Pushback against Ryan: Paul Ryan's budget blueprint would push the aged into poverty

[n2doc]

His proposal to abolish Medicare and gut Medicaid would send tens of millions of people living on fixed incomes over the financial brink.

By Tim Rutten
April 9, 2011


The hall of mirrors in which our bitterly partisan politics now play themselves out is a curious place. But even by its distorted standards, the reaction to House Budget Committee Chairman Paul D. Ryan's budget blueprint has been odd, particularly the general reluctance to call it what it plainly is: an attempt to abolish Medicare and gut Medicaid, while further lowering the taxes paid by corporations and wealthy individuals.

Economists already are picking over the plan's dubious statistics, but — as The Times reported Friday — the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office has outlined what adoption of this proposal to supplant Medicare with vouchers and private insurance exchanges would mean. The overall cost of healthcare would go up, and retirees' out-of-pocket medical expenses would double — an increase that would push tens of millions of people living on fixed incomes over the financial brink.

The Wall Street Journal tellingly — and correctly — hailed Ryan's proposal for being "as important an advance as the shift from defined-benefit pensions to 401(k)s."

We all know how well that's worked out, but it does fix this plan firmly in the line of initiatives that, over the past 30 years, have dramatically increased social and economic inequality.

more (good article, especially the reminder of how the elderly used to have to live in abject poverty)

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-rutten-ryan-budget-20110409,0,6649080.column

[snappyturtle]

1. This pretty much tells all:

"The Wall Street Journal tellingly — and correctly — hailed Ryan's proposal for being "as important an advance as the shift from defined-benefit pensions to 401(k)s."

:puke:

[avaistheone1]

3. Which screwed

most workers, I believe.

[Scuba]

2. Ryan doesn't care. He's a sociopath. n/t

[n2doc]

4. I know that, but it is critical to have voices pushing back

against the "serious, Heroic" meme being pushed by the punditocracy. We are going to need all the help we can get to keep the rich and their followers from implementing this.

[divine_truine]

5. SIT & SPIN RYAN! when you get to the elbow GET THE HELL OFF!

IT'S NOT ABOUT THE BUDGET AND YOU KNOW IT! YOU POS! you conservative repuke teabaggers are not in the majority nor are you able to gauge the true pulse of the people! OR YOU WOULDN'T BE TRYING TO PULL THIS STUNT GOING AFTER SENIORS AND THE VULNERABLE AMERICANS WHO ARE NEEDING SERVICES.

THE ONLY THING YOU GUYS HAVE IN YOUR ARSENAL ARE LIES AND ELECTION/VOTER FRAUD! REPUKE-TEABAGGERS OVERREACHED AND NOW IT'S TIME TO PAY THE PIPER!

republican-teabaggers: go to hell!

[tsuki]

6. "But his hair is so Reaganesque, and he works out every day.

He is so dreamy," flutters the Beltway Botox Brigade.

[zbdent]

7. Ryan's blueprint is fatally flawed ...

with the requirement that, for it to actually work, unemployment has to be below 3 percent at its end ...

and, with 3 percent unemployment (near full employment), how would the Republicans be able to have all that fun watching U.S. citizens fight over the (employment) crumbs offered by all the businesses which would never have to pay a penny in taxes ever again?

[n2doc]

8. They don't care, or expect that to happen

They just want more tex cuts for the rich, and rationing for the rest of us. They get that first. When the unemployment rate stays high, as will the deficits, they will just say "we need to cut more!"