Medicare: It's Socialized Medicine and It Works.

The reason Medicare costs are growing is because it covers ONLY the *most expensive*, sickest population: elderly people.  There are no healthier (less costly) enrollees (younger people) to spread out the costs.

Also... Like medicine ACROSS THE BOARD, for everyone, costs have been rising for decades, and they seriously need to be put in check.

But the problem isn't that we're spending too much on Medicare: the problem is that US medical care costs too much. (Other countries get much more out of every medical-dollar--they spend less and  have better health outcomes!).

"Obamacare" made a noble first pass at fixing the obvious problems that slow this too-fast growth of Medicare (which every conservative complains about) over the next decade:

• eliminate overpayments to private insurers, 
• reform provider payments to encourage greater efficiency, 
• tie reimbursements to improvements in economic productivity, 
• and reduce fraud and abuse.
• (from Romney Claims Obama 'Robbed Medicare' 8/13/2012)

These changes are where the "$700billion" comes from.

Very, very cynically, Romney/Ryan are savaging Obama for "robbing Medicare of $700billlion"---but THEIR Medicare plan preserves those very "cuts"/savings!! AND then uses them to pay for their massive tax cuts!

• The Ryan-backed GOP budget maintains these cuts, but rather than using them to improve the Medicare program, it applies the savings to pay for massive tax cuts. As the budget chairman himself admitted during an April 5, 2011 speech at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), “We retain the Medicare savings” — and that’s not all. The Republican blueprint transforms the existing Medicare benefit guarantee into a premium support program that would provide seniors with depreciating vouchers to buy insurance from private plans. (from Romney Claims Obama 'Robbed Medicare' 8/13/2012)
• (Ezra Klein, in the 5th paragraph, gives plan details/citations in the legislation)

This kind of massive whopper of a lie is par for the course with the conservative chatterers and the Romney (Now Romney/Ryan) campaign. But it's a biggie, because Medicare is a major issue for the electorate.  And it turns out that a massive majority of Americans do not like the Ryan and Romney plans to voucherize Medicare. 

And: on top of the savings ("cuts" as Romney/Ryan call it) from Obamacare (which Romney/Ryan keep)--Romney's plan would institute another $2 BILLION IN CUTS (Klein, last paragraph). ??!! They can't have it both ways--complaining about the "cuts"/savings then keeping them AND ADDING TO THEM. 

The truth hurts Romney/Ryan. Which is why they are lying, distorting, obfuscating and muddying to keep the less-informed voter confused.  

They cannot be allowed to get away with it.

Ayn Rand. Sociopath.

Now that we have a real live Ayn Rand worshiper running for vice president of the United States, I'm excising this short Rand reading list from the Teaparty entry elsewhere on this blog, in anticipation of more Rand gems to add in the coming months.

What a sad, broken and destructive woman. Our curse that she has infected our political id so inextricably.

for an a good primer on Rand herself and a great listen--play the AUDIO ONLY youtube clip--it's just audio, press play and browse in another window while you listen.

The woman, her life/story and philosophy

• I, me, mine: the unholy trinity to ayn rand « Tomfoolery - (1/23/2011) http://bit.ly/PddnGb
• Slate Book Review: "The Perverse Allure of a Damaged Woman"(Nov 2009
• " thrilling psychological portraits of a horribly damaged woman who deserves the one thing she spent her life raging against: compassion."
• Stranded in New Mexico - AYN RAND: SOCIOPATH, ATHEIST, PHILOSOPHER OF SELFISHNESS (7/1/2012)  http://bit.ly/MRC9t8
• Ayn Rand was fascinated w/ a gruesome serial killer (AlterNet, 1/2011)

Ryanomics = Romneyomics

5 Things Paul Ryan Actually Believes:

1. Really believes in ending Medicare as we know it
2. Really believes in ending Medicaid as we know it
3. Really pushed for privatizing Social Security
4. Really would decimate government funding to the point of failure to perform routine operations
5. Really wants to enact the biggest transfer of wealth in modern US history--from the middle-class and poor to the rich

Read more about these 5 items at the link

David Axis-of-Evil Frum (W's speechwriter) maps Ryan's Plan out for us:

• He's wrong to believe that today's economic problems are caused by fears of tomorrow's debts. Ryan's plan implies a promise that we can create jobs in 2013 by restraining Medicare costs after 2023. That's ideology talking, not economics.
• He's wrong to say that the US faces an imminent debt crisis. Today's big deficits are the consequence, not the cause, of the weak economy.
• He's wrong to treat the Medicare cost problem in isolation from other aspects of the healthcare cost problem. You can't force healthcare costs down generally by dealing with Medicare alone. And if you do deal with Medicare alone, you risk stranding seniors with inadequate resources as healthcare inflation continues to rage.
• He's wrong to bet the house on premium support without any certainty that it will work. We 
• should test whether this idea will deliver as promised. (Calling Jim Manzi, author of the new book about the need for public-policy testing, Uncontrolled!)
• Above all: Paul Ryan is wrong, wrong, wrong to imagine that a society can deal with rising social-insurance costs while entirely exempting Republican-voting age cohorts and without asking for anything from its richest people—in fact while simultaneously delivering those people a huge tax cut.
• Read more: David Frum - What's Right and Wrong in the Ryan Plan - The Daily Beast (8/11/2012) http://bit.ly/Sa3DfV

Top 10 Ways Ryan Budget Hurts the Middle Class

1. It caters to the 1 percent. 
2. It ends Medicare as we know it. 
3. It eliminates the health care safety net. 
4. It increases unemployment. 
5. It threatens our economic competitiveness. 
6. It showers money on Big Oil. 
7. It devastates Social Security. 
8. It shortchanges K–12 education. 
9. It shortchanges higher education. 
10. It ignores the wishes of the American people.

Read more at: Center for American Progress: Top 10 Ways the Ryan Budget Hurts the Middle Class - (3/21/2012)



12 Things You Should Know About Vice Presidential Candidate Paul Ryan
(8/11/2012) http://bit.ly/R06n4x

1. Ryan embraces the extreme philosophy of Ayn Rand. 
2. Ryan wants to raises taxes on the middle class, cut them for millionaires. 
3. Ryan wants to end Medicare, replace it with a voucher system. 
4. Ryan thinks Social Security is a “ponzi scheme.”
5. Ryan’s budget would result in 4.1 million lost jobs in 2 years. 
6. Ryan wants to eliminate Pell Grants for more more than 1 million students.
7. Ryan supports $40 billion in subsides for big oil. 
8. Ryan has ownership stakes in companies that benefit from oil subsidies .
9. Ryan claimed Romneycare has led to “rationing and benefit cuts.”
10. Ryan believes that Romneycare is “not that dissimilar to Obamacare.” 
11. Ryan accused generals of lying about their support for Obama’s military budget. 
12. Ryan co-sponsored a “personhood” amendment, an extreme anti-abortion measure.