With Mitch Daniels Out of 2012 Race, GOP Goes to C List

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At least be honest with your readers. The choice in New York was a choice between bad and bad. Not much of a choice and certainly not a referendum about anything.
The problem with this country is we have 70 million, selfish, entitled baby boomers who are quickly approaching Medicare Age. Considering the histrionics of that egocentric demographic they are going to demand we leave Medicare alone. That massive voting block will cut it's nose to spite their face. They don't really care about the financial outcome of the nation or the condition of the nation because, as they see it, they'll be pushing up daisies in the not so near future. They're main, abiding, overall concern will be, "Don't you dare take away my entitlement!"
That mentality is where the slipper slope leads. Had we never started down the road of the nanny state with FDR we wouldn't be spending trillions on entitlements and we wouldn't have grown adult men and women sucking on government binkies.
Medicare arrives at age 65 for most. So, from the time a person enters the work force at age 20, he/she will have had 45 years to act "responsibly" and squirrel away nuts for winter, to take good care of themselves and their health. A modest savings of $150 a month every month, over the course of 45 years would yield a principle savings of $81,000.
You can't convince me that $81,000 is insufficient for a normal person to cover their medical expenses after age 65, especially if they've taken decent care of themselves over that same period of time. And, if someone is unfortunate to have stratosphere medical expenses at that age, then perhaps the decent, honorable thing to do is have a visit with the caretaker and pick out a good pine box.

david of ID 3:11PM May 26, 2011

Also a comparable device used to measure his widdow bwain!
I've noticed the liberals will somewhat promote (or at least, won't denegrate so much) any conservative candidate whom they believe will not defeat O'brother in 2012.
Observation will tell you so!

John Wayne of NM 10:01AM May 26, 2011

You make me smile : )
You remind me of a tent peg that's been beaten into the ground deeper than the the depths of the Grand Canyon by Bill Hedges alone ....and you are still as stupid as a stick!

Havahavanna of CA 6:07AM May 26, 2011

i notice certian,posterwho,s name i wont mention,seems to want to avoid the uncomfortable truth,s about the ryan medicare plan that i made.well it is tough to defened that clunker.
it,s still a curious thing,if the bush tax cuts did all these wonderous things,as this person claims,one has to ask a couple of things.what happen to all the jobs from the time of it,s enactment up untill 2008,and there sure wasn;t any economic growth during that period either.
as to what dr.krugman say;s about revenue and taxes,i,am more inclined to give credence to what he says on the matter.

bruce b of NV 5:39AM May 26, 2011

No wonder brucet uses no links. Half truths...
"David Stockman, Ronald Reagan's budget director who once preached tax cuts, is now in favor of putting a one-time surtax on the rich. Lesley Stahl reports and finds just such a proposal on the ballot in the state of Washington"
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/10/28/60minutes/main6999906.shtml
brucet does not argue my evidence against the rest of his earlier comment. Except brucet says:
"to all the non believers out there,when you have well recognized people in the field of economics,like former reagan budget director david stockmen and noble prize winner paul krugman saying that along with spending cuts there also must be an increase in revenue,in order to get to a balanced budget"
I agree. Lower tax rate on rich increases revenue. These are numbers after the fact, not estimates:
"Lying About Bush's Tax Cuts"
"According to the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO), the Bush tax cuts actually shifted the total tax burden farther toward the rich so that in 2000-2004, total income tax paid by the top 40% of income-earners grew by 4.6% to 99.1% of the total."
"If policymakers intend cigarette taxes to discourage smoking, then they should know that high investment taxes will discourage investment and income taxes will discourage work. Lowering taxes encourages people to engage in the given behavior, which expands the base and replenishes some or all of the lost revenue. This is the "feedback effect" of a tax cut."
"So what was the effect of the Bush tax cuts? The data reveals that tax revenues in 2006 were actually $47 billion above the levels projected by the Congressional budget office before the 2003 tax cuts. Clearly, tax rates were beyond the point of equilibrium.
"So what was the effect of the Bush tax cuts? The data reveals that tax revenues in 2006 were actually $47 billion above the levels projected by the Congressional budget office before the 2003 tax cuts. Clearly, tax rates were beyond the point of equilibrium.

Bill Hedges of MO 3:47AM May 26, 2011

what ryan and the neocons wont tell you is that under the ryan plan seniors will lose the closing of the ''doughnut hole" in the cost of their prescription drugs,once the healthcare act is fully implemented.another item that they conveniently donn't mention in trying to snooker the public with this boondoggle,is that the cost to operate this voucher system would be significantly higher than the cost that medicare incur,s today
another way to bring down the cost of medicare is if it could negotiate with the drug companies for the lowest price on drugs.something that the republicans have vetoed on several occasions.

bruce b of NV 3:30AM May 26, 2011

“2000-2004, total income tax paid by the top 40% of income-earners grew by 4.6% to 99.1% of the total.”
http://www.americanthinker.com/2010/03/lying_about_bushs_tax_cuts.html
2. bucet says “the ryan budget is tilted towards big corporations and the wealthy,while causing great hardship to the lower and middle classes”:
"cuts in payments to doctors and hospitals under Medicare as provided in current law due to Obamacare and President Obama’s Medicare reimbursement policies is $15 trillion!"
"These Medicare cuts were the foundation for CBO finding that Obamacare would actually reduce the deficit, despite adopting or expanding three entitlement programs.
"Medicare’s Chief Actuary reports that even before these cuts already two-thirds of hospitals were losing money on Medicare patients."
"The unworkable, draconian effect of these Medicare cuts is why the U.S. Government Accountability Office issued a disclaimer..."
Unlike Ryan’s careful Medicare reforms, these draconian, unworkable, Obamacare cuts to Medicare apply to seniors already retired today. Ryan exempts from any change all seniors retired today and everyone over age 55. On these grounds alone, Ryan’s Medicare is better for today’s seniors than Medicare under Obamacare.
That will involve an additional $500 billion in Medicare cuts for today’s seniors by 2023, “and an additional one trillion dollars in the decade after that,” in Obama’s own words.
"Obama proposed to give even more power to the unelected, unaccountable, Washington bureaucrats on his Commission to cut Medicare further, by undemocratic automatic sequester that bypasses Congress entirely."
"Seniors would do far better each choosing their own health insurers themselves in a competitive marketplace, which is the system that has generated the highest standard of living in the world in America for all goods and services."
barry said "Ryan Medicare plan “will control costs, except if you get sick and the policy that you bought doesn’t cover what you’ve got….If you’re somebody who’s older and has a pre-existing condition, insurance companies won’t take you.” But that’s not how the private insurance companies under Medicare Advantage work. Nor is that true of the private Medigap plans, whose sellers include AARP, central players in Obama’s own political machine."
http://blogs.forbes.com/peterferrara/2011/04/28/paul-ryan-medicare-better-than-obamas/
http://www.912superseniors.org/2011/05/why-paul-ryans-medicare-is-so-much-better-than-obamas/
3. brucet says “the debacle known as the ryan voucher plan ”
“The Ryan proposal also includes a $7,800 annual medical savings account to help low-income seniors with out-of-pocket costs. Amazingly, the CBO analysts exclude this $7,800 benefit from their calculations. Their warning about low-income seniors suffering is baseless."

Bill Hedges of MO 3:06AM May 26, 2011

to all the non believers out there,when you have well recognized people in the field of economics,like former reagan budget director david stockmen and noble prize winner paul krugman saying that along with spending cuts there also must be an increase in revenue,in order to get to a balanced budget.
as long as the republicans are in denial as to what needs to be done,there will continue to be an impass on the problem.

bruce b of NV 2:37AM May 26, 2011

Prove increases adds more revenue than tax cut do for wealthy.
“2000-2004, total income tax paid by the top 40% of income-earners grew by 4.6% to 99.1% of the total.”
http://www.americanthinker.com/2010/03/lying_about_bushs_tax_cuts.html
2. bucet says “the ryan budget is tilted towards big corporations and the wealthy,while causing great hardship to the lower and middle classes”:
"cuts in payments to doctors and hospitals under Medicare as provided in current law due to Obamacare and President Obama’s Medicare reimbursement policies is $15 trillion!"
"These Medicare cuts were the foundation for CBO finding that Obamacare would actually reduce the deficit, despite adopting or expanding three entitlement programs.
"Medicare’s Chief Actuary reports that even before these cuts already two-thirds of hospitals were losing money on Medicare patients."
"The unworkable, draconian effect of these Medicare cuts is why the U.S. Government Accountability Office issued a disclaimer..."
Unlike Ryan’s careful Medicare reforms, these draconian, unworkable, Obamacare cuts to Medicare apply to seniors already retired today. Ryan exempts from any change all seniors retired today and everyone over age 55. On these grounds alone, Ryan’s Medicare is better for today’s seniors than Medicare under Obamacare.
That will involve an additional $500 billion in Medicare cuts for today’s seniors by 2023, “and an additional one trillion dollars in the decade after that,” in Obama’s own words.
"Obama proposed to give even more power to the unelected, unaccountable, Washington bureaucrats on his Commission to cut Medicare further, by undemocratic automatic sequester that bypasses Congress entirely."
"Seniors would do far better each choosing their own health insurers themselves in a competitive marketplace, which is the system that has generated the highest standard of living in the world in America for all goods and services."
barry said "Ryan Medicare plan “will control costs, except if you get sick and the policy that you bought doesn’t cover what you’ve got….If you’re somebody who’s older and has a pre-existing condition, insurance companies won’t take you.” But that’s not how the private insurance companies under Medicare Advantage work. Nor is that true of the private Medigap plans, whose sellers include AARP, central players in Obama’s own political machine."
http://blogs.forbes.com/peterferrara/2011/04/28/paul-ryan-medicare-better-than-obamas/
http://www.912superseniors.org/2011/05/why-paul-ryans-medicare-is-so-much-better-than-obamas/
3. brucet says “the debacle known as the ryan voucher plan ”
“The Ryan proposal also includes a $7,800 annual medical savings account to help low-income seniors with out-of-pocket costs. Amazingly, the CBO analysts exclude this $7,800 benefit from their calculations. Their warning about low-income seniors suffering is baseless."

Bill Hedges of MO 1:32AM May 26, 2011

the democrats are still crafting their budget proposal,hopefully when it is presented it will contain both spending cuts and tax increases,both are needed to get our fiscal house in order.
the ryan budget is tilted towards big corporations and the wealthy,while causing great hardship to the lower and middle classes,through numerous punitive measures.the best example of this is the debacle known as the ryan voucher plan for medicare.after passing this farce,in the house,the republicans can now say we have seen the enemy, and it is us.

bruce b of NV 12:57AM May 26, 2011