Posted on 03/01/2007 11:06:13 AM PST by edcoil
Bill Will Add $8 Trillion to Long-Term Medicare Obligations - That Could Already Bankrupt the U.S.
The U.S. government's top accountant says the law that added a prescription drug benefit to Medicare may be the most financially irresponsible legislation passed since the 1960s.
U.S. Comptroller General David Walker says Medicare -- barring vast reform to the program and the nation's healthcare system -- is already on course to possibly bankrupt the treasury and adding the prescription bill just makes the situation worse. Walker appears in a Steve Kroft report to be broadcast on 60 MINUTES Sunday, March 4 (7:00-8:00 PM, ET/PT) on the CBS Television Network.
(Excerpt) Read more at drudgereport.com ...
Ahhhhhh come on! We just need to send them more money!
But the point of the piece is no doubt, that the Democrat Plan which was twice as big, wouldn't have been bad
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Barf.
Hmm. Maybe that should be the republican slogan in 2008: "Vote for the GOP: it'll take us twice as long to bankrupt the government!"
You know, I see that posted all the time. I can assure you that I voted. I can also assure you that it wouldn't be hard for some arab to WALK across our border and do loads of harm if he felt like it. Of course, I am not naive enough to believe that there aren't enough already here that could do that. I mean the state department did an exchange program that brought over about 40,000 arabs for college this year.
Has the cost of the Prescription Drug plan offset any amount that would have been a result of surgery and if so by how much?
LOL!
Hopefully, the message sent to future "republicans" is don't expand an already bloated, failed government and tax money from my children to fund your exclusive club.
Bad posting apologies.
Ronald Reagan said: a government program has the closest thing to eternal life of anything. Once the government has obligations, you cannot go back.
I can't wait to see how much the "fix" is going to cost us.
I can't wait to see what else the boomers vote themselves once they all retire.
X'er ping
I agree completely. This govt. took thousands of dollars from me and from my husband by force of law and I want it back.
Carolyn
Yep. This is why the Dems weren't getting any traction with it when they originally proposed it. Then, they dropped the idea and W co-opted it.
It was a bad idea when the Dems dreamed it up and it didn't get any better when W enacted it.
FWIW, it's still a bad idea and getting worse by the minute.
Now we are being asked to go even FURTHER left for Rudy. We are told to compromise FURTHER for the good of the party.
All I know is that it ain't the Boomers who scream bloody murder when SS reform comes up, and it ain't the Boomers who scream for free drugs from the Government.
Bush's Fault!
....really
Define that "They" for me. Who are "They"?? Be VERY careful how you define it. I'm a boomer and I don't approve of this measure and didn't EVER want it!! And, all of my boomer friends, colleagues, co-workers and relatives feel the same way I do.
You probably have your generations confused since boomers are only JUST STARTING TO REACH RETIREMENT AGE!!!!! This wasn't for us, it was for your grandparents and great-grandparents!!!
See my post #22.
Ah yes, more taxes.
I would say that Rove and Bush's strategy has been and F.
Well "DUH!", it's not like anyone with an IQ over 50 couldn't see this coming well before it passed.
Doesn't matter though, as long as it potentially reels in votes...
The Administration even lied, or made outrageous miscalculations in depicting the predicted costs of such a program. Business put it to the taxpayer and they and the President are working together, again, to lower the cost of doing business on the backs of the taxpayer with the upcoming amnesty.
Regards.
I'm in the software industry and we have not seen any problems with daylight savings. We have 1,000's of customers around the globe and these seems to be little if any affect of simply moving the day ahead.
This seems more like the Y2K doom and gloom then reality.
So are you saying this was a good move by his administration to move the daylight saving dates?
Don't get too hysterical about the drug plan,,. Take a look at the numbers.
Senior citizens pay almost $93.50 a month for medicare.. lets say $1100 a year. For all practical purposes the drug plan is capped. this year at $2450.
The cap is composed of what you and they pay. Say a $20 tier 1 retail drug has a copay of $5. The full $20 is counted toward your cap. A tier 2 drug having a retail price of $35 has a copay of $29. The total of $35 is counted toward your cap.
Typically I pay about $60 a month toward my copays. Another $720 a year.
So When I didn't have medicare, doctor visits were $40, now they are $5. I go quarterly.
on balance I pay out $1100 + $720 + $20 = $1840
I receive $ 80 Dr. + $2450 drugs = $2530, or a positive balance of $690.
The cap last year, when it was $2150, was arrived at in August. The balance of the year was then at 100% my pay. The catastrophoc feature does not kick in until I pay about $4000 of my own dollars. (not a combination of copay and benefits, but my own $)
Think of it as a tax reduction to make up for taxing S.S., or for not privatizing S.S. in the first place.
All in all I don't think giving Seniors a $700 break annually is going to bankrupt the country when one considers the far larger amounts wasted on agribusiness, ethanol, illegal aliens, bloated education, Congressional salaries and retirements, and other bureaucratic waste.
Remember this is money going to the formerly most productive employees of our country.
Why is it my job to buy your aspirin?
"formerly most productive employees" This is not true however, if you were productive, how come you cannot pay your own bills?
That was the original intent. Make the system break. Then the libs would step up and announce that they have a plan to fix it. It would be socialized medicine with high taxes. Their goal is total and complete socialization of the USA.
I wasn't referring to current benefits, which boomers have paid into; I'm wondering what new benefits will be introduced once the massive boomer demographic retires. I want the government to keep its promises, I just don't want it to make any new ones.
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 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.
"The problem is the baby boomers. The 78 million people born between 1946 and 1964 start becoming eligible for Social Security benefits next year. "They'll be eligible for Medicare just three years later and when those boomers start retiring en masse, then that will be a tsunami of spending that could swamp our ship of state if we don't get serious," says Walker."
Dude or Dudette you are preaching to the choir.
They = those reporting this crisis.
They = those who would like to say this is a crisis because the 'boomers' are retiring in masse.
They = those who would like to drag us into a category of those who caused this crisis in the first place when it was some plan of a very famous FDR elite Democrat with his "New Deal" where every worker would contribute to the great of the common good.
They = those who for decades depended on us boomers to work for those who increasingly took advantage of this government program and have been accepting payments for life. Not the ones it originally intended to help.
They DO NOT = ME.
How the hell else could I be paying into SS & Medicare for the last 35 years and NOT be a boomer. Do the math.
No worries.
Believe it or not. most boomers would agree. We don't believe that we will see SS benefits at the same level as our parents and grandparents because, for us to receive them at the level, unfairly burdens later generations.
Hopefully, those of us who are the non-hippy, non-gimme part of the boomer generation won't look for the government to do anything special for us, other than honoring its obligations under the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution (protecting our national sovereignty comes to mind).
Sour Grapes, or as they say in Southern Russia..Tough Sh*tsky you all. lol
You pay for my aspirin, because the politicians you elected say you will. If you don't like it, work a little harder to get it changed.
I think of it as a tax reduction the Democrats don't want me to have. As long as I take the money they can't use it on worse schemes.
See there, rationalization does have a wonderful calming effect.
Thank you for clarifying that for me, poobear. It just came across as another boomer bashing comment and I'm sure that you, like me, are pretty tired of those.
So you're simply a modern day beggar.
So much pride in a past generation, brings a tear to my eye.
So what?
Although I don't need it, since my total tax burden is mid 50%, I'll take it!
(I'll just consider it a behind the scene P&L gain) /sarcasm
cry if you want to.
It's my party.
All the way to the bank with my tremendous ill gotten gains. Might not even get there since it's about equal to a couple of beers a day.
I guess future generations only hope is for you to have a short trip.
Working hard all your life being productive with what seems is the goal of having the government take from future generations as you go on welfare.
enjoy your party.
Aw!
Now you have gone into a snit.
You keep exercising those bad vibes and you may aggravate yourself into never having your chance to recover from the Gubmint teat, what it has and will extort from you, on mine and others behalves.
A little story:
My grandfather owed my father some money. Said he would repay him ibn his will. When he died he left sizable bequests to all his other children except my mother, thereby not repaying my father. It was a thorn in Dad's side for over thirty years. One day tired of my fathers grumbling about it. I pointed out that they had never liked each other, and that for a relatively small amount of money my Gfather had managed to aggravate my father for over thirty years, after his death.
If you think that I or anyone else will pass up, a lousy $700 a year just so you will feel better, you need a better drug plan than I have. However I'll be aggravating you a long time.
being in my 50's I state emphatically that older people for the most part are better off than all other groups...they get more free money from Govt then anyone, and its something like $10 to every senior for $1 to a child....
its got to stop....
I fully believe in indexing SS and Medicare...I fully believe its almost immoral to be making my taxes and my kids taxes and my grandkids taxes( if I had any grandchildren) higher so some senior getting multiple pensions and discounts and freebies can get even more free stuff...
its unconscionable...its insanity...
what gripes me is that so many getting SS and Medicare DID NOTHING to deserve it.....how many elderly never contributed one dime to Ss or Medicare yet are living out their lives sometimes 20 or 30 yrs getting check after check after check....
and we won't even talk about the illegals and even the legal immigrants, some who can't produce a birth certificate but are conveniently 65 yrs old.....
I am in no mood to feel any sympathy for people on the govt dole when they don't need to be....
and the fact that I pay over $600 MONTHLY just to insure two people in my family compared to your NET GAIN really, really FRUSTRATES me...
and maybe you're not aware, but your benefits are driving my premiums thru the roof, but gee, enjoy your net gain.....
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