Posted on 05/13/2012 8:26:49 AM PDT by Kaslin
America's senior citizens deserve to enjoy their golden years in security rather than be faced with the uncertainty of having their beloved Medicare benefits yanked away thanks to provisions within the Democratic Party's darling, Obamacare.
Mathematicians Congressional Democrats are not. Democrats failed to inform seniors nearly half of Obamacare's cost would be funded initially by taking more than $500 billion from Medicare. When this information was made public, Democrats promised the cost-shifting would not in any way lead to benefit cuts. In addition, they were told Obamacare would reduce the deficit and were told everyone could keep their doctors. If Democrats genuinely believed what they were saying, they obviously failed to factor into their quirky calculations that pesky little fact that Medicare reimbursement cuts to doctors would send them packing in droves, making it a bit tricky to use the same doctor if he or she no longer treats Medicare patients.
Moreover, another side effect from this pernicious legislation is what seems to be the ultimate destruction of the Medicare Advantage (MA) program as seniors know it today. It is to no surprise that this program elected by millions of seniors has been in Obama's crosshairs for quite some time. After all, MA allows beneficiaries the ability to receive Medicare benefits via private health insurance plans. In Obama's world, MA is a waste of money but spending countless tax dollars on green energy pipedreams is considered smart investing.
Obviously, Democrats failed to consider the timing of these cuts when Obamacare was enacted. Many seniors are in the process of losing their MA plans or will discover they are about to lose them - just before the 2012 election. Most sadly, according to the Heritage Foundation, low-income seniors and minorities will be the hardest hit by these cuts. Once again, Democrats claim to be the party for minorities and the poor, but contradict their claims with stunts like this.
More than 25 percent of Medicare recipients are MA participants. Of those, a large percentage lives in key swing states like Pennsylvania, Florida and Ohio. The Obama administration knew they had to do something to protect the senior citizen vote so they pulled another trick out of their trusty Chicago politics top hat when they conjured up $8.3 billion taxpayer dollars to supplement MA benefits until after the 2012 elections. After the election, all bets are off and seniors will be left to figure it out.
The Weekly Standard suggests this ploy is illegal in that "a president isn't generally thought to possess the power to reallocate American's resources to shore up his political vulnerabilities." The Government Accountability Office (GAO) apparently concurred, recently telling the administration to stop this charade the administration fronts as a "demonstration project."
This Medicare funds siphoning will continue, according to a January 3, 2011 Wall Street Journal article, "Obamacare's Medicare Cuts in the New Year." The article discloses that Obamacare will extract from "Medicare and related federal programs," $638 billion over the next ten years, and an additional $1.6 trillion in the seven years thereafter, "for a total of $2.2 trillion" in cuts.
Democrats will use their best "Mediscare" tactics to deflect the blame to Republicans for the mess they've created. You can read an informative article about this "mess" at the Galen Institute online at: http://www.galen.org/topics/obamacare-a-dozen-more-damaging-disclosures/.
In stark contrast, Republicans have common sense solutions that will leave Medicare benefits intact for today's seniors and those nearing retirement. The plan also gives younger Americans the opportunity for a far superior program to work toward, while allowing today's seniors the ability to rest in the promises America made to them long ago.
If the entitlement programs are not reformed, they will consume the entire federal budget, i.e., all tax revenue. Anyone who thinks we can get out of this mess without great pain doesn't understand the problem. In Greece, they cut their government pensions by 20% for existing retirees and reduced the minimum wage by half. You wouldn't believe what is in their austerity budget. We would be in the streets too with such cuts. The longer we wait, the more draconian the measures will be.
In 1950 we had 16 workers for every retiree; today it is 3.3; and by 2030 it will 2. This is why the entitlement programs are considered to be Ponzi schemes. Most of us retired today have gotten back much more than we put into the system. I have a federal pension. I have received back more than 10 times what I contributed and I just turned 69. I also get SS with a similar payback. This can't continue.
Why don't you read the link I provided to you, "Why SS is a Ponzi scheme" from Forbe's magazine. We are headed down the same road as Europe. We are witnessing the collapse of the welfare state. The Left wants to keep it going a little longer by increasing taxes, but eventually they will run out of other people's money. We can't continue to borrow 42 cents out of every federal dollar spent. We are in deep trouble. The government can't deliver on its promises.
I’m not even drawing social security yet, but I’m already responsible for four more that are paying in besides myself and another four soon to be contributing. lmao
So why is SS paying out more than it is taking in?
Just give me the money back, plus interest, and we will call it even. Otherwise, forgitaboutit.
The people who got in the system before you and me already spent our money.
All of it.
And the money that those a few years younger than us paid in, too.
We aren't getting our money back. Not unless the next President is a magic dwarf who can spin straw into gold.
Sooner that all Americans of all generations accept this fact, the easier the system will be to fix.
kabar, give it up. I AGREE the social security program has to be phased out!!!! I AGREE! Get it? And it ha to be phased out starting soon. But you just can’t yank it. You have to phase it out.
SS is fairly easy to reform. We can make some slight changes to the computation and COLA formulae to make it sustainable. I favor personal accounts that will allow personal wealth accummulation and be less subject to government whim and blackmail. It would be supplemented by a small defined benefit program for survivors and the disabled. We should avoid the Faustian bargain, kick the can down the road solution that Reagan and Tip O'Neill reached in 1983 when SS went into the red.
Medicare is far more difficult to solve and will be more painful. It is also more lethal to the fiscal survival of this nation. There are a number of proposals to turn the cost arc downward. Without getting into the weeds, there is no doubt that medical care will have to be rationed in some way in the future. We have three entities that could act as the main instrument for rationing, i.e., the government, the insurance companies, or the individual. I favor the individual. Only when the customer is given the control over the resources and can link costs to the quality and need for services will the marketplace be allowed to work like it should. Right now, under Medicare, there is no incentive for someone to worry about costs. Someone else pays for most of the costs whether it is the USG or the insurance companies. 9 out of 10 people on Medicare have supplementary insurance.
The longer we wait to resolve these problems, the greater the likelihood that we will "yank" them away.
SHUT UP!
LOL. You are an idiot.
NO, I’m not. you are. You don’t even understand when somebody the freak agrees with your sorry behind.
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