House GOP budget to call for big changes to Medicare, Medicaid

[andym]

Source: CNN

House Budget Chairman Paul Ryan, R-Wisconsin, will unveil a highly anticipated 2012 Republican budget next week that proposes dramatic changes to political lightning rods: entitlements.

The plan, to be released Tuesday, calls for a controversial overhaul of Medicare, the health care program for seniors, and imposes deep cuts in Medicaid, which provides health benefits to low-income Americans, according to House Republican sources with knowledge of the proposal.

Starting 10 years from now, in 2021, Americans would no longer enroll in the Medicare program, but instead receive vouchers for private insurance, according to the GOP sources, who stressed anyone 55 or older now would not be affected by the change.

Details of how Ryan's Medicare voucher program would work are still unclear, but the Ryan-Rivlin plan said the amount of the voucher -- a lump sum payment from the government -- would be calculated in part by taking the average federal cost per Medicare enrollee.

Read more: http://www.cnn.com/2011/POLITICS/04/02/house.gop.budget/?hpt=T2

---

Forget Medicare for ALL:
GOP's new plan: Medicare for None!!!!

I wonder how the health insurance industry would like this?

[cstanleytech]

1. They should just commit seppuku

as it will probably be far less painful and faster for them to do that now rather than suffer the wrath of the voters in the 2012 elections.

[sakabatou]

2. Well, political seppuku. Not the actual act

Right?

[cstanleytech]

4. I will leave that up to them :)

[Downwinder]

3. Another Wisconsin Rep. that needs to recalled.

[Akoto]

5. Here in Florida, Medicaid is headed toward becoming an HMO.

The fact motivated me to write my (Republican) representative for the first time in my fairly young life. Receiving Medicaid as part of my disability changed things for my family and I, in many positive ways. Now, when I've only had it for a short while after years of fighting, they want to gut it.

Sadly, the many people who will be affected by the Medicaid change are not alone. Republicans in our state are also taking aim at assistance for the mentally disabled, women's services, and other critical resources. It seems that the most defenseless among us are always the first to foot the bill.

[Hardrada]

6. Obama created the Catfood Commission to give all this credibility.

[No Elephants]

58. And Ryan's proposals make the Catfood Commission seem liberal.

Kabuki, Washington, D.C. style.

"Frick 'em all," sez I.

[highplainsdem]

7. Vouchers equivalent to average federal cost WON'T save the government money,

since it's just taking the same Medicare total expenditure and dividing it differently. And it probably won't be enough to pay for the high-priced insurance typically offered to the elderly. Pay completely, anyway. The insurance companies will probably create some cheaper plans with minimal coverage that people will be able to get using just the vouchers (and those will probably have such high deductibles and copays people won't use them except in emergencies), but I'd bet that plans with good coverage will cost more. So this voucher plan, like school vouchers, will become a subsidy primarily for the rich.

And for the insurance companies.

[JDPriestly]

9. This is a death sentence for most elderly Americans.

Any senior who supports this Republican plan is crazy.

[Downwinder]

8. If "anyone 55 or older now would not be affected by the change." is true,

where are they going to make a savings, off the disabled?

[McCamy Taylor]

10. ROFLMAO. Privates won't take a 50 y/o with diabetes. You think they will take a 65 year old

diabetic with renal failure on dialysis?

[high density]

11. Why is the GOP setting the agenda instead of POTUS?

Obama needs to utilize his bully pulpit a lot more than he is. This stuff shouldn't even be on the radar and should be dismissed immediately.

[inna]

14. it's all part of the plan.

[No Elephants]

59. You're not giving Obama enough credit, After all, who appointed the Cat Food Commission?

Please see Replies 6 and 58.

[Safetykitten]

12. Donna B was just on the Candy show with Saint Bennett and agreed. EVERYTHING on the table.

[inna]

13. evil bastards. why are these sociopaths running the country?

[No Elephants]

60. They're not. They're running only the House. Dems still run the Senate and the veto pen.

[sarcasmo]

15. If Obama rolls over for republicans on this, anyone on a fixed income will be screwed in 2021.

[TomCADem]

16. Didn't You Get The Corporate Media Narrative - If Obama Does Not Agree, A Shutdown Is His Fault!

You can yell all you want, but the corporate media has been running the media narrative that if Democrats do not go alone with GOP demands, then the government shutdown is the Democrats fault, and voters should punish them for that. Heck, ABC News ran a fraudulent story identifying Howard Dean as a Democratic Senator because he suggested that Democrats would benefit from a shutdown. The story ran the propaganda that Democrats are trying to find an excuse to shutdown the government.

So, the fix is in.

Here is the thread on ABC's story about "Senator Howard Dean":

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=439&topic_id=771791&mesg_id=771791

[andym]

17. Apparently they claim to be able to cut 4 trillion dollars

with this plan. Of course, there is no talk of raising taxes on the wealthy, it is the poor and elderly who need to "sacrifice."

[Vinee]

18. MEANWHILE, MILLIONAIRES GOT TO KEEP THEIR TAX CUTS....

and we found enough money to start another war.

[Faygo Kid]

19. Rep. Ryan: Republicans will lead with cuts in 2012 budget

Source: The Hill

House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) said Sunday that Republicans, through Ryan's own soon-to-be-released budget proposal, will lead the country’s discussion on reining in the national debt, an area where President Obama has failed.

"We are going to put out a plan that gets our debt on a downward trajectory" he said.

As The Hill reported last week, Ryan will soon release a 2012 budget proposal that will aim to greatly reduce federal spending by tackling mandatory entitlement spending such as Medicare and Medicaid.

On “Fox News Sunday,” the Wisconsin Republican said the Republicans' plan would reform Medicaid, funding for which will be shifted into block grants for states. Medicare, under Ryan’s plan, will be reformed into a premium support system for those younger than 55 years old, a proposal similar to the Ryan-Rivlin plan. . .

Read more: http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/153471-rep-ryan-says-dems-will-demagogue-gop-budget-plan

---

Cuts designed to ultimately destroy the New Deal. Make no mistake about it: These guys backed by unlimited resources mean to assure that this nation exists for the benefit of a privileged few.

I have never seen such an all-out assault on the people of this nation in my lifetime.

[Iliyah]

20. These people

think they don't need the other branches of government.

[alfredo]

23. They want government run like a business, in other words,

a dictatorship.

[freshwest]

29. Don't forget corporate headchoppers. Guess whose heads.

[alfredo]

30. Historically, they preferred machine guns and snipers.

[freshwest]

32. They still do in some locales. I'm talking death by fiat. (not the car, don't take me there.)

They're killing people by deconstructing all the systems that provided for living conditions for all the people in society.

[alfredo]

35. So you are talking a more passive aggressive approach

to killing people.

[freshwest]

36. More comprehensive, thorough and perfectly legal. After all, they're 'parasites' by their definition

They ridicule, malign with all kinds of moral judgements, point out all the faults of those in need, claim the country as a whole will be destroyed if they are helped -- because they have a vision that means all those different kinds of people are a problem. That they, the 'producers' are the ones that are saving the world.

They leave out of the discussion for the masses, the bombs, the pollution and all of that, the theft of the public treasury, and how their system has created the underclass they now have no use, yet they did use them to create their wealth. Used-- and now they nee to be discarded, like things.

If that's not wishing someone dead, just as they have demanded through privatization and enjoining people from getting the benefit of huge tracts of land, tons of natural resources and promoting war to keep their lifestyle going, even though people they don't see will die as a result. If that's not killing people I don't know what is.

By taking away the social safety net, they know people are dying, and they don't care. Passive aggressiveness, though, is sometimes a term used to describe a method of rebellion or resistance to authority, and not this. Unless, like Ayn Rand, they see the modern state with its social democratic institutions as oppressive.

Oppressive to who? Supermen who should be allowed to do with others as they please, eliminate those they consider inferior, create dead zones on land and in the sea, for some goal that will implode on them? Then they pass the bill for their destructive behavior on to the same ones they are destroying?

They're putting euphemisms on all that they are doing, calling it deficit reduction, efficiencies, etc. They aren't going to reduce the debt or make things more efficient, but they are eliminating a lot of people out of the gene pool that they've shown they don't regard as Americans.

:rant:

[alfredo]

38. They want us to be the Shudras, the unskilled, near slave

that lives pay check to pay check. They want us needy and dependent on what they allow to trickle down on us.

[freshwest]

39. Correct. Designed to make us welcome death as our only release. Spiritual murder.

[alfredo]

40. And that brings more money into the churches that prey on the unfortunate.

[freshwest]

53. Fear and desperation.

[alfredo]

55. Religion is the benefactor if shock and awe.

[freshwest]

56. If not complicit... See...

Ha-Joon Chang's 'Bad Samaritans: The Myth of Free Trade and the Secret History of Capitalism'

http://blog.buzzflash.com/hartmann/023

There is a video of Ha-Joon Chang on youtube on this subject.

[TomCADem]

21. Wait Until We Get A President Chris Christie, Scott Walker, Tim Pawlenty, Etc.

With a corporate media to run interference, the National Labor Relations Act will be repealed, and workers rights will be a distance memory nationwide. Watch them take Wisconsin national!

[spartan61]

22. Not once have I ever seen or heard any repuke

take any responsibility for their part in the deficit. They conveniently forget that the bush tax cuts and the two wars they wanted helped to bring this deficit. They also forget that they also spent the surplus that we had when Clinton left office. I'm not saying that the Democrats are blameless, but both parties have contributed to the deficit. Now the repukes want us, the people, to pay for it and they keep on giving the wealthy and the large corporations a pass. Campaign finance reform would go a long way to stop the exploding deficit.

[alfredo]

25. The Oligarch are above the law, they are untouchable. There

will be no campaign finance reform, there will be no relief for the working class.


Panzercaptialism has replaced our system of government.

The ruling class of Ethiopia was so greedy and repressive, the people found Marxism to be preferable to their form of government. Our ruling class is pushing us to the point where we will have few option but to fight.

Let's hope it doesn't go that far.

[wilt the stilt]

24. Paul Ryan- ultimate elitst His new program -"The no healthcare for seniors program"

I wish o could confront him in front of an audience. First I would ask him if he has ever seen an individual health care insurance policy. Secondly, a lump sum to a senior insures that seniors will get absolutely no health care. First, The seniors would never be able to afford any extra procedures and there is now ay this lump sum could ever keep up with increases. This nitwit doesn't understand that as you get older the policy gets more expensive. He's young and has been on a Cadillac policy forever. What a dick.

[freshwest]

33. You got it. Getting rid of the useless. Psychopaths proudly run the USA without any check.

[titaniumsalute]

26. We need to vote them out next year. Plain and simple

If we thought we had to work hard in 2008...we need to work double hard in 2012.

Love 'em or hate 'em, Obama needs to get re-elected. We MUST keep the Senate. And if we can at least narrow the House that would be great.

We also need to very much focus on state elections with Govs, House and Senates.

[Dave From Canada]

27. Where's the Democrat's plan? Have they proposed any alternatives?

[No Elephants]

61. Obama submitted his budget some time ago.

[msongs]

28. repub purpose is to push the final outcome further right when obama and dems wave the white flag yet

again. it is their M.O. though dems leadership seems not to ever get it

[defendandprotect]

31. See -- the Founders got it wrong -- the MINORITY RULES -- !!!

but only when that minority is the GOP!!

Nor do mandates and landslide elections make any difference for Democratic Party --!!!

It is still always time to bargain away power and kowtow to the right!!

:nuke:

[No Elephants]

63. The Founders did not create Senate rules. They thought majority would

rule the Senate. You can tell bc they made VP a tie breaker. If you need 60 or more on board before you an sneeze, you don't need a tiebreaker.

And the effortless filibuster rule put the nail into the coffin of majority rule.

Both Parties have cooperated to help Senators geot re-elected.

Conventional wisdom among politicians is, "You get thrown out of office for the bills you pass, not for the bills you don't pass."

Filibuster rules make sure the Senators pass fewer bills--and they can always blame the other Party whenever something fails to pass. When something does pass, they can say it was bi-partisan. "Bi-partisan" = no point in voting out either Party. (How many American voters who do not post on politicial message boards bother to count votes--and remember them for up to six years?)

Some of many reasons most Americans do not bother to vote.

Factoid: Census does not track how many in U.S. are eligible to vote. You never really know how many do not bother to vote!

[jmowreader]

34. This is the quickest way to deal with the problem

"The Missile Defense Agency is requesting an $8.416 billion funding level for FY 2011--a 6.6 percent increase from the appropriated FY 2010 level of $7.892 billion.)

The current deficit is over a trillion dollars, thanks to a couple of off-balance-sheet wars, too many tax cuts and too many Republicans being all too willing to Spend The Surplus!

This is the thing: the Republicans are relying on things like eliminating Medicare, eliminating Medicaid and cutting back on all other "discretionary" spending (they're targeting the $430 million public broadcasting budget) to attempt to fix the problem they created. There is no way you are going to fix this problem if you're not willing to cut the defense budget, end the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and raise taxes.

Another thing I've noticed: the Republicans scream all day about the need to cut government workers' pay. Y'know, Republican congressmen are government workers and NOT ONE OF THEM has offered to cut Congress' pay. Not one.

[No Elephants]

65. Wrong spot. Sorry.

[krabigirl]

37. Typical corporate agenda..defund medicare/ss and more funds for the MIC!

[titaniumsalute]

41. Ryan’s Budget Would Cut Medicare, Medicaid and Trim $4 Trillion

Source: Bloomberg

April 4 (Bloomberg) -- House Republicans will propose major changes to the Medicare and Medicaid health-care programs as part of their first budget since the November election, a plan sure to inflame Washington’s battles over the deficit.

Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan plans to release a 2012 proposal tomorrow that he said will call for more than $4 trillion in spending cuts over the next 10 years and begin an overhaul of the tax code.

“This is a serious proposal,” Representative Tom Cole, an Oklahoma Republican on the Budget Committee, said in an interview. “We’re headed towards a big debate.”


Read more: http://www.businessweek.com/news/2011-04-04/ryan-s-budget-would-cut-medicare-medicaid-and-trim-4-trillion.html

---

Umm...ok. There you go everyone!

[doc03]

42. That's great, now they are on the record for wanting to

cut SS, Medicare and Medicaid while cutting taxes for the rich. At least this time Obama didn't surrender first.

[Cleita]

45. Obama solicited me for campaign funds.

I wrote him a "sorry but" reply. No COLA for two years on my Social Security and price raises in rent, gas and food have pretty much left me without discretionary income. Does he realizes how much the ordinary American is hurting, or is he going to be just fine with large contributions from United Health Care, BCBS and BP Oil?

[sinkingfeeling]

43. Yes, he wants to add another $211,000 in tax cuts to the top 1%.

[vi5]

44. This would be laughable to me....

...If I could be sure we had a Senate, President, and whatever remains of the house, who would fight this tooth and nail and shout it from the rooftops and run ads and basically drive this into the ground what they are trying to do.

But instead what we have are groups of people on "our side" who want to play nice, and who will want to split the difference and "compromise" and whatever else.

[doc03]

46. I see they are cutting the programs for people under

55, from what I have seen of the Tea Party it will exempt 98% of them from any cuts. As long as it is someone else's benefits it's OK with them.

[freshwest]

57. The generational war wasn't started by the young, but they may finish it now....

[Cassandra]

47. That's not a trim...

that's a George Armstrong Custer cut.
Or perhaps Anne Boleyn.

[wilt the stilt]

48. This is the no healthcare for seniors bill

A lump sum for seniors to buy there own "healthcare Insurance". This dick has never in his life ever bought his own healthcare. Here is a hint asshole. Every year your premiums go up 15% and your healthcare covers less. Then they cover less and less of the procedures so your out of pocket goes up. Eventually you can't afford anything.

Are you telling me that they government will increase your amount every year by 15%. This dick also collected social security when his dad died. It was ok for you to get it and you saved it for college. That was not the idea of social security. It was supposed to be for you surviving not funding your college education.

Here's guy who has never worked outside of government and has lifetime healthcare and a pension telling us to suck it up. FU dickhead. i would love to confront this asshole.

FYI, he even changes his wikipedia to make it look like he worked in the private sector. he didn't talk about a phony.

[titaniumsalute]

49. I have some serious trouble seeing how they plan on running in 2012

On this platform. Maybe they are delusional that the Tea Party is like 75% of the population or something. All those seniors who may have voted for the Repubes last Fall will look at this and say "Gee I didn't sign up for this."

[emulatorloo]

50. Paul Ryan is as crazy as a bedbug. Somehow they keep his ideas secret

I think by going on and on about terrorism, muslims, gays and abortion.

[no limit]

51. Well I didn't think they would be that stupid. Let's hope Obama doesn't meet them half way

[opihimoimoi]

52. Rands thoughts do not reflect Happy....wants to constrict FLOW$$$

will worsen situation

[sofa king]

54. The real news: the Republicans actually have a budget proposal--60 days late.

I wish all the rest of you could see how innocuous this is and how well it's going to work in our favor. The proposal will go nowhere, our Senators will get to look like heroes, and not a thing will change except possibly for the better when the Republicans are forced to compromise with unrealistic and unresearched numbers on their side.

[Corgigal]

62. I have the inside track on the this issue

I was part of a survey that asked about this. They are floating the idea of 11,000 thousand dollars to be given to you when you take your social security. Of course I answered it was stupid and it will kill people.

So that is what they are trying to give us, 11 thousand dollars.

[Keith Bee]

64. "Medicare for none?" Don't be silly!

The Rs will make sure the Wall Street boys receive it.

[No Elephants]

66. Kabuki, Washington, D.C. style,

Obama appoints the Catfood Commission and submits a budget calling for a $2.3 billion cut in fuel subsidies, even though the price of home heating fuel has risen. (Home heating fuel more of a life and death issue in the north and northeast than anywhere else.) And Ryan's proposals make the Catfood Commission seem liberal.

And, no matter what ultimately passes, both parties will claim the other side was the problem--and their respective followera will fall for it.

Meanwhile, plutonomists will continue to stuff their already overstuffed wallets, on the backs--and corpses--of everyone else.

Sad to see so many still stuck on the Republican vs. Democrat paradigm of FDR's day, and maybe JFK's, when the real issue is 1% of Americans exploiting the other 99%, with the help of lawmakers of both Parties.

Wake up, America. You've already slept far too long. What on earth will it take to wake you up?

Will you wake up only when 1% are the only ones who can afford food and potable water--and dole it out only to the workers who make more money for them?

99% vs. 1%, and 1% has won--with our help.

[savalez]

67. Sounds like Pubs want to "pull the plug on Grandma". n/t

[andym]

68. The American political system is currently set up such that destruction is far easier than creation

To do anything positive, like creating public health care requires the President, the House and 60 votes in the Senate. To shut down government only requires control of one chamber (or potentially the Presidency if a veto can not be overridden).

The threat of utter destruction associated with a shutdown can be used to destroy valuable government social programs, research, regulations etc.

Not a system where it will be easy to do anything progressive.