Category: Medicare

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Barack Obama Domestic Policies House of Representatives Medicare Paul Ryan Republican United States Wisconsin

Call Paul Ryan And Ask Him, “What Were You Thinking!?”

Paul Ryan, the unfortunate scapegoat for the congressional Republicans, is getting it from all sides. Even some of his fellow Republicans in the House of Representatives who voted for his budget, are now turning their backs on Ryan’s plan. But why would they do that? He’s such a nice looking young man!

Well, at least that’s what the voice on the commercial below says, “Paul Ryan looks like a nice young man.” The voice then continues on, talking about some of the facts of The Ryan Plan, like ending medicare and giving even more money to the rich. And at the end of the ad, the elderly sounding voice advise all to call the congressman and ask him, “What were you thinking?”

 

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Barack Obama Domestic Policies Medicare Paul Ryan Republican Tax Tax cut United States voters

Paul Ryan Can’t Explain His Trickle Down Economics To The Voters

Republican Paul Ryan is able to go on television and proclaim the myth that taking money from seniors and giving it to billionaires in the form of a Tax cut is the way to get America back on the economic track. On television, with the media bought and paid for by some of these same billionaires, Ryan is never questioned about exactly how is this concept supposed to work. But at home, the people of his state knows better.

In a town hall meeting, with the very same voters that put Mr. Ryan into office, questions were asked about his budget plan for which Ryan had no favorable answers. Among other things, Ryan’s plan would give seniors an $8000.00 check to be put towards purchasing their own health care from the private market.

See for yourself!

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Barack Obama Medicare Paul Ryan Politics Republican The Budget United States weekly address

President Obama Slams Ryan’s Budget… Again!

After President Obama presented his speech on reducing the federal debt, Republicans went on a crying spree, accusing the President of not playing fair, and “making a partisan speech.” All of a sudden, the very same Republicans who have stood in the way of every single piece of legislation the Obama administration has put forth, are now questioning why, as they see it, President Obama is not working with them and agreeing on the Paul Ryan budget.

So to make sure Republicans heard him the first time around, President Obama used his weekly address to put emphasis on his original points – that all, including the rich, must contribute their share to America’s future, and that Paul Ryan’s plan is not worth the paper it is written on.

The President:

Now, one plan put forward by some Republicans in the House of Representatives aims to reduce our deficit by $4 trillion over the next ten years. But while I think their goal is worthy, I believe their vision is wrong for America. It’s a vision that says, at a time when other nations are hustling to out-compete us for the jobs and businesses of tomorrow, we have to make drastic cuts in education, infrastructure, and clean energy – the very investments we need to win that competition and get those jobs.

It’s a vision that says that in order to reduce the deficit, we have to end Medicare as we know it, and make cuts to Medicaid that would leave millions of seniors, poor children, and Americans with disabilities without the care they need.

But even as this plan proposes these drastic cuts, it would also give $1 trillion in tax breaks to the wealthiest 2% of Americans–an extra $200,000 for every millionaire and billionaire in the country.

I don’t think that’s right. I don’t think it’s right to ask seniors to pay thousands more for health care, or ask students to postpone college, just so we don’t have to ask those who have prospered so much in this land of opportunity to give back a little more.

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Medicare Politics Republican Rick Scott Ronald Reagan United States

Republican Robin Hoods – Taking From The Poor To Support The Rich

Republicans have long wished for the time when the poor and suffering would move out-of-the-way, and allow the millionaires, billionaires and Corporations to prosper. In their view, poor and middle class Americans are trying to take away all the programs the government has established to benefit the rich. Republicans call these “entitlement programs,” and the sooner they’re able to push and squeeze others off these programs, the sooner the rich can benefit.

No place is this more evident than in Florida, where a new Teaparty candidate,  representing the Republican party,  held a townhall meeting to address his supporters. Mr. Allan West, the House representative for Southeast Florida told the crowd that he would love to abolish the Internal Revenue Service and federal income tax, while retaining tax cuts for billionaires. West also wants to stop the  extension of unemployment benefits to the middle class and refers to the government  providing these benefits to middle class Americans as, “rewarding bad behavior.”

In reference to Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, West thinks that leaving these services in tact will deplete our GDP by 2030 or 2040. His plans would be for the eventual dismantling of these  services that again for the most part assist the poor people and middle class. Spokeswoman for DCCC Jennifer Crider said;

“Everyone agrees we need to cut spending, but Representative Allen West is making the wrong choice by forcing seniors to shoulder the burden and while not asking Big Oil companies making record profits to sacrifice even the smallest amount.”

Social Security is a program that mostly pays for itself. Over the last few years, however, the program has began to show signs that it will eventually fall short of its goals of comfortably providing for its beneficiaries, mainly because more people are entering into retirement and also because the labor force is reduced due to the economic downturn. Republicans, who have been trying to dismantle the program for decades, are now using the economy and the federal deficit as reasons to bring social security to its knees. Some Democrats, like Senate Leader Harry Reid of Nevada, are determined to fight these efforts of the Republicans. In a recent interview, Mr. Reid said;

“I have said clearly and as many times as I can, leave Social Security alone. Social Security does not add a single penny, not a dime, a nickel, a dollar to the budget problems we have. Never has and for the next 30 years it won’t do that.

“So what I’ve said, if you want to look at something to take care of the out years, let’s do it at the right time. It is not in a crisis at this stage. Leave Social Security alone. We have a lot of other places we can look that are in crisis. Social Security is not. I repeat, for the next approximately 30 years people will draw 100% of their benefits.”

Mr. West’s thinking is common amongst Republican party members. Many Republican governors nationwide have begun breaking down the middle class in order to support their rich donors. Recent examples in Wisconsin, Detroit, and Florida are just some of the states where Republican governors are creating laws geared towards removing any form of assistance from the middle class worker, and transferring that assistance to the rich. Rick Scott of Florida recently proposed a bill that will cut school subsidies in his state by $1.3 billion, while at the same time, giving a tax cut of $1.6 billion to millionaires.

It is a transfer of wealth like we haven’t seen in quite a long time, and it started over 30 years ago when Ronald Regan introduced the idea of trickle down economics. The concept embraces the belief that giving to the rich will in turn allow them to provide jobs to the middle class, thus trickling down the wealth. But this idea failed in the Reagan years, causing the president to raise taxes in an effort to fight off a downward turn in the 1980 economy. And although it failed then, trickle down economics was embraced by conservatives over the past 30 years, and contributed heavily to the most recent recession that started in 2007/2008 under the Bush administration. According to reports from The Atlantic;

When Clinton left office in 2000, the Census counted almost 31.6 million Americans living in poverty. When Bush left office in 2008, the number of poor Americans had jumped to 39.8 million (the largest number in absolute terms since 1960.) Under Bush, the number of people in poverty increased by over 8.2 million, or 26.1 per cent. Over two-thirds of that increase occurred before the economic collapse of 2008.

Unfortunately, here we are in 2011, and the trickle-down trend has continued. Republicans are now taking away from schools, education, cutting back on planned parenthood and public radio, in an effort to finance the bank accounts of the rich. Will the American people wake up from their slumber before it’s too late? Will we ever realize that the last 30+ years of trickle down economics did nothing for the middle class, and everything for th über rich? If we continue to go down this path we’ve been on for the past 30 years, why should we expect a different outcome?

America can once again be what the founding fathers intended it to be. The preamble to the constitution says it best;

We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

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Health Care Medicare Medicare Part D Politics Repeal Sarah Palin United States

While Republicans Promise Repeal, More Health Benefits Go into Effect

Just days before its Republican enemies are officially sworn into office in the House of Representatives and Senate — armed with their zeal and desire to repeal it — major parts of the new Health Care law with a total of 21 provisions, will go into effect in 2011.

The areas of the law scheduled to take effect January 1st 2011, are geared towards consumer protection and as its purpose suggests, it should be very popular with the American people once the measures are fully implemented. Some of the measures scheduled to take effect on January 1st are:

  1. Rebates to Consumers if Insurance providers use less than 80% of premiums for clinical services. Providers would be required to use up to 80% of your premium to provide clinical services and quality of care to you. If they use less than this percentage, a rebate check covering the difference must be sent to you.
  2. Pharmaceutical manufacturers must provide a 50% discount on brand-name prescriptions filled in the Medicare Part D coverage. Also, federal subsidies for generic prescriptions kick in on January 1st.
  3. Eliminate cost-sharing for Medicare covered preventative services. Also, waives the Medicare deductible for colorectal cancer screening tests and authorizes Medicare coverage for a personalized prevention plan, including a comprehensive health risk assessment.
  4. Creates the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation to test new payment and delivery system, with the goal of reducing costs while maintaining or improving quality.
  5. Reduces the Medicare Part D premium subsidy for those with incomes above $85,000/individual and $170,000/couple. Also, freezes income requirements for medicare part B premiums at 2010 levels for the next 8 years.
  6. Creates a new Medicaid state option to permit certain Medicaid enrollees to designate a provider as a health home and provides states taking up the option with 90% federal matching payments for two years for health home-related services.
  7. Provides 3-year grants to states to develop programs to provide Medicaid enrollees with incentives to participate in comprehensive health lifestyle programs.
  8. Establishes a national, voluntary insurance program for purchasing community living assistance services and supports (CLASS program).

Republicans, however, are  promising to stop the progress of these reforms by cutting off all necessary funding. They will take over the agenda in the House of Representatives on January 5th, and will introduce more Republicans to occupy more seats in the Senate on that same day.

Polls suggests that Americans have mixed feelings about the new Health Care reform measures, mainly because they were misled by Republicans and a Conservative media. Some Republicans have even won awards for misleading or lying to the American people, like Sarah Palin’s winning Lie Of The Year Award for claiming the Health Reform contains “Death Panels” to “kill your grandma.”

Democrats claimed that they are up for the coming fight, as they try to keep their signature history-making policy alive. The rumble starts January 5th 2011.

Source: The Kaiser Family Foundation

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Medicare Politics

If Rand Paul Had His Way…Video

Rand Paul is arguably one of the most far right, extremist members of the Republican Teaparty in Congress.  A self-described libertarian, Rand Paul has – among other things – expressed his desire to raise the deductible for seniors on Medicare, he wants to privatize social security and in doing so, allow the market to dictate how much of your benefits will produce a profit or if you lose it all.

Paul, like much of the other Republican Teapartiers want to eliminate the Education Department, eliminate Medicare, eliminate the minimum wage, repeal what they call “ObamaCare,” roll back Wall Street reform, put banks between students and their financial loans, eliminate the EPA, veteran’s affairs…these extremists and their views for America go on and on.

And one of the most extreme ideas put forward thus far, is the fight against the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Rand Paul disagrees with the most basic parts of this Act and has criticized this bill on numerous occasions.

More specifically, Rand Paul would like business to discriminate against American citizens, for whatever reason – whether it’s based on race, sex or physical abilities. Rand Paul and his group of right winged nut-jobs think businesses should be allowed to do whatever they want, to whomever they choose.

So what would a Rand Paul World look like? Well, we can go back to the pre- Civil Rights era or we can watch this very accurate portrayal of the World Rand Paul would love to see here in 21st Century America. The clip is from the movie Life, starring Martin Lawrence and Eddie Murphy.

For more on Rand’s belief on Civil Rights, Click here.

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