Are Happy Days Here Again?

It does affect you and everyone else. (4.00 / 5)

As soon as the GOP is able to kill Medicare for those under 55, they will turn their attention to ending it for those over 55. And if those over 55 don't now support the program for younger people, there is no reason to expect younger people to continue to support benefits for those older.

The GOP strategy is divide and conquer-- the beauty of the Social Security system is that everyone pays and everyone has a benefit. Once you start carving out groups, you are on the road to eliminating it for all.

"But, in the unlikely story that is America, there has never been anything false about hope." Si se puede. Yes we can.  

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by: Paul Twomey @ Tue May 10, 2011 at 18:53:18 PM CDT

Another way it affects 55+. (4.00 / 1)

As fewer and fewer get enrolled in Medicare every year, it's ability to retain docs who will take it diminishes.

Won't it be fun finding health care when there are a couple thousand people left on Medicare scattered all over the country?

birch paper; on Twitter @deanbarker

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by: Dean Barker @ Tue May 10, 2011 at 19:46:20 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

An important point (4.00 / 2)

Under the Ryan plan, traditional Medicare becomes optional for those under 55 today in 2022.

That opens up the possibilities of private plans trying to lure away the healthiest beneficiaries ... and of health care providers abandoning traditional Medicare patients for the higher reimbursement rates of private insurers. For chronically ill seniors who are more likely to remain in fee-for-service Medicare this means two things: higher costs (as the healthier beneficiaries exit the risk pool) and fewer doctors.

"Politics ain't beanbag" - Finley Peter Dunne

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by: William Tucker @ Tue May 10, 2011 at 21:21:03 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

Oops. *Over 55 today* n/t (0.00 / 0)

"Politics ain't beanbag" - Finley Peter Dunne

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by: William Tucker @ Tue May 10, 2011 at 21:22:54 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

Yes, but a stratified society is a good thing. It's natural. If there's no (0.00 / 0)

superior stratum, what incentive is there for individuals to conform to societal mores?  How do you make people good, if there's no reward that has no cost for the elect.  What's needed isn't just a stratified society, but one that's achieved for free. Promising punishment for those who don't go along with the agenda seems tailor-made.

Besides, what doesn't kill you makes you stronger.

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by: hannah @ Wed May 11, 2011 at 14:53:49 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

Well Put! (0.00 / 0)

Thank you, sir.

Sure, I voted for less government and less government spending...just NOT the parts that I benefit from!

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by: Ref @ Wed May 11, 2011 at 19:40:01 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

It's a good idea (4.00 / 1)

to remember that when someone tries to bribe you, they shouldn't be trusted to keep any promises they make to you either.  

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by: Lucy Edwards @ Wed May 11, 2011 at 05:43:43 AM CDT

Get Happy! (0.00 / 0)

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by: TimothyHorrigan @ Wed May 11, 2011 at 06:05:10 AM CDT

CNN poll show Dems ahead in generic (0.00 / 0)

congressional ballot. Women up by 10% and non-college up by 9%, in 2010 Dems lost both.

Poll today showing President with 60% approval.

"Only in the dictionary will you find success before work"

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by: Ray Buckley @ Wed May 11, 2011 at 11:28:13 AM CDT

Gonna state the obvious (0.00 / 0)

The 60% is a soft number brought on by the death of Osama bin Laden.

To paraphrase a line from The American President, "We take this [60%] approval rating out for a spin, we need it to get reelected."

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by: cblodg @ Wed May 11, 2011 at 14:21:04 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

I've been following those TPM polls for months as well (0.00 / 0)

I watched them prior to the run-up to the mid-terms and since. At one point shortly after HCR passed, the Dems were down by 8 points!  Since then, they have crawled ever so slowly back within striking distance. But it has taken the Ryan budget proposal for them to actually creep ahead.

This tells me that the snow job the right did on health care reform was devastatingly effective. And it tells me that the Ryan budget is as devastating to the GOP as the health care bill was to Dems.

There's a lot of lessons in there....

"No problem can be solved from the same level of consciousness that created it." Albert Einstein

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by: susaninrindge @ Wed May 11, 2011 at 11:46:39 AM CDT

let's hope... (4.00 / 2)

That the congressional leadership learns from this and doesn't capitulate on medicare or social security.  .



"When you get to the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on."  Franklin D. Roosevelt    

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by: Kathy Sullivan 2 @ Wed May 11, 2011 at 12:52:27 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

people forget (4.00 / 4)

The road to 2006 began not with Katrina or Iraq fatigue, but with Bush deciding he had a mandate to privatize social security.

Back then we had Pelosi to make things unambiguous -- the Dems would tamper with SoSec over her dead body. It's a little more touch and go with Reid, but here's hoping.  

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by: Mike Caulfield @ Wed May 11, 2011 at 20:49:30 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

1000 times yes. (0.00 / 0)

The road to 2006 began not with Katrina or Iraq fatigue, but with Bush deciding he had a mandate to privatize social security.

birch paper; on Twitter @deanbarker

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by: Dean Barker @ Thu May 12, 2011 at 05:30:15 AM CDT

[ Parent ]

Katrina (0.00 / 0)

was black people, so not that of course.  Iraq fatigue, maybe a bit, although the media tried very hard to keep a lid on reporting from there.  So yeah, I guess they just couldn't hide Social Security.  We better be sure they can't hide what they want to do to Medicare.

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by: Lucy Edwards @ Thu May 12, 2011 at 06:45:58 AM CDT

[ Parent ]