AnimusRex
Posts: 2165
Joined: 5/13/2006
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quote:
ORIGINAL: willbeurdaddy
Bullshit. Here is the GOP platform from 2008:
Medicare and Medicaid
Revive Medicare by rewarding quality care, promoting competition, eliminating waste, fraud, and abuse, and giving patients and providers control over treatment options. Give Medicaid recipients more health care options: "We envision a new Medicaid partnership with the states, improving public health through flexibility and innovation."
That was then, this is now:
On Social Security Ryan would reduce initial benefits for retirees by changing the benefit formula. Private accounts would be established immediately for those under age 55 that would be partially funded by payroll taxes.
Ryan would also raise the age to qualify for Medicare from 65 to 69 years and 6 months for people born in the year 2022. After the year 2021, the Medicare program as we know it would cease to exist. Instead of receiving health benefits through Medicare, those over age 65 would instead receive government vouchers worth $5,900. These vouchers would be adjusted for age and health status, which would put the average voucher at $11,000. Medicare beneficiaries would buy private health insurance with the vouchers.
These amounts are considerably less than estimated Medicare spending per enrollee in 2022, so there is a sharp cut in spending right off the bat. Furthermore, these amounts would only be indexed to half the historical rate of price inflation for medical care. This means that the real, inflation-adjusted voucher amount would fall continuously. To cover the shortfall, Medicare beneficiaries would either have to pay out of their own pockets for medical care or buy private insurance over and above what could be purchased with the Medicare vouchers.
Workers would also likely see a sharp reduction in their health benefits as well because Ryan would abolish the tax exclusion for health insurance. In other words, workers would have to treat whatever their employer pays for health insurance as if it were cash income. Workers would instead receive a new tax credit not to exceed $5,700 per family. It is not clear whether the credit amount would be indexed to inflation. This provision would constitute a significant tax increase for many workers.
In short, the core of Ryan's proposal is to implement George W. Bush's plan to privatize Social Security, which got virtually no public support even when the stock market was booming, and essentially abolish Medicare altogether while raising taxes on the health benefits of most workers. He basically assumes that the market for health insurance would somehow adjust to prevent a significant cut in the quality of health care.
Now to be sure- Paul Ryan is only one Republican, but THE ONLY ONE WHO HAS A SERIOUS BUDGET PROPOSAL- all the others are filled with the bland platitudes and empty posturing of the party platform you quoted.
So it is completely fair and accurate to say that the only Republican ideas about Medicare and Social Security are to cut them.
Yay Granny! Clip those cat food coupons now!
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RE: Good news, in time for the midterms - 
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