House Republicans approved a budget on Friday that would fundamentally alter Medicare and Medicaid, lower taxes on individuals and corporations and cut $4.4 trillion from the nation’s deficit over the next decade. The Washington Post 4-15-11Ryan's bill will end Medicare as an "open minded entitlement for new retirees", begin raising the age of eligibility from 65 to 67 and create a Medicare exchange from which we can all choose a private policy. Individual states would receive less money from the federal government and have more management control over the programs in their state. This is scary stuff to me. I'm in the "Live Free or Die" state...emphasis on the die part.
Newt came out strongly against it and a firestorm of punditry from the media and alarm from members of the GOP. But frankly, and I never thought I'd say this, he's right.
“I think that that is too big a jump. I think that what you want to have is a system where people voluntarily migrate to better outcomes, better solutions, better options.” The Washington Post Eugene Robinson Op-Ed 5-19-11And the talking heads were all over it this morning. Both "Face the Nation" and "Meet the Press" were on point with the subject.
Even Mitch McConnell, if you believe Huff Post, is not wild about the Ryan bill.
What I want to know is, why don't we just bring home our soldiers from all three fronts and save ourselves, a staggering $1, 198, 130, +++,+++.
4 comments:
I love how the GOP is now tip toeing away from the Ryan plan now.
Politically the reaction to Newt is interesting. Makes me think they don't want a moderate. My take on this medicare idea is that they want to privatize it so these big insurance and healthcare companies can get a bigger piece of the action. There should be better ideas than this. I followed that cost of war link. Iraq and Afghanistan are totaled on that site - so why did you write three fronts? What the third? Libya?
Our entitlement programs -- chiefly Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security -- are on track to bankrupt the nation.
It is a fact that we will have to call the IMF to restructure our national finances unless we sharply reduce the benefits and the growth of beneficiaries of the programs.
Virgil: we need a plan. I just hope it involves a huge military recall and future limited military involvement. Save lives, save money.
Lisle: I think we're gearing up for involvement in Libya. I should have said "two fronts" but there's always some covert operations going on somewhere. Syria is another mess.
no-slappz: You might want to review the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities analysis of the CBO estimates.
http://www.cbpp.org/cms/?fa=view&id=3490
It clearly shows the Bush tax cuts and the wars driving the deficit.
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