GOP’s 2012 Budget: The Ultimate Death Panel

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During the healthcare reform debate of last year if we had some educated opposition to Obama’s healthcare bill I feel that the bill would have turned out much better for the country, maybe someone would have pointed out that the process was controlled by corporate interests. But instead of Republicans offering actual ideas they chose to make stuff up, such as claiming the bill would set up death panels. By their standard of what constitutes a death panel the GOP’s budget proposal for 2012 put together by Paul Ryan would be the ultimate death panel. And unlike the death panels in the healthcare bill these ones would actually kill people.

The proposal seeks to eliminate medicare as we know it today as well as putting social security cuts on the fast track.

When social security and Medicare were established we as Americans decided that we didn’t want to see our seniors and our poor being left to die just because they couldn’t afford to survive. Since many could no longer work and could not afford the astronomical costs associated with getting healthcare at that age many of these people were left to die. So with the Republicans kicking and screaming "socialists!" the entire way Americans established Medicare and social security as safety nets for seniors. And ever since they have been established these programs have remained highly popular and for good reason.

Today social security is the most common source of income for older Americans. The average social security benefit only pays about $1,000 a month (http://www.ncpssm.org/news/archive/vp_cutting_ss_benefits/">source). Imagine having to survive on an income that low. But for about 10 million of our seniors that is exactly what they have to deal with since social security is their only source of income. Now imagine making around $1,000 a month and having to buy your health insurance from a private corporation. This is exactly what the republican budget plan proposes.

Because most seniors have been paying in to medicare since 1965 today they get a pretty decent deal on their healthcare. Medicare allows seniors to get most of their healthcare needs covered for around $100 a month. Without medicare their true cost of healthcare would be around $1,000 a month. For seniors who’s only source of income is social security $100 isn’t by any means cheap, but it is manageable. They may have to make cut backs elsewhere but in most cases they get the most basic services they need: food, shelter, and healthcare. This is under our current system which republicans apparently think is too generous.

What the Republican proposal does is it completely eliminates medicare as we know it today and replaces it with a voucher program where you give seniors a voucher and they need to go out and buy healthcare from a private insurer. The CBO took Ryan’s proposal and figured out how much seniors would have to pay for their healthcare if Ryan’s proposal became law. Turns out http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/ezra-klein/post/cbo-looks-at-ryancare/2011/03/28/AFhweLlC_blog.html">seniors would have to pay about 70% of their healthcare costs, a sum that could total over $12,500 a year (over $1,000 a month). So if you are one of those 10 million seniors whose only source of income is social security your $1,000 a month social security check won't even cover this, you have no way to get healthcare.

If that wasn't bad enough the income you get from social security isn’t safe under the proposal either. As the Huffington Post http://www.huffingtonpost.com/daniel-marans/ryan-budget-fasttracks-so_b_845775.html">reports Ryan’s proposal would put social security cuts on the fast track which would slash that $1,000 a month average benefit.

In effect, Ryan would free up Social Security for fast-track cuts by turning it into a regular line budget item. Since Social Security is not part of the general budget, has its own revenue stream, and is forbidden by law from borrowing, it has always been dealt with separately from the rest of the budget. In fact, Ryan had to create a new fast-track process to trigger cuts for Social Security alone, because by law, it is excluded from fast-track reconciliation procedures for the general budget.

Social security has always been treated as separate from the general budget. It always had its own fund managed independently. When you and I get our pay checks social security (along with medicare) is a separate line item from the rest of our taxes. It is a benefit we all pay for. Ryan’s proposal would allow republicans to make social security as part of the general budget, essentially violating everything social security is. It would take a totally independent program owned by the American people that paid in to it ever since they stared working and give the control of that program to our politicians by making it just another line item in each year’s budget.

So what it boils down to is that the republicans are proposing some of the most extreme cuts to our safety nets ever seen. And as a result 10s of millions of people would find themselves in a position where they simply could not afford to live. The Republicans are forcing seniors to make a decision between feeding themselves and getting healthcare, forcing people to have to make that decision is cruel and it will kill people. But if you listen to our media the story line is not that this budget will kill people, the story line is that Paul Ryan is brave for putting this out there.

From: http://www.leftunderground.com/content/226-gop-2012-budget-medicare-social-security