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 ...
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.
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