General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsRepublicans give up on Medicare overhaul
The quiet surrender comes as new projections show Medicares trust fund in its worst shape since the recession.
By ADAM CANCRYN and SARAH FERRIS 06/17/2018 07:03 AM EDT
Republicans on Capitol Hill are giving up on what might be their last best chance to overhaul Medicare, just as theyre losing their leading champion on the issue, House Speaker Paul Ryan.
The quiet surrender on a subject thats energized GOP fiscal hawks for the better part of a decade comes as new projections show Medicares trust fund in its worst shape since the recession, partly because of Republicans other chief obsession: their sweeping tax cuts.
Thats left conservatives unsure how to agitate for a politically unpopular Medicare overhaul one that President Donald Trump detests and raises new questions about who will take up the entitlement reform mantle as Ryan heads for the exits.
It takes two houses of Congress and a president to want to do that, said Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), lamenting the partys apathy over Medicare. No matter whos been in the House or whos been speaker, we have not been able to get entitlement reform done.
https://www.politico.com/story/2018/06/15/republicans-medicare-overhaul-abandoned-623203
-snip-
"However, the GOPs sweeping tax cuts will add $1.5 trillion to the deficit, slowing the flow of money into Medicare and putting the health care program on increasingly unstable financial ground, the report from Medicares trustees predicts. The decision to also repeal Obamacares deeply unpopular Medicare cost-containment panel, the Independent Payment Advisory Board, will put additional strain on Medicares finances, the trustees said. Medicares hospital trust fund is now projected to go broke by 2026, three years earlier than projected."........................
-snip-
When Republicans want to cut taxes but dont want to contain health care spending, they are yanking Medicare three years closer to insolvency, said Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden, the top Democrat on the Finance Committee."
This needs to have this squarely placed on their (republican) hypocrite shoulders................its the republicans and they should be held accountable................and lets not forget who they confirmed to head the CMS...............a fucking lobbyist................
mbusby
(823 posts)...it's been taken out of my salary for 45 years and now I am using the benefits.
turbinetree
(24,703 posts)and some people don't have to pay after 122,800 dollars, but those of us making less have to pay not only ours, but there's.............
marybourg
(12,631 posts)you're ENTITLED to it.
Hoyt
(54,770 posts)I'm sure GOPers mean it as a slight, but we are entitled to it just like we are entitled to draw upon our bank account.
Takket
(21,573 posts)"Something that is given to you that someone else has to pay for". Basically that hard working Americans are being robbed to pay the lazy.
Hoyt
(54,770 posts)They say "entitlement" with derision. BTW, nothing wrong with "give-a-ways" for people that need help, if that's what someone once to call it.
What's ironic, I used to work for a state Medicaid program decades ago. The white wingers would apply when desperate for help (cancer, heart disease) and start telling you how they "are not like those undeserving people, blah, blah, blah." I swear, it was hard to keep from saying, "You are right, you aren't like Medicaid beneficiaries because your request is DENIED."
JHB
(37,160 posts)In the 80s conservatives, armed with papers written by conservative think tanks, would show their audiences big scary numbers about how much of the budget went to entitlements, and then go on to talk about Welfare.
They did this so the audience would infer that all of the big scary umbers went to Welfare -- and thus their hard-earned tax dollars going to a vast army of shiftless, lazy, undeserving you-know-whos -- because they never mentioned that by far the lion's share of the big scary numbers was Social Security and Medicare. Never mentioned it, because that wouldn't have fostered anger and racism in people they wanted to vote Republican. This was part of how conservatives diligently built what is now Trump's voter base.
This is also why people get noisy at Democrats who speak of "entitlement reform". It's a phrase RW think tanks cooked up as a pry bar to help them rip apart signature Democratic accomplishments, and treating it as if it were polite, neutral language just reframes the debate on their terms.
marybourg
(12,631 posts)Low information people therefore think entitlements are bad, instead of thinking GOP-ers are bad for attacking entitlements
workinclasszero
(28,270 posts)Same with social security!
We need to get control of Congress again and claw back the insane tax cut for billionaires that Bone Spurs gave them and start making the rich 1% and big business pay some damn taxes!
Caliman73
(11,738 posts)We need to stop yielding ground to the idiot Republicans on this language. I am Entitled to Medicare as a citizen or resident of the United States because that is part of the social contract delivered by the founding documents in the government's responsibility to "Promote the General Welfare". Plus, I pay into Medicare so not only am I entitled to its benefits JUST BECAUSE I am a citizen, I also have earned benefits.
People are ENTITLED to SSI, Medicaid, SNAP, and other poverty reduction programs as well. They are entitled to them because they are part of the social contract that We The People have made to be part of the civilized world.
Just because the bastard Republicans want to renege on that contract, doesn't mean we should help them by hiding from a word.
We are ALL ENTITLED to the benefits and the wealth that we have helped to produce in this country, even if we aren't the wealthy capitalists who are trying to keep them all to themselves.
Turbineguy
(37,337 posts)the ability to govern.
That leaves the republican party out.
Hoyt
(54,770 posts)the road and we are going to end up in a crisis with GOPers in charge. Then, we'll get something like what they have done throttling the ACA.
sandensea
(21,636 posts)The GOP's idea of "overhauling" Medicare, Medicaid, or Social Security is always the same:
Get rid of them.
Xolodno
(6,395 posts)...fuck up everything so bad, that once Democrats regain power, they spend all their time trying to fix up everything they fucked up. Hence why it's so often damn tough to move things forward.
yonder
(9,666 posts)It's a clue Roy, get a grip.