Do you recall any baggers burning their Medicare cards?

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.khaleejtimes.ae/DisplayArticleNew.asp?xfile=/data/opinion/2011/June/opinion_June118.xml§ion=opinion

Republicans box themselves in

Paul Begala

24 June 2011, 8:35 PM

As the spouse of the vice president of our local middle school’s PTA, I know President Kennedy was right when he said, “To govern is to choose.” My neighbours — prosperous, patriotic, family oriented — would likely nod readily in response to a generic call to cut government spending. But God help anyone who tried to lay off any of our teachers. Sure, my seventh grader could survive in a class of 45 instead of 28; no one ever died from head lice. But here’s the deal: there is no head-lice caucus at the middle-school PTA.

And therein lies the conundrum for Republicans. They are working — earnestly, passionately, some say fanatically — to cut spending at a moment when voters say they oppose nearly all specific spending cuts and care far more intensely about jobs.

In the GOP’s historic 2010 landslide of distant memory, reducing the budget deficit was the top economic priority of their voters by a 20-point margin. Just eight months later, most Americans are in a very different place. A Fox News poll (unlikely to skew left), found voters preferring their leaders to focus on jobs and the economy over the deficit and government spending by more than 2 to 1—a 28-point margin.

Call it the courage of their convictions or drinking their own Kool-Aid, but Republicans seem hell-bent on an agenda most folks just don’t want. The GOP budget plan, sponsored by Rep. Paul Ryan, would, in the words of The Wall Street Journal, “essentially end Medicare.” Not just cut Medicare but essentially end it for future beneficiaries. And why not? Medicare is socialised health insurance for seniors, and we Americans hate socialism, right? In theory, sure. But in practice, umm, well, it’s more complicated. An overwhelming 70 per cent of self-described Tea Party supporters oppose cutting Medicare and Medicaid.

[rurallib]

1. No, but that gives me an interesting thought.

Republicans should call for seniors to voluntarily give up their Medicare.
Those that are true believers need to put down their card and sprint to the loving arms of an individual policy from United Health or Blue Cross.
This may save enough to save the system.

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl: (can't help myself.)

[William769]

2. K&R.

[Mimosa]

3. * LOVE IT * !!!!!!!!!!!!!

I love Begala.

[Anakin Skywalker]

4. Of course not! That's why they are hypocrites!

[snagglepuss]

5. Hold bonfire rallies to give teababbers a chance to burn their cards.

[NNN0LHI]

6. We should all try to organize one in our towns

Signs, have the media present and everything.

And then document no one showing up.

That would be a hoot.

Don

[Zebedeo]

7. Not fairly presented

Addressing this issue honestly, the time to ask conservatives whether they would give up Medicare for themselves is before they start to contribute into the program.

It is unfair to ask this question at a time when they have already contributed into the program for decades based on a government promise that their contributions were buying them subsidized medical care in their retirement years.

[scarletwoman]

8. Fair enough. We'll ask the conservative seniors to bring their grandchildren along

to the Medicare card burning. Heck, the kids should be the ones to throw the cards to the flames.

The grandparents can explain to their grandchildren why Medicare is evil and needs to be destroyed. And the grandchildren, righteously outraged by the knowledge of how their poor, dear grandparents have been enslaved by this horrid socialistic program, will be thrilled to be invited to feed the bonfire.

sw

[Zebedeo]

9. If I had been given the opportunity

to opt out of Medicare and Social Security at the time I first started contributing to these programs, I would have opted out. I would now have a large stockpile of savings with which to fund my own retirement, instead of living in fear that my benefits will be whittled away or snatched from me altogether because of the fickle political winds. The Paul Ryan Medicare plan is just one example of this. I am in my late 40s and would be screwed by the Ryan Plan.

[Major Hogwash]

10. No, they didn't send their Social Security checks back either.

The socialist sonsovbitches!

[EFerrari]

11. Brilliant.