About Me

In writing the "About Me" portion of this blog I thought about the purpose of the blog - namely, preventing the growth of Socialism & stopping the Death Of Democracy in the American Republic & returning her to the "liberty to abundance" stage of our history. One word descriptions of people's philosophies or purposes are quite often inadequate. I feel that I am "liberal" meaning that I am broad minded, independent, generous, hospitable, & magnanimous. Under these terms "liberal" is a perfectly good word that has been corrupted over the years to mean the person is a left-winger or as Mark Levin more accurately wrote in his book "Liberty & Tyranny" a "statist" - someone looking for government or state control of society. I am certainly not that & have dedicated the blog to fighting this. I believe that I find what I am when I consider whether or not I am a "conservative" & specifically when I ask what is it that I am trying to conserve? It is the libertarian principles that America was founded upon & originally followed. That is the Return To Excellence that this blog is named for & is all about.

Wednesday, May 25, 2011

What Will These People Do Then?

In spite of Kim Strassel's analysis that Tuesday's special House election in upstate NY was not a referendum on Paul Ryan's plan to change Medicare the Ryan plan @ least played an important part in the outcome in which a Democrat (possibly with some help from a third party candidate) defeated a Ryan supporting Republican. Republicans have recently won this conservative western NY district with as much as 74% of the vote so other than the Republican candidate's support of the Ryan Medicare revision plan everything was pretty much the same as previous elections.

The final tally was Dem 47%, Rep 42%, & third party candidate 11% meaning that even if the third party candidate took all of the Republican's votes there still was a drop from 74% to 53%. This election result goes right along with the theme of the last two postings re the waning popularity of capitalism in America. The sooner patriots like Mark Levin & Andrew Napolitano recognize that we are in the minority the sooner we will know how to fight the real enemy & not pretend that every one who is going without a meal tonight is more for the Constitution than socialism.

Social Security & Medicare along with Medicaid form the cornerstone of the American welfare state. To illustrate just how dependent many Americans are on these programs please consider that two thirds of our seniors depend on Social Security as the main source of their income & for one in five it is the only source of income. Without Social Security half of all seniors would be living in poverty so naturally seniors love Social Security. If possible seniors love Medicare even more. Today's retiring baby boomers are the only people who have paid into Medicare their entire working lives. Medicare Part A is primarily paid for by the 2.9% payroll tax plus co-pays & deductibles paid for by the recipient while Medicare Part B is primarily paid for from funds taken out of the general tax revenues of the U.S. Treasury plus monthly premiums & shared co-pays & deductibles paid for by the recipients. The portion of Medicare Part B paid by seniors amounts to only 25% of the program's cost. Medicare Part D is under a similar arrangement as Part B & is 75% funded by the U.S. Treasury meaning that the drug plan constitutes a taxpayer subsidy of 75% of the cost of the program.

So what's not for seniors to like – except that these programs are not financially sustainable? How unkind is it for our elected reps to let this continue until total collapse of the programs? It is the elderly & people over 55 who are dependent on these programs who will be hurt the most when the programs collapse. Just what will these people do then?

4 comments:

  1. I WAS AFRAID THIS WOULD HAPPEN.

    Yesterday, special election held in heavily republican district won by Democrat
    Kathy Hochul. Why - she only addressed change in medicare , and people did not want any change in medicare. True, tea party supporters helped Democrats by voting for tea party member, not republican.

    Republicans will have to find ways to combat medicare issue. If they do not do so, next year election, can be their downfall.

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  2. Seniors would do OK if there property tax were reduced by the towns. I hear so many say it is not fair, my this, my that, how come this one or that one, well for all the young that wants a free education it is not fair the seniors should pay for any of it, they have no say about property tax hikes. If the young don't want to contribute, than pay for your own kids to go to school and drop my taxes by 2/3s seniors would not need the Medicare programs.

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  3. read your letter and agree with you that medicare,social security in its present form is not financially sustainable.

    what to do?

    answer might seem strange - but in prior years if govt. figures show that the country would be in trouble 7-8 years down the road, the present administration would do NOTHING, letting the administration in power at that time figure out what to do - in other words PASS the trouble to the future administration in power then.

    No one wants to make UNPOPULAR decisions at THIS time, pass the headache on to administration in power in the future.

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  4. Doug, How can we get seniors to realize that by rejecting the proposed reforms to SS & Medicare, they will lose it all? I rely on my SS check each month but I understand that if nothing is done, it will not be there in 3, 4 or 5 years. The right reform needs to be done to these programs if that is to be avoided.
    The message must be depoliticized and made clear to seniors so they can stop falling for the scare tactics that are being used in Congress. The message has to be made in clear language that even the least literate person can understand. I know from personal experience that many of them don't have the ability to grasp all the intricacies of government programs. It is not going to be easy to convince them, but it must be done.

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