Representative Ryan's Class Warfare

[PETRUS]

Representative Ryan Tries the Old Generational War Trick to Divert Attention from His Side's Class War

House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan drafted a response to the Congressional Budget Office's recent study on inequality. This piece pulls out all the usual tricks

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In the case of Social Security, which is modestly redistributive, the program is completely self-financed, so it should not affect the extent to which the rest of the government is redistributive. Medicare is drawing money from the rest of the budget, but this is primarily because we overpay providers. Representative Ryan is effectively pointing a finger at our country's seniors and saying that they are getting too much in benefits because he is insisting on overpaying Pfizer for drugs and General Electric for its medical equipment.

If we got our prices in line with the rest of the world, Medicare taxes would be sufficient to pay for most Medicare benefits. The rational response would be to focus on getting prices down, not taking away benefits from the elderly...

http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/cepr-blog/representative-ryan-tries-the-old-generational-war-trick-to-divert-attention-from-his-class-war

More at the link.

[emulatorloo]

1. Excellent article. Thanks for posting. K&r

[Vincardog]

2. The rational way to get prices dow is to cover everyone and demand that all drugs and services be o

offered at reasonable prices like they do in Civilized countries like Mexico Brazil Canada England Ecuador ... everywhere else

[PETRUS]

3. Spot on.

But right now, we're moving in the opposite direction. A Pfizer guy was one of five co-chairs on the South Korea trade agreement steering committee. And - surprise, surprise - an outcome of that agreement is that S. Korea's drug prices will go up, and our pharmaceutical manufacturers get to dictate terms to their insurance companies.

[Vincardog]

4. Another victory for flat earth faux "free traders" how exactly does this help US?