Game Over--Ryan's plan raises age of Medicare eligibilty to 69 and a half

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Thursday June 02, 2011 · 10:46 PM PDT

2011/06/02 · 22:46

For individuals now younger than 55 only, the proposal adapts Medicare’s eligibility age to reflect Americans’ improving lifespans, raising in gradually, and in modest steps, from the current 65 to 69 years and 6 months.

I am sorry that this is so short, but I happened to see a quote from the Ryan plan today over at the Washington Monthly in a comment from one of the resident right-wingers, and it included the sentence above. I thought that the quote must be wrong because I would certainly have heard of this by now. So I went to the ‘Roadmap’ on-line and went through it (which was quite a trip in and of itself) and did indeed find the quote above.

Under Ryan’s plan, the eligibility age for Medicare will rise from the current 65 to 69½!

If you already knew this then why the heck didn’t you tell me!

Just repeat that sentence above over and over again and the argument is over, it is done, finito, stick a fork in it!

There is no way the Repubs can sell this sack of you-know-what to anyone. People are already struggling to bridge their health care from retirement to age 65 and they are proposing to raise the age of eligibility for their crappy RyanCare voucher program to 69½. No way, NFW, end of story. Every voter in the US needs to know this fact now, and if not now then by damn sure before the next election!

Game over.

Poll

123 votes Show Results

Is the game over?

123 votes Vote Now!

Is the game over?

Hell yes!

49 votes

Yes

5 votes

Probably

8 votes

Maybe

5 votes

'fraid not

10 votes

No way

6 votes

You forget, we are talking zombies here

29 votes

It ain't over until the fat lady eats pie

10 votes

The sad story of OR-02

ORDem

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Sunday October 26, 2008 · 5:55 PM PDT

2008/10/26 · 17:55

Right off the bat let me say that there is no realistic chance that a Dem could win this district. Having said that, if there were ever a year when a Dem could win, this is probably it but we failed to field a credible candidate. OR-02 is all of Oregon east of the cascades and the Rogue Valley in southern Oregon. It is the seventh largest district in the US. We have had some of the worst Representatives ever, the story of Wes Cooley deserves its own diary on another day. Our present Rep. is Greg Walden, Bushite exemplar, he is pretty bright and smooth and would be difficult to beat. But a couple of weeks ago he was quoted in the Baker City Herald saying would you "destroy the economy to save the planet?" Admittedly not Michele Bachmann stuff but an opponent could have made some good hay out of this, instead nothing happened.

Poll

73 votes Show Results

Would you destroy the economy to save the planet?

73 votes Vote Now!

Would you destroy the economy to save the planet?

Hell no, I'm a Republican.

1 vote

Hell yes, I'm a dirty effing hippie.

13 votes

Planet? We don't need no stinkin' planet.

7 votes

False choice. (Please go read 'An Inconvenient Truth.')

49 votes

Sweet potato pie!

3 votes

Your favorite Disneyland/World attraction

ORDem

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Saturday June 21, 2008 · 3:24 PM PDT

2008/06/21 · 15:24

I saw this diary earlier today which got me thinking about Disneyland/World and the need for something a little lighter on the day after the scales have fallen from so many eyes, the day after the ugly discovery that our idol has feet of clay...you get the idea. The bottom line is that Obama’s present stance on the FISA deal sucks. So now for something completely different, what is your favorite Disney ride and why. I will include EPCOT and California Adventure for the sake of this discussion though this may turn off some purists.

Follow me down into the Magic Kingdom...

Poll

88 votes Show Results

What is your favorite Disneyland/World Attraction?

88 votes Vote Now!

What is your favorite Disneyland/World Attraction?

Matterhorn

1 vote

Space Mountain

11 votes

Thunder Mountain

2 votes

Splash Mountain

6 votes

Jungle Cruise

5 votes

Indiana Jones

3 votes

Haunted House

9 votes

Soarin' over California

5 votes

Whirling Teacups

2 votes

Mr. Toad's Wild Ride

6 votes

Star Wars

1 vote

Tower of Terror

11 votes

Small World

3 votes

Pie-rates of the Caribbean

16 votes

Disney Sux (aka I hate America!)

7 votes

Slowly Breaking: Turkey invading Iraq

ORDem

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Saturday February 23, 2008 · 12:17 AM PST

2008/02/23 · 00:17

Just saw this on Juan Cole (the reporting is from Reuters and McClatchy), Turkey is invading Irag with between 3,000-10,000 troops to go after the PKK, aka Kurdish terrorists at least as far as Turkey is concerned. Sounds like heavy fighting is going on which could make a quick withdrawal difficult but it is hard to know how it will play out. The only thing for certain is that it is more bad news and the conflict has the potential to spiral out of control. And how can we blame the Turks for going after TERRORISTS, that's not going to sound right. We have painted ourselves into a corner and I do not see any easy way out of this mess. We can support our NATO ally, the Turks, and piss off the Iraqi Kurds, our main allies in Iraq, or vice versa. Clearly, the wheels are still coming off the slow motion train wreck that is Iraq. (Sorry for the short diary and I never thought I'd use the 'BREAKING' news bit but there it is.) Note: Title was updated to 'Slowly Breaking...'

Social security, progressive taxation and Obama

ORDem

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Saturday February 16, 2008 · 4:58 PM PST

2008/02/16 · 16:58

Social Security is one program that clearly demonstrates the good that Government can do and should do. Which is why so many Repubs hate it and would like to turn it into a big cash cow for the financial industry. Beating back Bush’s privatization scheme after the 2004 election was a huge victory even if it was just a holding action. The old right wing canard of ‘social security won’t be there for me when I retire’ was briefly exposed for what it is, a big fat lie, but it seems that we keep forgetting that in strict accounting terms SS is in great shape. Currently there is a large SS surplus, the Reagan/Greenspan tax increase in 1983 to make SS solvent for the foreseeable future (i.e. through the baby boomers retirement) actually worked. However the SS surplus was borrowed by the government for other things, we can argue whether this was right or wrong but it was done. There was enough surplus money to secure SS for decades after SS starts running a current accounts deficit in about 10 years when the current FICA tax payments no longer cover all the benefits being paid out. More below...

Poll

57 votes Show Results

How does raising the FICA cap play for Obama

57 votes Vote Now!

How does raising the FICA cap play for Obama

big winner

17 votes

little winner

16 votes

big loser

7 votes

little loser

4 votes

no big deal

3 votes

I'm rich and I don't care

3 votes

I'm rich and I am pissed

1 vote

I'm poor and will get screwed whatever happens

6 votes

Your favorite blog (present blog excluded) w/ poll

ORDem

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Monday December 24, 2007 · 7:51 AM PST

2007/12/24 · 07:51

As an infrequent poster but frequent lurker, I thought a break was needed from the overheated primary wars. BTW I am referring to blogs which are primarily political and/or media oriented. If you are interested in climate change research (RealClimate) or pushing back the evolution deniers (Talk Origins, Pandas Thumb) you will have your own favs, and Juan Cole is a must for understanding the latest Middle East developments, but for politics and the hash that the media makes of it, where do you find the best commentary on the internets? Of course I do not include DKos in the discussion, we are here and we post or lurk because this is an incredible resource for folks like us, seeking intelligent, reasoned and progressive perspectives on the issues of the day, nuff said. More below...

Poll

63 votes Show Results

The best political/media blog is

63 votes Vote Now!

The best political/media blog is

Billmon (I await his return)

4 votes

Daily Howler

2 votes

Digby

5 votes

Eschaton (Atrios)

5 votes

Ezra Klein

0 votes

Firedoglake

5 votes

Glenn Greenwald

5 votes

Media Matters

8 votes

Paul Krugman

3 votes

This poll is pitiful (Pie!)

6 votes

Other (see comments)

20 votes

The real inconvenient truth (a.k.a. the Daily Howler is on fire this week)

ORDem

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Wednesday May 24, 2006 · 9:40 PM PDT

2006/05/24 · 21:40

Call Bob Somerby `butter' because he is on a roll. The Daily Howler shreds Joe Klein's new book, rips Arianna and Maureen Dowd and the rest of the gang that helped torpedo Al Gore in 2000, but for whom now--magically--the scales have fallen from their eyes. Somerby may not be everyone's cup of tea, he has frequent bouts of monomania, his interpretation of the Plame affair was problematic at best, his desire to be evenhanded is sometimes wrongheaded, his taste in movies is questionable, and I certainly would not countenance his opinion of Colbert's performance at the Press Dinner. All that said, Somerby knows the 2000 campaign debacle backwards and forwards. He has read it all and explained, countless times, how the press screwed Gore royally in 2000. The fact that the media has collective amnesia over that episode is a serious problem. If the press cannot learn from history then they (and we) are doomed to repeat it. So how to change the future, how to alter the press script? Read More

"When will you begin the reconstruction of Iraq?"

ORDem

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Saturday June 25, 2005 · 1:25 PM PDT

2005/06/25 · 13:25

Bush was asked this question by an Iraqi reporter accompanying the Iraqi Prime Minister link. If a hand-picked reporter could ask such a damning question, you wonder what they really think. This question needs to be repeated over and over, in response to all the b.s. we get from the Repub spin machine on how many good things are being done over there and how many schools have been built. I mean this question was asked yesterday! The Iraqi people want to know--"When will you begin the reconstruction of Iraq?" We are in it deep and this simple and achingly innocent question utterly exposes the lies we have been fed. Spread the word.

NPR/TOTN: Iraqi dead are forgotten

ORDem

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Thursday March 17, 2005 · 6:04 PM PST

2005/03/17 · 18:04

The first hour of Talk of the Nation was devoted to "Was the War in Iraq Worth It?" I stopped listening to TOTN regularly when Juan Williams did his stint as moderator. Sadly, it has not improved. The first speaker was an `unbiased' military historian (he was okay), then the pro-war Max Boot (utterly disgusting tripe), and then the anti-war Prof. Meersheimer (sp? who did a pretty good job pointing out the insanity of it all). But for the introduction where it was mentioned that at least 16,000 Iraqis had died, there was essentially no further mention of the Iraqi dead. Read More

Framing Hagel--Raw Deal vs New Deal

ORDem

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Monday March 07, 2005 · 5:35 PM PST

2005/03/07 · 17:35

Okay, everyone wants to talk framing, so here is Hagel wanting to boost the retirement age to 68 (for full benefits), we all know how the Repubs have distorted the life expectancy question so here is some turnabout, frame it like this--Hagel wants us to work for over 45 years to get less than 10 years worth of benefits (current life expectancy in the US is just under 78). I think that Joe Sixpack (myself included) will see that as a raw deal. In fact let's just call W's plan the Raw Deal versus FDRs New Deal. The truth is that most of the people who really need SS are not pencil pushers, they do jobs that are simply not done by people in their late 60's.

Boomers channeling Reagan: We Paid For Social Security!

ORDem

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Friday January 14, 2005 · 8:47 PM PST

2005/01/14 · 20:47

This has probably been said before but here it goes again. We boomers paid our fair share to Social Security. Alan Greenspan et al. jacked the FICA up in 1983 and we've been paying it for the last 21 years. The tax hike (yes that's right, as a bonus you get to talk about Reagan's tax HIKE and how he at least got one thing right) was necessary and that is why SS is in such good shape now. We did our part so don't mess with SS! I swear that if the Dems screw this one up then maybe we do need a new party. Read More

Bush "Man of the Smear"

ORDem

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Sunday December 19, 2004 · 11:43 PM PST

2004/12/19 · 23:43

Why is Bush Time's `Man of the Year'? Conventional wisdom is beginning to spout the idea that he won the election by being bold and forthright and connecting with the American people. Actually he ran the most negative, most smear-laden campaign in my memory, which goes (a little shakily) back to '68. There have been tough campaigns but the unrelenting negative ads were remarkable and I watch very little TV but even I saw them, apparently you couldn't not see them. Look at all the press the swift boat liars got for their ad buy--they couldn't buy that kind of coverage and they didn't have to. Look, at the time I thought Kerry was doing the right thing, playing Mr. Nice Guy, don't scare the people, show that you're presidential, that you have gravitas, that you will protect them. I did not like it but I thought `alright, don't piss off that mythical swing voter but pull him in by being respectful of the President, better not go for the jugular, too risky' but in the cold light of 20/20 hindsight I see that I was horribly wrong, taken in by the desire to win instead of the desire to do the right thing. Read More

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