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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsObama: GOP Budget ‘Will Ultimately End Medicare As We Know It’
By Igor Volsky
President Obama described the Republican budget proposed by Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) as laughable during a speech at the Associated Press Luncheon on Tuesday and said that Ryans Medicare premium support plan would end Medicare as we know it. In a preview of his general election pitch, Obama argued that the GOP blueprint cuts essential government programs that help lower and middle class Americans in order to pay for tax cuts that primarily benefit the rich, before laying out his opposition to the partys Medicare and Medicaid reforms.
Were told that Medicaid would simply be handed over to the states, Obama explained. But heres the deal the states would be getting. Theyd have to be running these programs in the face of the largest cut to Medicaid that has ever been proposed. According to the Center on Budget and policy Priorities, the Ryan budget would reduce federal spending on Medicaid by $810 billion and would provide states with smaller block grants to run their health care programs. A cut that according to one nonpartisan group would take away health care for about 19 million Americans, Obama said, before turning to the GOPs proposal to transform Medicare into a premium support structure:
Watch it:
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Indeed, a Center for American Progress analysis of Congressional Budget Office (CBO) data finds that new Medicare beneficiaries could actually end up paying as much as $1,200 more per year by 2030 and $5,900 more per year by 2050 for health care benefits. The Republican budget would shift these costs to beneficiaries by limiting the growth in Medicare spending per beneficiary to growth in the economy plus 0.5 percentage points a rate that is much slower than the projected growth rate under current law.
As a result, under their budget, CBO projects that average spending would rise to only $7,400 in 2030 and to only $11,100 in 2050. Since the Republican budget would convert Medicare spending into vouchers, these dollar amounts would be the amounts of the vouchers, on average. In other words, CBO projects that government spending per beneficiary would be $1,200 lower in 2030 (the difference between $8,600 under current law and $7,400 under the Republican budget) and $5,900 lower in 2050 (the difference between $17,000 under current law and $11,100 under the Republican budget).
- more -
http://thinkprogress.org/health/2012/04/03/457454/obama-gop-budget-will-ultimately-end-medicare-as-we-know-it/
MannyGoldstein
(34,589 posts)Raising the age of eligibility from 65 to 67. Great stuff!!!
20 years of triangulation... and here we are.
ProSense
(116,464 posts)Here's my response: http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=534505
MannyGoldstein
(34,589 posts)Perhaps you can bookmark it
ProSense
(116,464 posts)Bookmark that!
MannyGoldstein
(34,589 posts)ProSense
(116,464 posts)it makes the constant posting of your link appear rather silly.
msongs
(67,394 posts)members of the Democratic caucus have opinions. Surprisingly, they expose the fact that Congress is not a fully liberal institution.
snappyturtle
(14,656 posts)ProSense
(116,464 posts)"I predict hell and fury if Medicare finds itself being served up! "
...are spending all their time trying to convince everyone that Ryan's plan doesn't end Medicare. Republicans know that this would be political suicide. This was the reason behind Poltifact's lie to cover for them.
snappyturtle
(14,656 posts)JDPriestly
(57,936 posts)Sure way to win.
Sarcasm.
ProSense
(116,464 posts)why seniors support the GOP.