Why the Medicare Dodge and Deflect Won’t Be Enough
Max Richtman, NCPSSM President/CEO
Originally posted on Huffington Post.
There’s a simple question American seniors should ask candidates who claim to want to protect Medicare: “Did you oppose Obamacare because it ‘cuts’ Medicare while also voting for those same Medicare spending cuts in the GOP/Ryan Budget plan? For 277 members of the House, that answer was yes.
Paul Ryan’s selection as Governor Romney’s Vice-Presidential running mate has Republican Party leaders understandably worried that voters will now get a good look at the radical plans for Medicare in the GOP budget and a tally of those candidates who supported it. A memo and campaign how-to video from the National Republican Congressional Committee provides an incredibly clear and cynical look behind their political curtain, as the NRCC gives Republican candidates tips on how to dodge the discussion they really don’t want to have about the votes they’ve already cast on Medicare:
“Do not say: ‘entitlement reform,’ ‘privatization,’ ‘every option is on the table,’ … Do say: ‘strengthen,’ ‘secure,’ ‘save,’ ‘preserve, ‘protect.’” NRCC Medicare Memo
These GOP operatives say they want this Medicare fight. Truth is, they really hope to refight health care reform so they can avoid talking about Paul Ryan’s plan for Medicare. The proof is in the memo. In ten minutes of YouTube tutoring on how GOP candidates should talk about Medicare, there is not one reference on how candidates can effectively persuade voters that the GOP/Ryan plan is the right policy for Americans. Not one word on how candidates should campaign to convince voters that privatizing Medicare and making it harder for seniors to choose their own doctor is the right thing. Not one word on why seniors’ should pay much more for less coverage, why the retirement age should be raised, why the prescription drug donut hole should be reinstated or, why Medicare and Medicaid should be cut to pay for more tax cuts for the wealthy.
The GOP strategy for their candidates is clear — simply don’t talk about the GOP plans for seniors in Medicare. Talk about the Affordable Care Act, instead. If you get a question about the Ryan budget? “Obamacare robs Medicare”. Get a question about the GOP plan to end Medicare? “Obamacare robs Medicare”. What about raising seniors’ preventative care and prescription costs? “Obamacare robs Medicare”. You get the idea. The strategy is to continue to tell seniors their benefits were cut, even though they weren’t. Ignore the fact that health care reform preserves every dime of Medicare benefits while the GOP/Ryan plan uses that money to pay for millionaire tax breaks. Disregard the 32 million seniors who have already received new preventive benefits through ACA. Don’t talk about the closing of the Part D donut hole or the $3.1 billion dollars in real savings seniors have already seen in their prescription drug coverage. And whatever you do, absolutely never, ever, let on that the same GOP candidates — decrying Medicare reforms falsely labeled as benefit cuts in the Affordable Care Act — voted for those same provisions when they passed the GOP/Ryan budget. At the same time by the way, Republicans also voted to end Medicare leaving seniors at the mercy of private insurers to face higher costs for less coverage.
However, what this divert and deflect strategy ignores is how much easier it was to fool voters before the ACA was implemented. I predict this year will be different. It’s simply a lot harder now to believe a political candidate who’s telling you your Medicare benefits were slashed when you remember taking your $250 drug rebate check to the bank, you paid $600 less in drug costs this year, didn’t fall into the donut hole, and received your first free mammogram in Medicare. Now that seniors are seeing first hand their benefits were not cut, and were in fact improved, this Medicare myth can finally be laid to rest next to the infamous (and also false) “death panels” claim made by Republicans.
The GOP “Obamacare Robs Medicare” myth will finally be exposed and with the selection of Paul Ryan it should get the national attention needed to put a stop to it once and for all. Just as with President Bush’s campaign to privatize Social Security, the more the American people find out what the Ryan/GOP plan for Medicare contains the less they’ll like it. That process has just begun and it will be a real eye-opener for the millions of American retirees who continue to be the targets of one of most cynical Mediscare campaigns in political history.
Stop the War on Medicare
There’s a simple question American seniors should ask candidates who hate health care reform and want your vote:
“Did you oppose the Medicare cuts in Obamacare but vote for those same cuts in the GOP/Ryan Budget plan? If your candidate is a Republican member of the House, that answer is likely yes.
Happy Birthday Social Security – Cut the Cake not the Program
Social Security is 77 years old and going strong. Some may be surprised by that simple statement –given all of the political propaganda, lies and spin which pass for discourse these days—but it’s simply and demonstrably true.
Happy Birthday Social Security – the American people thank you!
Max Richtman, NCPSSM President/CEO
“As we mark this 77th anniversary, Social Security’s promise of economic security for average Americans is facing the biggest threat of its long and successful service to our nation. For too many political candidates, including the GOP Romney/Ryan Presidential ticket, Social Security is seen as little more than a budget target. They intend to use it to fund tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans and allow Wall Street to access American workers’ Social Security funds.
While politicians use Social Security as a political bargaining chip, millions of Americans depend on it as their lifeline. Through times of war, economic crises, natural disasters and even terrorist attacks, Social Security has proven time and again to be the model of what an effective, efficient and compassionate government can do for its citizens.
It represents America’s core values of hard work, contribution and intergenerational equity. On this anniversary, it’s vital for the American people to understand the potential economic and political forces that could radically alter the core values that have defined America’s economic security priorities for almost eighty years. Social Security is a program we should be emulating…not threatening to tear down. ” Max Richtman, NCPSSM President/CEO
Richard Eskow, Huffington Post
Today, August 14, is Social Security’s 77th birthday. That presents us with a difficult challenge: What do you give a government program that has everything… except a secure future of its own? Let’s take a look at the options for this year’s celebration.
The Gift Pile
Talk about an embarrassment of riches! Look what Social Security can already list among its gifts. It’s got:
Hundreds of millions of people who love it. Polls consistently show that Social Security, along with Medicare, is one of our most popular government programs.
The best balance sheet in the entire government. Despite all the scare talk (which we’ll get to shortly), no program in U.S. history is on a firmer financial footing than Social Security. It’s a stand-alone program which isn’t allowed to contribute to the overall government deficit, and is absolutely solvent until the early 2030s. No other program can say that.
A great profile. There’s no way to say this delicately, so we’ll come right out with it: Social Security has the slimmest, sleekest look in Washington. We don’t like to encourage our society’s fixation on thinness as the ideal of beauty, but let’s face it — Social Security is so cost-effective in delivering its benefits that it’s got the most streamlined chassis around. The Social Security Administration beats every private benefits program in the country when it comes to low overhead and efficient administrative design. One of the main reasons for that is the fact that everybody who pays into the system receives its benefits at qualification time. There’s no “means testing,” no gamesmanship, no trick, just trim, no-overhead service delivery.
Great polls. Time and time again, overwhelming majorities of Americans have made it clear that they don’t want this program to be cut. That means a lot: Of all the gifts in the world, the best any of us can hope for is friends who will defend you to the end.
Michael Hiltzik, Los Angeles Times
For a 77-year-old, Social Security is looking pretty spry today, the anniversary of Franklin Roosevelt’s signing of the Social Security Act in 1935. The program covers more than 54 million Americans, providing a dignified retirement and keeping the families of premature deceased workers out of poverty.
Among those who should be celebrating: Rep. Paul D. Ryan, R-Wisc., the newly-anointed GOP candidate for vice-president. As has been widely reported, Ryan’s father died in 1986, when the future congressman was 16. The younger Ryan collected Social Security survivor benefits, which he put away for college, until the age of 18. Yet he returned the favor by proposing one of the most draconian plans to privatize Social Security in 2005. When his proposal was rejected, he signed on as so-sponsor of the Bush Administration plan, which ultimately failed.
From the National Academy of Social Insurance – Just the Facts
Ryan Selection Sends Clear Message to Seniors
Max Richtman, President/CEO
National Committee to Preserve Social Security & Medicare
“Governor Romney signaled his plans to decimate Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid today by selecting Rep. Paul Ryan as his running mate. Of all the candidates on Mr. Romney’s nominee list, none has been a more vocal opponent of American’s vital social insurance safety net than Congressman Ryan. Ryan supports dismantling the earned Social Security and Medicare benefits of current and future beneficiaries. And, he is determined to decimate our nation’s compassionate response to the health care needs of the most vulnerable of our society by gutting Medicaid.
Ryan says that he does not duck the tough issues, but if he is elected, Americans better duck and cover. If he has his way, there will be little left of the social insurance which protect seniors, the disabled, survivors and children from the hazards and vicissitudes of life.
Ryan’s budget, his signature legislative scheme, would end traditional Medicare as we know it and leaves seniors at the mercy of private insurance companies. Ryan wants to raise the Medicare eligibility age from 65 to 67 and cut seniors’ prescription drug coverage, preventive care services and Medicaid nursing home benefits. In addition, the Ryan budget would set up a process for Congress and the President to automatically consider cuts to Social Security every year through “fast track” legislative procedures.
Americans want to know that someone is fighting for them. The selection of Paul Ryan as Governor Romney’s Vice Presidential nominee clearly demonstrates that this ticket will guarantee a knockout punch to the future well-being of middle class Americans.”
Max Richtman, NCPSSM President and CEO
Romney/Ryan: The End of Medicare for Millions
Doubling Down on an America where Corporations are Considered People and the Middle-Class Simply an Economic Drain
News reports this morning say Mitt Romney will chose Rep. Paul Ryan from Wisconsin to be his running mate. At least voters will have a very, very clear choice come November. At least, there’s no grey area here, because there’s no attempt to hide what Rep. Ryan’s priorities are for this nation. And it’s not just talk.
We’ve written about Paul Ryan’s legislative attempts to roll back programs, like Medicare and Social Security, that reflect the very core of middle-class American values of hard work, contribution and intergenerational responsibility more than we care to remember. Seems this morning is a good time to review:
From Time Magazine:
The Ryan budget is likely to be the totem pole around which the coming election will be fought. It is an entirely radical piece of business. Every budget is a political document; this one, however, is a campaign document — it is a right-wing fantasy and could not possibly be enacted. It contains several aspects that Republicans will love: humongous tax cuts, focused on the wealthy; humongous budget cuts, focused on the poor. Because the spending cuts don’t outweigh the tax cuts by very much, the federal budget would not be balanced until 2040, unless there is significant tax reform, the closing of loopholes that Ryan refuses to specify.The proposed tax cuts, about $4 trillion over the next 10 years, are Republican business as usual. The real outrage lies in the budget cuts, which would reduce federal spending on everything except Social Security, health care entitlements and interest on the debt to 3.75% of gross domestic product by 2050. As the Congressional Budget Office pointed out in an evaluation requested by Ryan, federal spending in these areas has never been less than 8% of GDP since World War II. Defense spending alone has never been less than 3% during that period, and Ryan plans to increase it. As the liberal Center on Budget and Policy Priorities put it, if Ryan’s budget were enacted, “the rest of government would largely have to disappear” by 2050 — which means everything from food- and water-safety inspections to highway funds to basic research, as well as all spending on the poor. No doubt many of these programs need to be reformed and some might even be eliminated, but the cuts envisioned by Ryan are simply ridiculous.
Entitled to Know: Targeting Seniors for Real and Just for Fun
If America’s seniors really want to get at the heart of the ongoing political debate about our nation’s economic mess and the solutions offered to change course, yesterday provided a good snapshot of what’s at stake House Budget Chairman Paul Ryan has introduced the GOP/Ryan budget and as expected it envisions balancing the budget by turning Medicare into a privatized program giving seniors a voucher (designed not to keep pace with their health costs over time) to buy private insurance. The new twist offered this year is a promise to also keep traditional Medicare as an option. Unfortunately, what that really means is private insurers will siphon-off younger-healthier seniors while older and sicker patients remain in traditional Medicare which will increase the programs costs, potentially limit doctor participation, and create a death spiral to the Medicare’s demise. Ultimately, the ideological goal of getting the government out of the business of providing healthcare for seniors will be achieved. The American Prospect offers this description:
“Most Republicans really do believe that Medicare is a vile, socialistic cancer on the American system, and things would be much better if it were privatized. The fact that Medicare works so much better than private insurance (it has far lower administrative costs, and its overall costs have been rising at a slower rate than those of private insurance), and that it’s so popular, is just all the more reason why it’s so hateful to them. Medicare validates the idea that government can do something better than the private sector, standing as a living rebuke to arguments they make in so many areas.”
And maybe this also explains while Congressman Ryan continues to conflate America’s retirees with the poor and welfare with Medicare. By lumping these programs together he attempts to paint a picture of Americans simply milking the system, which conveniently ignores the fact that workers contribute to Medicare. He did it again in yesterday’s budget news conference (25 minutes into this video): “but we don’t want to turn this safety net into a hammock that lulls able-bodied people into lives of dependency and complacency, that drains them of their will and the intent to make the most of their lives.”
NCPSSM President/CEO, Max Richtman, Statement on Ryan Budget
“Contrary to the lofty political rhetoric we’ve heard today, the GOP/Ryan plan is not a brave budget offered by ‘adults’. This is a budget that doubles-down on an ideological quest to turn Medicare into a privatized voucher program–stacking the deck against traditional Medicare and creating a death spiral leading to its demise. Under the GOP/Ryan plan, if seniors want the same level of coverage and access to health providers they’ve had in the past, they’ll have to pay more. If they can’t pay more, they’ll have to settle for less. At the same time, under the GOP/Ryan budget, billionaires continue to enjoy tax cuts our nation simply can’t afford. The American people, of all ages, do not believe benefit cuts for the middle class and tax cuts for the wealthy are the right course for our nation, no matter how they’re repackaged for an election year. Congressman Ryan has said his budget plan addresses a ‘moral issue’ because ‘there is right and there is wrong’. But the American people don’t believe it’s ‘right’ to cut middle class benefits to pay for more tax cuts for the wealthy. It’s not ‘right’ to continually target seniors’ programs to foot the bill for an economic and fiscal crisis they did not create. Middle class Americans have already sacrificed more than their fair share with stagnant wages, plunging home values and vanishing savings. That’s why it’s simply wrong to target the average American to protect the wealthiest among us who continue to reap the benefits of decades of flawed fiscal policy. We don’t have to destroy Medicare to save it — the American people understand this and will make their views on ‘right and wrong’ abundantly clear come November.” …Max Richtman
The Social Security Medicare Double Reverse
Based on data published on his (Chairman Ryan’s) committee’s website he slashed Medicaid by more than $771 billion over 10 years, which would cut millions of poor children, seniors, and people with disabilities from eligibility. He is particularly savage on the category he lists as “other mandatory,” which includes programs such as Supplemental Assistance for Needy Families, Temporary Aid for Needy Families, and Supplemental Security Income—funding them at only 75 percent of the level the Congressional Budget Office estimates as necessary to maintain current service levels. An analysis by the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities demonstrated that more than two-thirds of his budget cuts come from programs that help low-income families. Now he’s all of a sudden concerned about the poor? So, if Rep. Ryan is not attacking the elderly for the purpose of helping the poor, why is he doing it? I think the answer is relatively simple: He needs to slash huge amounts from federal retirement programs to pay for tax cuts for the wealthy. His $5.8 trillion in overall spending cuts last year still left huge deficits because of his voracious appetite for tax cuts. Rep. Ryan proposed more than $4 trillion in tax cuts over the course of the decade, lowering the rate at which the wealthiest Americans pay taxes from the 35 percent level in the expiring Bush tax cuts to 25 percent. His plan would reduce total tax liabilities of many millionaires by more than 25 percent—to the tune of hundreds of hundreds of thousands of dollars or in some instances even millions of dollars per each millionaire. So Rep. Ryan’s March 5 column about taking from the rich (defined as old people living on more than $20,000 a year) and giving to the poor is in fact about taking from the elderly and giving to the rich—akin to a double reverse in football. Let’s hope the defensive backfield in Congress stays alert.
Of course there’s more. A lot more. But for now, this provides a glimpse into what a Romney/Ryan presidency would mean for middle-class Americans, seniors, the disabled and their families.
Why the Medicare Dodge and Deflect Won’t Be Enough
Max Richtman, NCPSSM President/CEO
Originally posted on Huffington Post.
There’s a simple question American seniors should ask candidates who claim to want to protect Medicare: “Did you oppose Obamacare because it ‘cuts’ Medicare while also voting for those same Medicare spending cuts in the GOP/Ryan Budget plan? For 277 members of the House, that answer was yes.
Paul Ryan’s selection as Governor Romney’s Vice-Presidential running mate has Republican Party leaders understandably worried that voters will now get a good look at the radical plans for Medicare in the GOP budget and a tally of those candidates who supported it. A memo and campaign how-to video from the National Republican Congressional Committee provides an incredibly clear and cynical look behind their political curtain, as the NRCC gives Republican candidates tips on how to dodge the discussion they really don’t want to have about the votes they’ve already cast on Medicare:
“Do not say: ‘entitlement reform,’ ‘privatization,’ ‘every option is on the table,’ … Do say: ‘strengthen,’ ‘secure,’ ‘save,’ ‘preserve, ‘protect.’” NRCC Medicare Memo
These GOP operatives say they want this Medicare fight. Truth is, they really hope to refight health care reform so they can avoid talking about Paul Ryan’s plan for Medicare. The proof is in the memo. In ten minutes of YouTube tutoring on how GOP candidates should talk about Medicare, there is not one reference on how candidates can effectively persuade voters that the GOP/Ryan plan is the right policy for Americans. Not one word on how candidates should campaign to convince voters that privatizing Medicare and making it harder for seniors to choose their own doctor is the right thing. Not one word on why seniors’ should pay much more for less coverage, why the retirement age should be raised, why the prescription drug donut hole should be reinstated or, why Medicare and Medicaid should be cut to pay for more tax cuts for the wealthy.
The GOP strategy for their candidates is clear — simply don’t talk about the GOP plans for seniors in Medicare. Talk about the Affordable Care Act, instead. If you get a question about the Ryan budget? “Obamacare robs Medicare”. Get a question about the GOP plan to end Medicare? “Obamacare robs Medicare”. What about raising seniors’ preventative care and prescription costs? “Obamacare robs Medicare”. You get the idea. The strategy is to continue to tell seniors their benefits were cut, even though they weren’t. Ignore the fact that health care reform preserves every dime of Medicare benefits while the GOP/Ryan plan uses that money to pay for millionaire tax breaks. Disregard the 32 million seniors who have already received new preventive benefits through ACA. Don’t talk about the closing of the Part D donut hole or the $3.1 billion dollars in real savings seniors have already seen in their prescription drug coverage. And whatever you do, absolutely never, ever, let on that the same GOP candidates — decrying Medicare reforms falsely labeled as benefit cuts in the Affordable Care Act — voted for those same provisions when they passed the GOP/Ryan budget. At the same time by the way, Republicans also voted to end Medicare leaving seniors at the mercy of private insurers to face higher costs for less coverage.
However, what this divert and deflect strategy ignores is how much easier it was to fool voters before the ACA was implemented. I predict this year will be different. It’s simply a lot harder now to believe a political candidate who’s telling you your Medicare benefits were slashed when you remember taking your $250 drug rebate check to the bank, you paid $600 less in drug costs this year, didn’t fall into the donut hole, and received your first free mammogram in Medicare. Now that seniors are seeing first hand their benefits were not cut, and were in fact improved, this Medicare myth can finally be laid to rest next to the infamous (and also false) “death panels” claim made by Republicans.
The GOP “Obamacare Robs Medicare” myth will finally be exposed and with the selection of Paul Ryan it should get the national attention needed to put a stop to it once and for all. Just as with President Bush’s campaign to privatize Social Security, the more the American people find out what the Ryan/GOP plan for Medicare contains the less they’ll like it. That process has just begun and it will be a real eye-opener for the millions of American retirees who continue to be the targets of one of most cynical Mediscare campaigns in political history.
Stop the War on Medicare
There’s a simple question American seniors should ask candidates who hate health care reform and want your vote:
“Did you oppose the Medicare cuts in Obamacare but vote for those same cuts in the GOP/Ryan Budget plan? If your candidate is a Republican member of the House, that answer is likely yes.
Happy Birthday Social Security – Cut the Cake not the Program
Social Security is 77 years old and going strong. Some may be surprised by that simple statement –given all of the political propaganda, lies and spin which pass for discourse these days—but it’s simply and demonstrably true.
Happy Birthday Social Security – the American people thank you!
Max Richtman, NCPSSM President/CEO
“As we mark this 77th anniversary, Social Security’s promise of economic security for average Americans is facing the biggest threat of its long and successful service to our nation. For too many political candidates, including the GOP Romney/Ryan Presidential ticket, Social Security is seen as little more than a budget target. They intend to use it to fund tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans and allow Wall Street to access American workers’ Social Security funds.
While politicians use Social Security as a political bargaining chip, millions of Americans depend on it as their lifeline. Through times of war, economic crises, natural disasters and even terrorist attacks, Social Security has proven time and again to be the model of what an effective, efficient and compassionate government can do for its citizens.
It represents America’s core values of hard work, contribution and intergenerational equity. On this anniversary, it’s vital for the American people to understand the potential economic and political forces that could radically alter the core values that have defined America’s economic security priorities for almost eighty years. Social Security is a program we should be emulating…not threatening to tear down. ” Max Richtman, NCPSSM President/CEO
Richard Eskow, Huffington Post
Today, August 14, is Social Security’s 77th birthday. That presents us with a difficult challenge: What do you give a government program that has everything… except a secure future of its own? Let’s take a look at the options for this year’s celebration.
The Gift Pile
Talk about an embarrassment of riches! Look what Social Security can already list among its gifts. It’s got:
Hundreds of millions of people who love it. Polls consistently show that Social Security, along with Medicare, is one of our most popular government programs.
The best balance sheet in the entire government. Despite all the scare talk (which we’ll get to shortly), no program in U.S. history is on a firmer financial footing than Social Security. It’s a stand-alone program which isn’t allowed to contribute to the overall government deficit, and is absolutely solvent until the early 2030s. No other program can say that.
A great profile. There’s no way to say this delicately, so we’ll come right out with it: Social Security has the slimmest, sleekest look in Washington. We don’t like to encourage our society’s fixation on thinness as the ideal of beauty, but let’s face it — Social Security is so cost-effective in delivering its benefits that it’s got the most streamlined chassis around. The Social Security Administration beats every private benefits program in the country when it comes to low overhead and efficient administrative design. One of the main reasons for that is the fact that everybody who pays into the system receives its benefits at qualification time. There’s no “means testing,” no gamesmanship, no trick, just trim, no-overhead service delivery.
Great polls. Time and time again, overwhelming majorities of Americans have made it clear that they don’t want this program to be cut. That means a lot: Of all the gifts in the world, the best any of us can hope for is friends who will defend you to the end.
Michael Hiltzik, Los Angeles Times
For a 77-year-old, Social Security is looking pretty spry today, the anniversary of Franklin Roosevelt’s signing of the Social Security Act in 1935. The program covers more than 54 million Americans, providing a dignified retirement and keeping the families of premature deceased workers out of poverty.
Among those who should be celebrating: Rep. Paul D. Ryan, R-Wisc., the newly-anointed GOP candidate for vice-president. As has been widely reported, Ryan’s father died in 1986, when the future congressman was 16. The younger Ryan collected Social Security survivor benefits, which he put away for college, until the age of 18. Yet he returned the favor by proposing one of the most draconian plans to privatize Social Security in 2005. When his proposal was rejected, he signed on as so-sponsor of the Bush Administration plan, which ultimately failed.
From the National Academy of Social Insurance – Just the Facts
Ryan Selection Sends Clear Message to Seniors
Max Richtman, President/CEO
National Committee to Preserve Social Security & Medicare
“Governor Romney signaled his plans to decimate Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid today by selecting Rep. Paul Ryan as his running mate. Of all the candidates on Mr. Romney’s nominee list, none has been a more vocal opponent of American’s vital social insurance safety net than Congressman Ryan. Ryan supports dismantling the earned Social Security and Medicare benefits of current and future beneficiaries. And, he is determined to decimate our nation’s compassionate response to the health care needs of the most vulnerable of our society by gutting Medicaid.
Ryan says that he does not duck the tough issues, but if he is elected, Americans better duck and cover. If he has his way, there will be little left of the social insurance which protect seniors, the disabled, survivors and children from the hazards and vicissitudes of life.
Ryan’s budget, his signature legislative scheme, would end traditional Medicare as we know it and leaves seniors at the mercy of private insurance companies. Ryan wants to raise the Medicare eligibility age from 65 to 67 and cut seniors’ prescription drug coverage, preventive care services and Medicaid nursing home benefits. In addition, the Ryan budget would set up a process for Congress and the President to automatically consider cuts to Social Security every year through “fast track” legislative procedures.
Americans want to know that someone is fighting for them. The selection of Paul Ryan as Governor Romney’s Vice Presidential nominee clearly demonstrates that this ticket will guarantee a knockout punch to the future well-being of middle class Americans.”
Max Richtman, NCPSSM President and CEO
Romney/Ryan: The End of Medicare for Millions
Doubling Down on an America where Corporations are Considered People and the Middle-Class Simply an Economic Drain
News reports this morning say Mitt Romney will chose Rep. Paul Ryan from Wisconsin to be his running mate. At least voters will have a very, very clear choice come November. At least, there’s no grey area here, because there’s no attempt to hide what Rep. Ryan’s priorities are for this nation. And it’s not just talk.
We’ve written about Paul Ryan’s legislative attempts to roll back programs, like Medicare and Social Security, that reflect the very core of middle-class American values of hard work, contribution and intergenerational responsibility more than we care to remember. Seems this morning is a good time to review:
From Time Magazine:
The Ryan budget is likely to be the totem pole around which the coming election will be fought. It is an entirely radical piece of business. Every budget is a political document; this one, however, is a campaign document — it is a right-wing fantasy and could not possibly be enacted. It contains several aspects that Republicans will love: humongous tax cuts, focused on the wealthy; humongous budget cuts, focused on the poor. Because the spending cuts don’t outweigh the tax cuts by very much, the federal budget would not be balanced until 2040, unless there is significant tax reform, the closing of loopholes that Ryan refuses to specify.The proposed tax cuts, about $4 trillion over the next 10 years, are Republican business as usual. The real outrage lies in the budget cuts, which would reduce federal spending on everything except Social Security, health care entitlements and interest on the debt to 3.75% of gross domestic product by 2050. As the Congressional Budget Office pointed out in an evaluation requested by Ryan, federal spending in these areas has never been less than 8% of GDP since World War II. Defense spending alone has never been less than 3% during that period, and Ryan plans to increase it. As the liberal Center on Budget and Policy Priorities put it, if Ryan’s budget were enacted, “the rest of government would largely have to disappear” by 2050 — which means everything from food- and water-safety inspections to highway funds to basic research, as well as all spending on the poor. No doubt many of these programs need to be reformed and some might even be eliminated, but the cuts envisioned by Ryan are simply ridiculous.
Entitled to Know: Targeting Seniors for Real and Just for Fun
If America’s seniors really want to get at the heart of the ongoing political debate about our nation’s economic mess and the solutions offered to change course, yesterday provided a good snapshot of what’s at stake House Budget Chairman Paul Ryan has introduced the GOP/Ryan budget and as expected it envisions balancing the budget by turning Medicare into a privatized program giving seniors a voucher (designed not to keep pace with their health costs over time) to buy private insurance. The new twist offered this year is a promise to also keep traditional Medicare as an option. Unfortunately, what that really means is private insurers will siphon-off younger-healthier seniors while older and sicker patients remain in traditional Medicare which will increase the programs costs, potentially limit doctor participation, and create a death spiral to the Medicare’s demise. Ultimately, the ideological goal of getting the government out of the business of providing healthcare for seniors will be achieved. The American Prospect offers this description:
“Most Republicans really do believe that Medicare is a vile, socialistic cancer on the American system, and things would be much better if it were privatized. The fact that Medicare works so much better than private insurance (it has far lower administrative costs, and its overall costs have been rising at a slower rate than those of private insurance), and that it’s so popular, is just all the more reason why it’s so hateful to them. Medicare validates the idea that government can do something better than the private sector, standing as a living rebuke to arguments they make in so many areas.”
And maybe this also explains while Congressman Ryan continues to conflate America’s retirees with the poor and welfare with Medicare. By lumping these programs together he attempts to paint a picture of Americans simply milking the system, which conveniently ignores the fact that workers contribute to Medicare. He did it again in yesterday’s budget news conference (25 minutes into this video): “but we don’t want to turn this safety net into a hammock that lulls able-bodied people into lives of dependency and complacency, that drains them of their will and the intent to make the most of their lives.”
NCPSSM President/CEO, Max Richtman, Statement on Ryan Budget
“Contrary to the lofty political rhetoric we’ve heard today, the GOP/Ryan plan is not a brave budget offered by ‘adults’. This is a budget that doubles-down on an ideological quest to turn Medicare into a privatized voucher program–stacking the deck against traditional Medicare and creating a death spiral leading to its demise. Under the GOP/Ryan plan, if seniors want the same level of coverage and access to health providers they’ve had in the past, they’ll have to pay more. If they can’t pay more, they’ll have to settle for less. At the same time, under the GOP/Ryan budget, billionaires continue to enjoy tax cuts our nation simply can’t afford. The American people, of all ages, do not believe benefit cuts for the middle class and tax cuts for the wealthy are the right course for our nation, no matter how they’re repackaged for an election year. Congressman Ryan has said his budget plan addresses a ‘moral issue’ because ‘there is right and there is wrong’. But the American people don’t believe it’s ‘right’ to cut middle class benefits to pay for more tax cuts for the wealthy. It’s not ‘right’ to continually target seniors’ programs to foot the bill for an economic and fiscal crisis they did not create. Middle class Americans have already sacrificed more than their fair share with stagnant wages, plunging home values and vanishing savings. That’s why it’s simply wrong to target the average American to protect the wealthiest among us who continue to reap the benefits of decades of flawed fiscal policy. We don’t have to destroy Medicare to save it — the American people understand this and will make their views on ‘right and wrong’ abundantly clear come November.” …Max Richtman
The Social Security Medicare Double Reverse
Based on data published on his (Chairman Ryan’s) committee’s website he slashed Medicaid by more than $771 billion over 10 years, which would cut millions of poor children, seniors, and people with disabilities from eligibility. He is particularly savage on the category he lists as “other mandatory,” which includes programs such as Supplemental Assistance for Needy Families, Temporary Aid for Needy Families, and Supplemental Security Income—funding them at only 75 percent of the level the Congressional Budget Office estimates as necessary to maintain current service levels. An analysis by the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities demonstrated that more than two-thirds of his budget cuts come from programs that help low-income families. Now he’s all of a sudden concerned about the poor? So, if Rep. Ryan is not attacking the elderly for the purpose of helping the poor, why is he doing it? I think the answer is relatively simple: He needs to slash huge amounts from federal retirement programs to pay for tax cuts for the wealthy. His $5.8 trillion in overall spending cuts last year still left huge deficits because of his voracious appetite for tax cuts. Rep. Ryan proposed more than $4 trillion in tax cuts over the course of the decade, lowering the rate at which the wealthiest Americans pay taxes from the 35 percent level in the expiring Bush tax cuts to 25 percent. His plan would reduce total tax liabilities of many millionaires by more than 25 percent—to the tune of hundreds of hundreds of thousands of dollars or in some instances even millions of dollars per each millionaire. So Rep. Ryan’s March 5 column about taking from the rich (defined as old people living on more than $20,000 a year) and giving to the poor is in fact about taking from the elderly and giving to the rich—akin to a double reverse in football. Let’s hope the defensive backfield in Congress stays alert.
Of course there’s more. A lot more. But for now, this provides a glimpse into what a Romney/Ryan presidency would mean for middle-class Americans, seniors, the disabled and their families.