and never took care of SSA Investments as they ‘said’ they would.
2- Congress should have LONG AGO raised the retirement age to coincide with the average age men/women die. Social Security Retirement and Medicare that goes with it was supposed to be like Fire Insurance on your home. You pay for it but never expect to use it and surely hope your home never burns down.
3- Like any Government program, setting it up was the easy part, changing it is like pulling eye-teeth, and discontinuing it is like killing your Mama. It’s going to be impossible to just ‘end’ Medicare.
4- RSDI-Retirement AND Medicare CAN be altered IF Congress has the backbone to make changes ... A-Correct the system as it was intended and protect SSA-Taxes from being stolen for any other use by Congress. B-Raise the Age of SSA-R Eligibility for people born on or after 1 January 1970 to 72 for early retirement and 75 for full retirement with Medicare. C-Raise the Age of SSA-R Eligibility for people born on or after 1 January 2000 to 82 for early retirement and 85 for full retirement with Medicare.
5- FEDERAL EMPLOYEES should be on SSA like everyone else. The money in their retirement system should be placed in the SSA fund and used accordingly. Federal Employees should have the same ‘option’ as SSA taxed employees ... funding their own 401-K or IRA. And Federal Employees, Teachers, etc, should have the same single option as everyone else ... Medicare and a Supplement. Period. Otherwise, we’re not a ‘classless’ society ... Federal Employees [and Union leaders, etc] are NOT the ruling class, even if they seem to think they are.
6- This isn’t going to happen unless and until enough people with GUTS realize that the only way to even the playing field for retirees is to look at the bigger picture.
YES, someone should have already raised the early retirement and Medicare age for me ... but they didn’t ... it must be done, and done soon, or we’re all going to end up with NOTHING for our SSA taxes that the Federal Government takes out of our checks and misuses so freely.
“Are Conservatives Afraid to Takedown Medicare?”
It hurts to say this, but “taking down Medicare” is going to do as much for conservatism as did G.W. Bush’s attempt to “reform” Social Security after the ‘04 elections.
Which party won in 2006?
“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 sufficient.”
It’s the math...we don’t teach it anymore. The math is simple to many of us, but not to the country as a whole. It’s just big numbers and people just cannot handle them.
The reason is people paid into it and the worry is someone will get screwed in that way. So changes in that area must be transitional in nature.
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