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Medicare As We've Known It Isn't an Option (Yet Trump Panders By Attacking Ryan's Reform)
Wall Street Journal ^ | 04/27/11 | BETSY MCCAUGHEY

Posted on 04/27/2011 11:59:51 AM PDT by MissesBush

The Democratic Party is urging Americans to choose Medicare as we've always known it rather than a new plan by Rep. Paul Ryan (R., Wis.) that would enroll seniors in private health insurance beginning in 2022. This choice is a hoax: Medicare as we've always known it is already gone. It was eviscerated by President Obama's health law. Yet if the president and the Democratic Party successfully bamboozle voters, they may win back independents and registered Democrats who voted for Republicans in 2010. The 2012 election could turn on this falsehood.

The truth is that the Obama health law reduces future funding for Medicare by $575 billion over the next 10 years and spends the money on other programs, including a vast expansion of Medicaid. In 2019, Medicare spending under the Obama health law is projected to be $14,731 per senior, instead of $16,162 if the law had not passed, according to Medicare actuaries (Health Affairs, October 2010).

Such cuts might be justifiable if the savings extended the financial life of Medicare. Mr. Obama and Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius frequently make that false claim. Indeed, even Medicare's mailings to seniors repeat the claim that reducing spending on Medicare will make it more financially secure for future years.

The fact is that Mr. Obama's law raids Medicare. Mr. Ryan's plan, on the other hand, stops the Medicare heist and puts the funds "saved" in this decade toward health care for another generation of retirees.

Beginning in 2022, the Ryan plan offers each new Medicare enrollee a choice of private health plans and a premium paid to the plan they choose. The key is that the premium will be equivalent to what Medicare is projected to spend under the Obama health law: $15,000 a year on average...

(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: medicare; medicarereform; ryanplan
So what do the Trump supporters think of their man going out and undermining the best idea yet the GOP has produced to control deficits and especially the explosion in entitlements? How does Trump propose to deal with Medicare's $50 TRILLION in unfunded liabilities while keeping the program unchanged and unreformed? Does he even have a plan or is this just more of his mindless, Bill O'Reilly-like populism which takes no account of the consequences of his knee jerk positions?
1 posted on 04/27/2011 12:00:01 PM PDT by MissesBush
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To: MissesBush

What else is Ryan known for besides his budget?


2 posted on 04/27/2011 12:18:44 PM PDT by Rudder (The Main Stream Media is Our Enemy---get used to it.)
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To: MissesBush; ding_dong_daddy_from_dumas; stephenjohnbanker; DoughtyOne; calcowgirl; Gilbo_3; ...
RE :”The Democratic Party is urging Americans to choose Medicare as we've always known it rather than a new plan by Rep. Paul Ryan (R., Wis.) that would enroll seniors in private health insurance beginning in 2022. This choice is a hoax: Medicare as we've always known it is already gone. It was eviscerated by President Obama’s health law. Yet if the president and the Democratic Party successfully bamboozle voters, they may win back independents and registered Democrats who voted for Republicans in 2010. The 2012 election could turn on this falsehood. The truth is that the Obama health law reduces future funding for Medicare by $575 billion over the next 10 years and spends the money on other programs, including a vast expansion of Medicaid. In 2019, Medicare spending under the Obama health law is projected to be $14,731 per senior, instead of $16,162 if the law had not passed, according to Medicare actuaries (Health Affairs, October 2010).

I agree. Democrats are making it politically a choice between current medicare and the Ryan plan. Well few would personally select the Ryan plan for themselves compared to today's Medicare benefits (that we pay for now with medicare taxes) if given the choice.

So Republicans need to EFFECTIVELY make the case for what the real choice is :

1) How much does medicare cost (with time)?
2) How much revenue can be collected to pay for it and where?
3) What are the real choices for medicare?
4) What are the real drawbacks/benefits of future medicare vs Ryan plan?
5) What problems will the higher taxes cause?
6) What about higher deficits, what problems will they cause
7) Why will Ryan's plan help me (average voters) personally?

Maybe they need to to have someone write a paper since this plan isnt going anyplace anytime soon. And some decent talking points so their members can defend it on TV and Townhall meetings.

3 posted on 04/27/2011 12:34:12 PM PDT by sickoflibs ("It's not the taxes, the redistribution is the federal spending=tax delayed")
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To: MissesBush
If Trump is not FOR Ryans package "its a tell"..
The man is bluffing.. the next interviewer of Trump should call his BLUFF..

Note: Bill O'Really pick up the courtesy phone in the lobby.. Sean, Glen, Greta... anyone..

4 posted on 04/27/2011 12:39:15 PM PDT by hosepipe (This propaganda has been edited to include some fully orbed hyperbole...)
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To: Rudder

I read your comment as a way of supporting Trump’s pathetic position on the Ryan budget by comparing resumes.

The fact that you know nothing of Ryan other than the budget is more of an indictment of you than of Ryan. First, Ryan is much younger than Trump and was not born with the silver spoon Trump was. Second, what Ryan does is not the fodder of “Celebrity Apprentice” and the like.

And third, Trump joining the Democrats demagoguery of Ryan’s budget is simply beyond defense. It’s this type thing that will sink Trump in the coming weeks. You know, he’s a reach across the aisle liberal. Hate to break it to you, but he’s been doing that much longer than he’s been attacking Obama, his formerly “great President.”

Ryan never called Obama a “great President.” Just sayin....


5 posted on 04/27/2011 12:40:41 PM PDT by C. Edmund Wright (American Thinker Columnist / Rush ghost contributor)
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To: MissesBush

What does this article have to do with Trump?


6 posted on 04/27/2011 12:48:33 PM PDT by Prokopton
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To: Prokopton

Just pointing out that apparently Trump supports the unsustainable status quo on Medicare since he’s attacking Ryan’s plan. That’s not very courageous—or conservative.


7 posted on 04/27/2011 12:59:55 PM PDT by MissesBush
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To: MissesBush
Just pointing out that apparently Trump supports the unsustainable status quo on Medicare

Is that part of the article or am I missing something? I don't see Trump's name even mentioned, let alone his views on Medicare.

8 posted on 04/27/2011 1:44:06 PM PDT by Prokopton
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To: sickoflibs
The non-secret "secret" about the high cost of American health care compared to other nations is the billions upon billions we spend in essentially futile care during the last six months of life. Barack Obama, Don Berwick, and Paul Ryan would all agree with this if their names could be kept off the quote.

If the system is to survive the demographic shifts of the next decades, this practice simply has to stop.

It may be that Paul Ryan prevails, and that the Medicare HMO's who are put in charge will determine that quadruple bypasses for patients who've had two strokes are "clinically ineffective" as compared to some prescriptions and a walker.

It may be that Barack Obama prevails, and that the Medicare advisory panel decides that a hip replacement is not "indicated" for 90 year olds, and that a nice wheelchair is more appropriate.

But make no mistake, these decisions will all be cost motivated. Everyone who works in health care on the financial side has seen this coming for a decade.

The "golden age" of Medicare, when every new technology was covered, and when many weeks in the ICU preceded every death, are over.

Repeat - those days are over.

9 posted on 04/27/2011 1:44:41 PM PDT by Notary Sojac (Populism is the antithesis of conservatism)
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To: C. Edmund Wright
Somewhere you got offtrack. I am interested in determining electability of any given candidate. What I don't know about Ryan is Ryan's doing: If he's going to be a candidate, he has to inform the electorate about himself. So, I thought I'd ask here:

What else is Ryan known for besides his budget?

10 posted on 04/27/2011 2:39:55 PM PDT by Rudder (The Main Stream Media is Our Enemy---get used to it.)
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To: sickoflibs

Common set of defend-able talking points would help.


11 posted on 04/27/2011 2:44:48 PM PDT by Marine_Uncle (Honor must be earned....Duncan Hunter Sr. for POTUS.)
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To: Prokopton

Just an interjection by me is all.


12 posted on 04/27/2011 4:14:41 PM PDT by MissesBush
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To: MissesBush

This WSJ article well shows how the Democrat lie that the GOP Paul Ryan budget hurts seniors and Medicare is bogus.

ObamaCare has already gutted Medicare and swept millions of idle Americans into Medicaid so none of us can expect a working health care system after 2012.

Ryan has a way to keep people now 55 and over in a financially sound Medicare and a fiscally sound start for those now under 55 to have help in buying medical insurance that approximates what they had hoped Medicare would have provided for the future. The Senate Democrats and Omoma have no plan other than a lie to try to stay in power in 2012.


13 posted on 04/27/2011 4:50:25 PM PDT by RicocheT
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To: sickoflibs; AdmSmith; AnonymousConservative; Berosus; bigheadfred; ColdOne; Convert from ECUSA; ...

Thanks sickoflibs.


14 posted on 04/27/2011 5:40:36 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (Thanks Cincinna for this link -- http://www.friendsofitamar.org)
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To: sickoflibs

None of this matters because Congress has already poured all the Medicare and SS money down a rat hole. I am just saying that we should cut all and i mean all pork before we look at other cuts. We got a guy here that has a monoply on communications in 3 counties and keeps getting millions and millions of dollars in grants and stimulas in an area so depressed that most cant afford 80 dollars a month for dsl and other companies cant get in here..the governement is helping him maintain the monoply. The little ghost town near here charges on average $80 per month water and sewer and the water is not fit to drink.they got grant money 3 times to to fix it. we got sidewalks and ramps to nowhere but no streets we can drive on..the list goes on and on..so why not cut the pork first and stop some of the slush funds that keep these jerks in office.


15 posted on 04/27/2011 7:24:53 PM PDT by dalebert
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To: sickoflibs

None of this matters because Congress has already poured all the Medicare and SS money down a rat hole. I am just saying that we should cut all and i mean all pork before we look at other cuts. We got a guy here that has a monoply on communications in 3 counties and keeps getting millions and millions of dollars in grants and stimulas in an area so depressed that most cant afford 80 dollars a month for dsl and other companies cant get in here..the governement is helping him maintain the monoply. The little ghost town near here charges on average $80 per month water and sewer and the water is not fit to drink.they got grant money 3 times to to fix it. we got sidewalks and ramps to nowhere but no streets we can drive on..the list goes on and on..so why not cut the pork first and stop some of the slush funds that keep these jerks in office.


16 posted on 04/27/2011 7:25:16 PM PDT by dalebert
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To: sickoflibs

it would not take a smart person to write the talking points. seems like conservative congress critters are trying hard not to talk plain english.


17 posted on 04/28/2011 8:04:36 AM PDT by dalebert
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To: dalebert; sickoflibs

” it would not take a smart person to write the talking points. seems like conservative congress critters are trying hard not to talk plain english. “

The RNC seems prepared to lose again.

All cowards, no balls.


18 posted on 04/28/2011 12:16:49 PM PDT by stephenjohnbanker
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19 posted on 04/28/2011 12:42:07 PM PDT by TheOldLady
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