June 2nd, 2011
01:50 PM ET
12 years ago
Budget, debt standoff on agenda for Obama and Hill Democrats
Washington (CNN) - President Barack Obama is scheduled to meet behind closed doors with congressional Democrats Thursday to discuss ongoing deficit reduction negotiations and the looming deadline to raise the federal government's debt ceiling.
The president has challenged a controversial GOP proposal to overhaul Medicare, but told congressional Republicans on Wednesday that entitlement reforms are under discussion as part of a deficit reduction deal.
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If the president and the Dems choose to not tackle Medicare repair or reform then it will abruptly cease to exist, rather than transition into a workable and sustainable entity. It seems now they'd rather just use it for a tool and ploy to scare seniors into voting for the Democrats in the 2012 elections. This senior knows what is going on, and I'm sure the bulk of Seniors do.
Obama told the House Republicans after Ryan spoke that "entitlements are on the table."
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For any serious discussion of financial recovery they have to be. They are a big part of what does not work going forward. We can do better. The current format of Medicare encourages fraud, which is already a billion dollar industry, and inefficiency is guaranteed since the government just pays the bills directly. Adding a component of consumer choice and competition will drive efficiency higher and fraud lower while at the same time increasing the quality of care. I am less than 55 and see the Ryan Plan as a great way to save the Medicare help for those of us that will use it down the road, and no I am not wealthy.
I don't care what they claim. Revenues are on the table. The American people have spoken.
Let's make something crystal freekin clear: the GOP's plan is not an "overhaul of Medicare." It is functionally a "repeal and replace" of Medicare to arrive at the very result their ideology positted in 1995, as explained then by Newtered, but which reality decided isn't really how things work:
In 1995, Netwered explained the GOP's disgust for Medicare as follows:
"So what we're trying to do, first of all, is say, okay, here is a government monopoly plan. We're designing a free-market plan. Now, they're very different models. You know, we tell Boris Yeltsin, "Get rid of centralized command bureaucracies. Go to the marketplace." Okay, what do you think the Health Care Financing Administration is? It's a centralized command bureaucracy. It's everything we're telling Boris Yeltsin to get rid of. Now, we don't get rid of it in round one because we don't think that that's politically smart and we don't think that's the right way to go through a transition. But we believe it's going to wither on the vine because we think people are voluntarily going to leave it — voluntarily."
-Newt Gingrich, 1995
Guess what? NOBODY WANTS TO VOLUNTARILY LEAVE MEDICARE TO BUY PRIVATE INSURANCE. NOBODY. The ideological brainfartery was an EPIC FAIL. So what does the GOP do? They invent a plan that obliterates Medicare completely and relpaces it with a coupon crapshoot that forces everyone to INVOLUNTARILY LEAVE MEDICARE TO BUY PRIVATE INSURANCE. It's simple. GOP policy: "When our ideology fails to predict how human behavior and society actually operates in the real world, we'll just use our legislation will force everyone to obey our ideology" (i.e., SOCIAL ENGINEERING).
You want to know what Obama and the Dems' solution is? MEDICARE. MEDICARE IS THE FREEKIN SOLUTION. JUST AS IT IS. The problem is not Medicare but the skyrocketing costs of health care services and the profiteering private insurance companies, pharmaceutical giants, device manufacturers, et al. who are causing it...AND THE LEGISLATIVE WH-RES THAT ENABLE THEIR BEHAVIOR. Medicare operates with an approvximately 1.5%-3.0% overhead, depending on the study. Why? Because nobody's premiums are DIVERTED FROM HEALTH CARE SERVICES to pay CEOs and other executives millions of dollars per year TO FIND WAYS NOT TO INSURE "HIGH RISK" PEOPLE (i.e., those who need health care the most in the first place) AND NOT TO DELIVER SERVICES TO THOSE WHO ARE INSURED UNDER THEIR PLANS (i.e., rescinding contracts on the theory that the insured will be dead before the lawsuit is decided). You want tort reform? Kill the tortfeasor private insurers completely and give everyone Medicare. You want cost control and efficiency? Kill the profiteers. Name a private insurance company that operates with an overhead as low as or lower than Medicare. Go ahead...we're waiting.
The Republicans have wedded themselves to this strategy - now it's time to step back and let it drag them down, and hang the blame for it around their necks over the next 18 months, after which it will become self-perpetuating as a source of blame for higher interest rates and a free-falling economy.
2 billon dollars for your re election wont be enough if we dont get jobs , buget cuts , housing going again, stop wasted money and deaths form 2 wars ..social securty running out of money and medicare out of control.... big job , but it must be handled now..not 1 1/2 yrs from now...
The people want the more affluent to pay higher tax rates on their marginal income.
That income is the result of the social, political, educational, and economic conditions that every citizen contributes to. Take that away and you have no "America" in which the smart, industrious and LUCKY top 2% of wage earners could get wealthy.
Every guy that has ever made it REALLY big will tell you that the difference between them and the NEXT guy was LUCK.
By it`s existence American society allows for people to get lucky.
Too many selfish bastards have fooled themselves into thinking they are frigging geniuses when they are not.
Pay an extra 5% on your last $1? -f income and STFU before we take your Mercedes, your wife and your house for our own.
Wanna balance the budget? If "everything" is REALLY on the table, try this: Revamp the pension & health care programs, as well as all the perks (free nation-wide transportation, junkets, etc.) of both Congress AND the Senate! For every year in office, grant them 6 months of health care & pension, instead of giving them life-long benefits as is currently being done. I know of no corporation that gives life-long benefits for a piddly 2 – 4 years of service! Why should we?? It would cut the deficit by hundreds of millions of dollars; and isn't that the point of balancing the budget?