America For Purchase

Republicans are at it again, you know, their plan to eliminate Medicare and Social Security and then privatize these programs so the big insurance companies and Wall Street can make more money from America’s senior citizens.

Republican Wisconsin Congressman Paul Ryan wants to eliminate Medicare altogether and replace it with some vouchers seniors can use to buy health insurance with a new Republican sponsored plan (H.R. 4529) called a Roadmap for America’s Future.

Ezra Klein, Matthew Yglesias and TPM all noted, the GOP’s Paul Ryan is making the privatization of Medicare the centerpiece of a new Republican deficit reduction gambit.Ryan’s Republican ‘plan’ would privatize Social Security by placing these funds in the Wall Street stock market perhaps invested with ‘too-big-to-fail banks such as AIG and Citibank.  Perhaps Republicans plan to choose for each American where our money is invested, likely in those Wall Street corporations who give Republicans massive campaign donations.  Americans would be limited in the choices to on where we could invest our personal retirement funds.  In the wake of a Wall Street meltdown that evaporated the retirement savings for countless thousands of Americans, the Republicans are calling for an encore.  Remember Republicans are fighting tooth-and-nail against regulating Wall Street.

Also, this plan would cut taxes for the rich and increase taxes for America’s seniors and for the middle class and Medicare would be allowed to wither on the vine.  This is basically the exact same plan President Bush tried in 2005 but failed to pass.

This Republican plan would “disproportionately benefit the highest-income Americans and reduce revenue by trillions of dollars over the next decade and would pose unfair and greater risks by giving seniors and retirees lower quality medical coverage. The whole reason Medicare was put in place in the first place, rather than just hiking Social Security benefits, is that the individual insurance market does not work and it especially does not work for senior citizens.

The Republican proposal says it provides universal access to affordable health insurance, by shifting the ownership of Medicare health coverage from the government and U.S. employers to individuals.  It provides a refundable tax credit, $2,500 for individuals and $5,000 for families, to purchase coverage, which now costs an American family $14,000 a year, the balance of insurance would be paid ‘out-of-seniors’ pockets!  Talk about “pulling the plug on grandma”!

Insurance companies will continue to “cherry pick” among the healthiest seniors and deny coverage to everyone else. This Republican plan limits seniors choices of insurance providers to a pre-determined list, seniors will not be free to choose.

Ezra Klein parses “I wouldn’t balance the budget in anything like the way Ryan proposes. His solution works by making care less affordable for seniors. I’d prefer to aggressively reform the system itself so the care becomes cheaper, even if that causes significant pain to providers. I also wouldn’t waste money by moving to a private system when the public system is cheaper. But his proposal is among the few I’ve seen that’s willing to propose solutions in proportion to the problem. What Ryan is doing is dangerous because it answers the question of how you solve the problem. Whether or not you like his answer, you have to give him credit for stepping up to the chalkboard.”

Paul Ryan says his current plan “rescues and strengthens Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security, allowing them to fulfill their missions and making them permanently solvent.”  IT DOES NOT!

With the publication of the Republican “shadow” budget by Ryan, the GOP is now proposing exactly what just weeks ago it claimed to decry: rationing Medicare.

This is the Republican vision for running America.  The Party who championed the greatest financial collapse since the Great Depression, who left President Obama with a $1.3 trillion dollar debt, who pillaged taxpayers with record breaking pork spending, who never said NO to one spending bill during the 8 years of the Bush Administration, who approved a multi-billion prescription drug program without paying for it.

Before Medicare was passed in the mid 60’s half of America’s seniors had NO medical insurance, they lived below the poverty line and Republicans want our senior citizens to go back to that failed era.

Republicans want to continue the massive distribution of wealth to reward Wall Street, Big Oil, Big Banks, Health Insurance and Pharmaceutical companies and reduce the wealth of Middle America and our seniors.

This is why Republicans have dishonestly fought health care reform and regulating banks and Wall Street and are courting Wall Street to support their GOP agenda financially.

Every popular government program has a place in American society however, Republicans want to eliminate and destroy all programs. Make no mistake, the vision and goal of the Republican Party and their ‘teabagger’ supporters is to remove all government ‘entitlement’ programs, the programs they call ‘socialism’.

The Republican vision for Americans is about “rationing” and “cuts to Medicare” which have been the twin pillars of Republican fear mongering.  This is not new for the Republican Party:

• 1935: Almost all Republicans in Congress opposed the creation of Social Security.
• 1939: 75% of Republicans in Senate try to kill legislation providing Social Security benefits to dependents and survivors as well as retired workers.
• 1950: 79% of the Republicans in the House and 89% of Senate Republicans voted against disability insurance to defeat it.
• 1956: 86% of Republicans in Senate oppose disability insurance.
• 1961: Ronald Reagan tried to prevent Social Security implementation.
• 1964: George H.W. Bush: Described Medicare in 1964 as “socialized medicine.”
• 1964: Republican Barry Goldwater ““Having given our pensioners their medical care in kind, why not food baskets, why not public housing accommodations, why not vacation resorts, why not a ration of cigarettes for those who smoke and of beer for those who drink.”
• 1965: 93% of Republicans in House and 62 percent in Senate voted to kill Medicare again.
• 1981: President Ronald Regan and Republicans cut $24 billion from Social Security.
• 1981: 99% of Republicans in the House and 98% in the Senate voted for legislation containing $22 billion in Social Security and Medicare cuts.
• 1982: President Ronald Reagan and Senate Republicans proposed $40 billion in benefit cuts over three fiscal years
• 1996: Republican Bob Dole openly bragged that he was one of 12 House members who voted against creating Medicare in 1965. “I was there, fighting the fight, voting against Medicare”.
• 2004: Every Republican voted against the solvency of Social Security and Medicare under President George W Bush.
• 2005-2006: President George W Bush and Republicans tried to privatize Social Security opting to put some funds into the Stock Market
• 2009: 137 House Republicans voted to convert the Medicare program that provides 46 million Americans with health insurance into a system of vouchers
• Sep 2009: In September, Sarah Palin penned a Wall Street Journal op-ed which similarly called for “providing Medicare recipients with vouchers that allow them to purchase their own coverage
• Feb 2010: Republican Michele Bachmann said  “people need to be weaned off Social Security and Medicare and that, essentially, the American social safety net ought to be privatized”

Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL): “The Republican’s plan of giving seniors vouchers that don’t keep pace with medical costs, privatizing Social Security into the stock market, and providing massive tax cuts to the wealthiest 1% are the failed policies that Americans rejected just two years ago.”

Rep. John Larson (D-CT), Chairman of the House Democratic Caucus: “Their plans would put an end to these programs as we know them and deny millions of seniors the stability and security they’ve provided.”

Rep. Kendrick Meek (D-FL): “Their renewed call to privatize Social Security and tie benefits to the ups and downs of the stock market is nothing more than a game of Russian roulette.”

Rep. Xavier Becerra (D-CA), Vice Chair of the House Democratic Caucus: “The Republican budget proposes to end Medicare as we know it…I don’t understand how replacing the nation’s most effective health insurer with inefficient health insurance companies…would ensure that our seniors continue to have access to quality, affordable health care.”

The Republican vision for Americans is about “rationing” and “cuts to Medicare” which have been  the twin pillars of Republican fear mongering.

1. Cut Taxes for Americas Wealthiest individuals and Corporations

2. Remove all existing Regulations

3. Remove ALL Trade barriers for the Multi-national Corporations

4. Destroy all remaining FDR and Democratic Party advances in the past 100 years geared towards the middle class and poor.

Americans and especially senior citizens must remember America is a participatory Democracy. Our democracy depends on concerned citizens voicing their opinions directly to the people whom they elect. I believe part of the reason why public discourse got so skewed in America on health care reform is that the right wing noise machine, those ‘teabaggers’ got unnecessary media coverage. Main Stream Media is not about what is best for Americans; it’s about ratings and profits.

The Democratic Party finally advanced some health care reform proposals aimed at slowing growth in Medicare spending while maintaining quality of care, along with giving Americans options for health insurance providers (free market), but Republicans viciously attacked all health care reform.  I hope Americans are finally ‘connecting the dots’ to see the goal of Republicans is to destroy Medicare and Social Security.

I encourage, I urge all Americans to contact their Congressional leaders and demand this Republican Plan be defeated. If you choose not to get involved, then your opinion might as well not exist.

Do you really want to trust the likes of Sarah Palin, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Glenn Beck, Michael Steele, John Boehner, Paul Ryan, Erica Cantor, Mitch McConnell and the entire Republican Party to do what is right for your family?

Was it not a tea-bagger who shouted “Keep your hands off my Medicare”?

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