Michael Hiltzik of the Los Angeles Times has a very introspective and informative column that I would ask each of you to take the time to peruse. His pièce de résistance? This quote.
Ryan is right when he suggests that his plan would "fix" Medicare; it's the same way that the Mafia "fixes" an informer. In both cases the solution guarantees that the target won't be around to create trouble anymore, and as long as you don't feel remorse about collateral damage you're home free.
Alan Grayson had it straight up correct when he said ""If you get sick in America, this is what the Republicans want you to do: If you get sick America, the Republican health care plan is this: Die quickly. "That's right, the Republicans want you to die quickly if you get sick."
Yes, Mr. Ryan has a plan to save money for Americans. As long as you are a top earner in America. If not, you are just collateral damage in the Class War on the American People.
Neediest and sickest would pay the price under GOP budget plan
Rep. Paul D. Ryan's proposals would relieve the government of much of the responsibility for paying for healthcare, but if the result is that individuals carry a heavier burden, is that really a 'path to prosperity'?
snip
The principal target of Ryan's plan is government healthcare spending — Medicare, Medicaid and the healthcare reform plan. That's a reasonable place to aim any deficit-reduction plan, because that's the area where costs are rising most sharply.
But his solutions are the antithesis of reasonable. They involve almost entirely throwing the neediest and sickest Americans out from under the government umbrella to fend for themselves. Medicare as we know it would be eradicated, the cost of Medicaid shifted largely to already hard-pressed state government, and a reform program designed to give tens of millions more Americans the protection of health insurance canceled outright.
Is this really the only path to deficit reduction?
Obama, to his credit, drew a philosophical line in the sand that his progressive supporters have been waiting to see for two years. Ryan's vision, he said last week, "says America can't afford to keep the promise we've made to care for our seniors…. It's a vision that says up to 50 million Americans have to lose their health insurance in order for us to reduce the deficit."
Obama connected the dots between the House Republican majority's proposed spending cuts and its determination to preserve tax cuts for the wealthiest taxpayers — proposals to cut out not only government healthcare but a host of programs that directly benefit the middle and working class while indirectly helping to build the American economy for the future.
That's "a vision that says even though Americans can't afford to invest in education at current levels, or clean energy, even though we can't afford to maintain our commitment on Medicare or Medicaid, we can somehow afford more than $1 trillion in new tax breaks for the wealthy," he said.
The Republican Plan to move America Backward to the Day's of the Robber Barons!
So serious! So very, very courageous! So...... wrong, insipid and simply un-American!
I truly hope you will read this article in it's entirety when you have time.
Indeed, as the bipartisan Congressional Budget Office found in its analysis of the plan (done at Ryan's request), until the Medicare and Medicaid cuts kick in starting in 2022, the red ink of its tax cuts overwhelms the savings from other program reductions. Ryan's plan actually increases federal public debt compared with what it would be under current law: to 70% of gross domestic product under the Ryan plan compared with 67% under current law. Nevertheless, it passed by a party-line vote Friday, just before the nation's lawmakers high-tailed it out of Washington for a two-week vacation.
snip
The proposal overlooks the fact that the cost of healthcare for the elderly can't easily be wished away. The CBO observes that some elders unable to pay for their care might end up in the government's disability or Supplemental Security Income (SSI) programs, both of which are already overstressed.
Others may require help from their children, which would only cut into the next generation's economic resources; alleviating exactly such an intrafamilial burden was a founding principle of both Medicare and Social Security.
Ryan is right when he suggests that his plan would "fix" Medicare; it's the same way that the Mafia "fixes" an informer. In both cases the solution guarantees that the target won't be around to create trouble anymore, and as long as you don't feel remorse about collateral damage you're home free.
My bolding
The inability of Conservatives to deal with anything more than a Profit and Loss statement and to give any thought to any American individual, family or group not living in their subjective income bracket is incomprehensible. They have managed to alienate minority Americans including women, any American with a conscience and now are trying really hard to throw away the support of their most reliable voters. The retired and elderly Americans.
The difference between President Obama's plan and Paul Ryan and the Republicans cannot be more stark. Go forward with that information and loudly proclaim these differences in stark terms. We are the front lines when it comes to saving our country. Be the difference....