The next Presidential election is about defending medicare, medicaid and unemployment benefits.

[TheBigotBasher]

Republicans saw the 2010 election as a "mandate" to attack medicare.

If they get majorities in 2012 and the Presidency the Koch brothers who fund them will ensure that you can say goodbye to Social Security, minimum wage, public education, unions and women controlling their own body.

How much further are they moving to the right from there? Have you not heard them discuss how the poor do not pay enough in taxes?

[Cleita]

1. Or caving in and "fixing" it. n/t

[pnwmom]

2. Vouchers wouldn't "fix" it, they'd destroy it.

Obama and the Dems will never go along with destroying Medicare, but they do need to institute some reasonable cost controls. For example, doctors are probably doing an excessive number of CT scans and MRI's, and the Federal government shouldn't be banned from negotiating with the drug companies to lower prices.

[Cleita]

4. I've been on Medicare for six years now and I haven't

noticed anything excessive done for me, however, I have heard of abuses in places like Florida and Texas where there are a lot of retirees. It seems it would be easy enough to hire some inspectors to monitor the claims, except that the claims payments have been outsourced to insurance companies like United Health care instead of being done by government hired employees. Even if that happens the Repubs will probably complain that it costs too much to do that, probably because some of their big donors are the ones gaming the Medicare and Medicaid system.

[pnwmom]

12. Some states have much better records than others.

But the issue of drug costs is the same everywhere -- there's no excuse for us having to paying higher costs than Canada, just because our government has prohibited Medicare from negotiating lower costs.

There's also the issue of Medicaid. I knew a woman, in a coma, who was kept alive through tubes for the last 5 years of her life -- till she died at the age of 105. The young grandson in charge of her care couldn't bear to ask for a DNR and the nursing home wasn't offering one. Between 100 and 105 they called 911 on her at least once a year -- she'd be brought back to life by the paramedics and hooked up to her tubes again. It was the saddest thing. And Medicaid paid for all of it.

[TheBigotBasher]

3. Obama = Rethug.

Right, see Paul Ryan.

[TheKentuckian]

5. Yeah! Just like Ben Nelson and John Kerry are the same and Lieberman and Sanders.

Binary much?

[Cleita]

6. Nobody said that, however, he is in campaign mode

and his advisors seem to be advising him to say that there is a problem where there isn't one and not telling him where the real problem is and that is the privatization of parts of Medicare with Medicare advantage and Medicare Part D putting it in the for profit sector of insurance companies and HMOs. Also, why have processing of claims for part A and B been outsourced to insurance companies?

[bornskeptic]

15. Low level administration of Medicare has been contracted out

sin Medicare began, because it is far more cost effective to handle it that way. In order to handle the job with government workers, Medicare would have to hire tens of thousands of new employees, train them, and provide facilities and equipment for them. If Medicare were to go in that direction, it would end up miring many of the same people to do the job who are doing it now, and probably paying them better than they are paid now, after spending a few billion on the transition.

Contracting out administrative work is a big part of how Medicare keeps its administrative costs so low. Another factor is that Medicare claims aren't examined as thoroughly as private insurance company claims. That can't be blamed on the contracting companies. They can't be expected to do more than what they are paid for, and Medicare doesn't pay them for a thorough examination. So administrative costs are held down, but tens of billions are lost to claims for unnecessary and duplicated care, and outright fraud, every year.

[Cleita]

18. Perhaps taking it away from private administration

and giving those same employees better wages and benefits as government employees, under new supervision, would go a long way in eliminating waste and fraud and would seem to me to pay for the transition in the long run and still save. I say this should be studied and the private contractors cut loose. They are, after all, the same for profit companies that have destroyed how we deliver health care. Politicians are calling for sacrifice. I say we ask for sacrifice from the insurance companies and get them out of our health system for good.

[rug]

7. What about ending, instead of expanding, wars?

[Cleita]

8. Shhhh! You are making too much sense!

[TheBigotBasher]

9. What about the difference between getting the unemployed

help to get back to work compared to starving them to death.

[rug]

10. Well, starving the Defense Department is a good start.

[TheBigotBasher]

11. To a great extent

I agree.

[vaberella]

17. Maybe if you keep saying he's promoting all wars it will be true.

Because people have seemed to blot out the start of the troop draw downs from last summer.

[rug]

20. I never said that. I do, however, give him credit from December 1, 2009.

[Chris_Texas]

13. Both parties in Washington fight for the chance to represent the money elite

They do not care about you or your medicare. They don't give a crap about social security or minimum wage. They care about serving their corporate masters -- the guys who own everything worth owning.

Why in the hell would they care about you? They can openly piss in their own voters faces -- as Obama has just done -- and the majority of those supporters will defend it by claiming they were thirsty.

The next election is about deciding which group will get the opportunity to profit most by selling out principles they never believed in in the first place. You think there is some left vs right contest in DC? Nothing could be further from the truth.

[Cleita]

19. You've got it. n/t

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

21. For someone who believes there's no difference...

...you seem pretty worried that people may vote Democratic.

[Mimosa]

14. AMEN, TheBigotBasher. ( I wish it was about ending Mideast wars too. ) n/t

[vaberella]

16. It's about Obama being human. n/t

[BlueIris]

22. Personally, I feel it will be about job creation, energy reform and healthcare.

With far too much emphasis on foreign policy. The economy will dwarf other issues.