Posted on 05/25/2011 8:29:25 PM PDT by sickoflibs
That is certainly true and has been sorely missing in Republicans for a long time.
However this Ryan plan needs work, and is not as easy to defend as Rush makes out especially given entitlement reform is a politically toxic issue. The 55 year old threshold gimmick was not very well thought out, but Rush uses it to defend the plan. And Republicans were defending meducare from cuts last year, that does NOT HELP sell this plan.
Democrats and Republicans have swapped political roles since just last year, one side proposes and votes, the other sits back and attacks. One side has it easy, the other gets ambushed.
Up to 99.8% right. But they won’t. They are the GOP. They are not Conservatives.
Was curious what Rush had to say. What his advice was.
At least one could say "I believe he got most of the principles correct, but I would change x, y z".
None of them.
Chickensh!t.
Hugh Hewitt also went ballistic today, asking Where are the Republicans on the talk shows? Why are they hiding?
I agree that is the right approach. I suspect that is what most will be saying.
Medicare is always very dangerous territory. If it was me in the House I would have proposed a plan with a consumer choice between the privatized Ryan plans and a scaled back traditional medicare option for EVERYONE, not protecting special voters.
For one thing you cant protect all those over 55 with everyone else footing the bill later getting thrown off the ship. How is a future 67 year old going to get private insurance when those a few years older are part of a massive medicare pool to demand low prices? It looks’s like those under 55 are thrown off the cruise ship into the ocean(after they retire) and told to swim on their own, to protect important voters OVER 55 on the cruise ship. and that is the big defense of the bill.
You also need a public option (traditional medicare and medicaid) for those in nursing homes with no assets many of those that can no longer make decisions. There is no private option for them. Their private option is you-know-what, ‘Soylent Green Going Home’. That is a bigger problem than many know, a huge budget buster. Example : Nursing homes on the east cost ~ 6K per month, = 72K per year. So lets see, the fellow retiring at a salary of 50K lives 15 years in a nursing home and would have to save 1.08 million dollars plus for his retirement with a boom bust economy. There is no way that is happening so this needs to be approached honestly.
Something huge like this would have to be phased in to allow market (and political) forces to work, no way around it. And it would have to be sold to voters over time, carefully attacking laying out the alternatives that Democrats propose, doing nothing but raising taxes.
They never asked me LOL, but I did call up Ryan about a month ago and told his office that they better do a better job selling their plan 'or else'.
After seeing what happened to President Bush when he tried to save SS a few years back and watching how this attempt to save Medicare is playing out, it appears to me that our politicians are too spineless to do what needs to be done to reform any of the bankrupt programs until they totally crash. It is very disheartening but I have yet to see ANY display of backbone by the Republicans to make me believe they are serious about actually cutting the spending anywhere in federal government even a little bit, much less really trying to reform entitlements.
So you are saying that somebody who never paid $1mil in taxes...even if all payments over a 40 year working life earned 8% interest...should have their living expenses paid by the working population and borrowing?
And, it doesn't matter if somebody paid $5mil in taxes over their lifetimes. With medical technology and organized care as good as it is today...with folks living well into their 80s and 90s... we could soon see us paying millions of dollars for every retiree.
Well, we would if that much money existed in the world.
It doesn't.
It's not a matter of compassion or the sanctity of life at that point. We will not have the ability to fund every conceivable medical procedure and assisted care "need" for everyone. We simply do not have the resources even if every resource in the country is dedicated to only that.
What then?
Medical care and assisted living have to be "rationed" in some way, shape form or fashion. It could be a government board...an insurance company...the market...the family.
But they will be rationed.
The current so-called “leaders” have absolutely NO intention of rocking the boat with their Donkey buddies. They are firmly committed to selling the majority of Americans into FedGov slavery with themselves as the owners of the plantation.
Any true Republican who hopes to have a chance in this election cycle, had better demonstrate some REAL leadership — engage the Donkeys, show a spine of steel, and grow cajones. There are only a handful of current Republicans (male and female) who have a remote chance of this.
The current so-called “leaders” have absolutely NO intention of rocking the boat with their Donkey buddies. They are firmly committed to selling the majority of Americans into FedGov slavery with themselves as the owners of the plantation.
Any true Republican who hopes to have a chance in this election cycle, had better demonstrate some REAL leadership — engage the Donkeys, show a spine of steel, and grow cajones. There are only a handful of current Republicans (male and female) who have a remote chance of this.
Rush said as soon as seniors at town hall meetings are told that the reform doesnt affect them personally that they change their minds and support it and for us to get that message out to more seniors that they are protected and should support it.
Rush also said this election and Ryan's plan has NOTHING to do with the 2012 election. He says the Democrats are in a panic terrified of the next election. He said Democrats are on the run. He said "Don't doubt me!".
Reference:.
Get a Grip, Wishy Washy GOP! Dems Pull Off Fraud Win in NY-26(Rush transcript online FR post 25 May 2011 )
1. medicare reform is toxic- especially when the MFM has Granny going over a cliff from a wheelchair pushed by a republican.(attack on elder abuse)
2. Big businesses pay lower taxes while sending jobs overseas while small businesses take the hit on taxes.(anti-trade/anti-corporate/anti-capitalist message, disregards insane tax policy at home).
3. Rich people are always popular as hate-targets, even though they pay the majority of all taxes- go figure.(Class envy, pure Marxism, Rules For Radicals 101, etc.)
4. Control spending- say it, even though you know it'll never happen. Reform entitlements? Not hardly. Too good a club to hit your opponent over the head with- not getting done in this or any lifetime. Keep promising Granny the sun, deliver squat and let the "Death Panel" literally stab her in the back and then push her over the cliff.
Dick Morris offered some interesting numbers to Bill O'Reilly tonight: that medicare is peanuts compared to medicaid, unemployment, section 8 housing, and food stamps via their devastating growth in the budget.
Amazingly, the commie bastards have just about defeated America without firing a shot. They appointed judges, elected socialists to write our laws, took over our schools, dominated our entertainment industry, urged us to kill our babies, insisted we leave our borders open to invasion, and worst of all- ignored our charter, our Constitution, by subverting it.
Fortunately, the solution lies in the Declaration of Independence if things go too wrong. Suffering abuses has it's limits. It'll be interesting to see how far the commie left intends to push, if they haven't pushed too far already. Unmoored such as they are, to a document as antiquated and indecipherable as the Constitution, we shall see. We shall see.
It is two late to reply tonight but I like your points.
Here it is from the Man Himself, Paul Ryan,
http://www.breitbart.tv/rep-ryan-gives-the-facts-about-medicare-and-gop-budget-plan/
Thanks I can improve that :)
That link you gave
Rep. Ryan Gives the Facts About Medicare and GOP Budget Plan(Breitbart TV link) just points to a youtube post of that Ryan video :
(Youtube Paul Ryan) The Path to Prosperity (Episode 2): Saving Medicare, Visualized and to another link to this transcript of Ryan on that video:
Washington has not been honest with you about Medicare. Medicare is a critical program which helps seniors achieve health security. But the truth is it’s headed for a painful collapse.
We can save Medicare, but we have to reform it so that it delivers the high quality we expect, at a price we can afford.
Let’s take a look at: what’s going on now; why it’s happening; and how we can save and strengthen this program.
The average American household spends nearly 50 times more on health care today than it spent in 1960. This translates into health care costs of more than $25,000 per US family, every year.
As a result, health care spending has gone from consuming just five percent of our economy to nearly one-fifth of our entire economy today.
While a lot needs fixing in health care, independent experts agree Medicare is a top driver of these unsustainable costs. If we do nothing, Medicare spending will nearly double over the next decade, exhausting its remaining funds.
Here’s why: More than 75 percent of Medicare recipients, which is 35 million people, receive what’s called the fee-for-service insurance plan.
Here’s how it works: A Medicare patient goes to the doctor and receives health care services. The doctor sends the bill for these services to Medicare, and Medicare reimburses the doctor — with your tax dollars and borrowed money — no questions asked.
This system increases costs and decreases quality for two reasons:
First, as you can see, the patient is very disconnected from the cost. We all pay for Medicare, through taxes or, if you’re a Medicare patient, through premiums. But the true cost is hidden from the Medicare patient because someone else pays the actual bill. When we pay directly for something, and we know how much it costs, we have a strong incentive to demand the best value. In health care, we don’t.
The second reason costs are going up and quality is going down is that fee-for-service Medicare insurance has no competition — so it reimburses all doctors and hospitals the same, even if the quality of the care they provide is poor, and the cost of their care is high. Meaning that there is little financial incentive for doctors and hospitals to deliver the best care at the lowest price.
Many experts agree that this leads to rising costs but the disagreement is over what to do about it.
The President’s plan is to let a panel of 15 unelected, unaccountable bureaucrats decide how much, or how little, Medicare will pay doctors and which services Medicare will, or will not, pay doctors to provide for their patients.
These are price controls, and we’ve tried them before. They encourage more consumption, and they force doctors to charge their non-Medicare patients more. That pushes costs up, not down.
If we keep going down this path, many doctors will stop seeing Medicare patients altogether restricting access to health care for seniors, and leading to waiting lists and denied care.
How We Can Save Medicare
There is another, better approach. The House-passed budget – The Path to Prosperity – saves Medicare for current seniors and strengthens it for future generations.
Those in or near retirement should not be forced to reorganize their lives because of government’s mistakes. That’s why our budget ensures no changes for those 55 years old or older. But for current taxpayers and future generations, we need real reform.
Rather than putting the government in charge, our plan provides financial support to help future Medicare patients pay for the insurance plan that works best for them and their families.
Patients will have the freedom to choose from a list of guaranteed coverage options – the same kind of system members of Congress enjoy today.
And insurance providers, competing for patients’ business, will look to lower the costs and increase quality for their services – the way it always works when the consumer is in charge.
Our plan also ensures lower-income seniors and those with greater health care risks will receive greater support, while wealthy seniors receive less.
The urgent need to reform Medicare and the President’s misguided approach have left us with a serious question to ask: Who should be making health-care decisions for you and your family?
A government monopoly and a panel of bureaucrats in Washington DC?
Or you?
Who sentence month?
OK—I got the message on the first three pings to this thread; thanks.
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