Republican Conservatives Want Senior Citizens to Pay Most for Katrina (Barf!)

Senior Journal ^ | 9/23/05 | Unknown

[qam1]

Summary of Savings in Title I
(Savings from Baseline, in Millions of Dollars)

Savings Recommended	2006	5 Years	10 Years
Delay the Medicare Prescription Drug Bill for One year	-30,800	-30,800	-30,800
Repeal the Highway Earmarks in TEA-LU	-25,000	-25,000	-25,000
Reduce Medicaid Administrative Spending	-600	-4,230	-12,860
Increase Allowable Co-pays in Medicaid	-90	-1,970	-7,730
Block Grant Medicaid Acute Services	-2,300	-44,000	-225,000
Reduce Farm Payment Acreage by 1%	-31	-452	-941
Eliminate Subsidized Loans to Graduate Students	-840	-4,170	-8,555
Base New Federal Retiree Health on Length of Service	-130	-1,560	-6,330
Increase Medicare Part B Premium from 25% to 30%	-4,650	-33,500	-84,770
Restructure Medicare's Cost-Sharing Requirement	-4,750	-34,230	-87,460
Impose a Home Health Co-payment of 10%	-1,470	-11,800	-31,480
Update the Formula Used for Federal Pension	-50	-1,305	-5,170
SUBTOTAL: Tough Options	-70,711	-193,017	-508,986
Program Cuts Impacting Seniors	-44,840	-163,395	-491,600

[Lunatic Fringe]

This Republican Study Committee is B.S. Why even give it any attention??

[goldstategop]

Will Never Happen. Seniors Vote. Those are the last two words politicians understand.

(Denny Crane: "Sometimes you can only look for answers from God and failing that... and Fox News".)

[misterrob]

This is a tough situation to sell to the American people. People have paid into the system and as such are expecting to get something back. It's a bit late to tell someone who worked and paid taxes that they are out of luck. Old people do not have the means to suppliment their incomes but perhaps a means test could be applied. I know that I am angry about the fact that I am not allowed to opt out of SS participation but if you tell me that I can't leave then you had better pony up when I stop working. (We all know that this is a Ponzi scheme but that's another story)

[qam1]

Xer Ping

Ping list for the discussion of the politics and social (and sometimes nostalgic) aspects that directly effects Generation Reagan / Generation-X (Those born from 1965-1981) including all the spending previous generations (i.e. The Baby Boomers) are doing that Gen-X and Y will end up paying for.

Freep mail me to be added or dropped. See my home page for details and previous articles.  

[Wuli]

The problem with too many of our "seniors" entitlements are that they are not based on financial need - annual income.

Why in the hell should a slice of a retail clerk's pay go to help Ted Kennedy get his Viagra on the Medicare drug plan. It not only does not make financial sense, it does not make moral sense.

Medicare should be folded entirely into medicaid, which has a means test, and that means test should be strengthened. It is not a question of if, but when, the cost of Medicare causes a generational-based civil war.

Workers in 2030 are not going to shell out for the expected costs of Medicare for a generation of fat and happy retirees whose pensions and social security are more than what average workers get paid.

Our "seniors" programs are the biggest wealth transfer boondoggle ever, from those who work the hardest to those who need it the least.

[SevenDaysInMay]

Seniors should pay for their own meds or demand that their own families pay. (People might then be nicer to each other.) Why bully us to subsidize their livestyles when they won't reallocate their own budgets to afford their own wants, needs and desires?

If they cannot, or most don't want to pay themselves, seniors can and should demand of their own families instead of relying of the police powers of the State to extort this welfare from the rest of us.

Selfish old people rely on U.S. hired bullies so these seniors won't have to give up any of their "qualities of life". Is Seniors' "Too Proud to ask their own families" attitude worth our government compelling strangers rather than compelling their own families to subsidize life styles?

These Medicare and Medimed taxpayer subsidies should be taxed from their own families, under penalty of law. Tax these Seniors' siblings, children, cousins, grandchildren, greaatgrandchildren, not strangers. What else is family for? I am disgusted by such selfish, too prideful social parasites, money junkies demandinf to live off strangers rather than their own families income and wealth.

Seniors should have saved and invested for their own retirement. God's Waiting Rooms are full of selfish, self-centered crybaby fools, too proud for their own good and ours.

[sten]

In the end, there is no grounds for the government to use tax dollars to rebuild private homes. This would be a misuse of funds that would not stand up constitutionally. Yes, it feels good to help those people... but that type of spending should be avoided at all costs, lest we end up spending similar amounts of money on every disaster coming down the pipe.

In years gone by, it was local leaders and local businesses that helped bring the money in for the locals. Why not do this now? Yes, the fed can spend money on the roads, bridges, and general infrastructure... but that should be it. Everything else should be handled by the people. We are not (yet) in a socialist country where everything is handled by the fed.

[gridlock]

Woo Hoo! Now you're talkin'!

Was I supposed to have some other reaction?!?

[w1andsodidwe]

Well those old people should have repaired the levies years ago before most of us were born. It is not our fault. /sarcasm

Sorry I was trying to reason like a liberal. I just can't do it.

[Mrs. Shawnlaw]

I used to feel bad for the sr. citizen having to pay hundreds of dollars a month for meds. Then when my mom had hip replacement last year I found out just how MANY freebies they get thru medicare. I don't sympathize anymore.

Blunt got rid of a bunch of medicaid benies for the poor and made a bunch of people hopping mad in MO. I think its funny! Bout DAmn Time!!!

[Dont_Tread_On_Me_888]

Any $ to have the Federal govt pay for any social welfare (Katrina) should come from other social welfare programs--Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and 1000s of other social welfare programs.

What is the problem with you people thinking this is a bad idea?

On a side note, there are so many wealthy senior citizens it is incredible. I know. I am a wealth manager and investment advisor. The image of an elderly person all cripled and destitute is a MSM image. The wealth in America is centered in our senior citizens. These gazillionaires receive Social Security checks and Medicare. Take the money from where the money is, and the money is NOT in NASA is NOT in the Defence Department but the money (over $1 TRILLION annually) is in social welfare programs.

Rearrange the chairs on the deck of social welfare programs. No new taxes and no money taken from any program other than social welfare programs.

You so-called conservatives complaining about this approach need to read up on the Federalist Papers and our Constitution and start thinking like a conservative.

[sharkhawk]

Seniors paid for the Prescription drug plan? How? Did they go back and dun their wages back from when they were working?

[robowombat]

The Chamber of Commerce types who pay for it use it to constantly push certain agenda items which can be spelled out as try to make all employment at will and shift all entitlement programs to self pay programs. The idea is if the same solutions are touted endlessly some parts of them may get into legislation some day.

The value of the RSC to the rats is it consistently gives them grist for hysteria mongering campaigns among reliable rat constituencies to send the $'s to the rats to 'save _____ (you fill in the blank).

[Rodney King]

Seniors also happen to be by far the wealthiest group of people in the country. I though liberals liked socking it to the rich?

[ooioo]

"Take the money from where the money is"

- yet you tell US to start thinking like conservatives? Your complaints reek of socialism. Is it really relevant how much money people have when it comes to giving them the benefits they have paid into for so many years ?

[dfwgator]

"I'm old. Gimme. Gimme. Gimme."

[From many - one.]

Delaying the prescription drug thing seems ok to me...seniors never had it, few people like it. won't be missed if its delayed .

[EQAndyBuzz]

Let the AARP pay for them.

[Dont_Tread_On_Me_888]

I said "take the money from where the money is"--that is the $1 TRIILLION in social welfare in the FY 2006 Budget.

Any conservative who would take any money from NASA or the military or ANY program other than a another social welfare program is a Marxist--same goes if they even hint of a tax increase. $1 TRILLION every year is a lot of money to reshuffle.

It just so happens that Social Security and Medicare is part of the Welfare USA. Since these two program are part of social welfare, then YES, they should be sources of money to reshuffle, along with the freebie handouts and the 1000 or so other welfare programs.