Paul Ryan Deserves More Credit for Taking on Medicare

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"Why Paul Ryan’s Medicare Is So Much Better Than Obama’s"
Posted on May 7, 2011 by Barbara
Peter Ferrara
"Obama said regarding the Ryan budget plan, “No I don’t think it is particularly courageous. Because…nothing is easier than solving a problem on the backs of people who are poor or people who are powerless or don’t have a lobbyist or don’t have clout.”
"How does obamacare cut cost, but help "people who are poor or people who are powerless or don’t have a lobbyist or don’t have clout.”
"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."
"Even President Obama was forced to admit before the Facebook audience that the 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/

Bill Hedges of MO 9:44PM May 22, 2011

You are not going to be able to balance the budget without taking on the military industrial complex. Sorry, all of this scheming and dreaming to cut spending on old folks is the easy part. Bit unless you take on the defense industry it's not going go succeed. Maybe all of these republican schemers are myopic.

DoTheMath of CO 9:00PM May 22, 2011

Seniors will see their drug prices go up under Ryan's Budget Plan. Despite Ryan's lies to the contrary his budget would eliminate the Donut Hole fix that was in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, ObamaCare to hostiles.
So Bill H of Mo you're blood pressure drugs will be going up under Ryan's plan.
Ryan's Plan is conservative social engineering, as Newt accurately pointed out.
Ryan's plan is to kill Medicare. Dd you notice the GOP line to replace Medicare with Obamacare, which they want to kill, too.
Ryan and Dick Armey and the Koch Brothers are trying to kill Medicare and reverse the New Deal, yet not offering anything to replace it. Except maybe the privatized prison industry agenda to house dissidents and poor, which looks like most Americans since we are not buying into the Koch's fascist agenda.
Sorry but we need to strengthen Medicare and extend Medicare for All! Ryan will soon enough see his plan get shot down in the election in Jack Kemp's old district - severely and perennially Republican but where the Democrat is leading most polls because of opposition to Ryan's Budget especially within the GOP.
Newt Gingrinch's words will seem like a good idea in retrospect for the GOP after it sinks in that Ryan's Budget stinks.

Carl of IL 2:31PM May 22, 2011

You write "people by a large margin want no part of the ryan plan.it,s going no where fast."
Are you talking about obamacare ? obamacare all along had that in polls. Bought votes in Congress, special exceptions for unions cadilac health plans, 3 States being exempt, big companies let off, etc.. Waver, waver, waver.
"How About a National Obamacare Waiver?"
May 19, 2011
http://www.themoralliberal.com/2011/05/19/how-about-a-national-obamacare-waiver/
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“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."
Need another CBO figuring.
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“The Obama health law leaves that up to an unelected board of presidential appointees called the Independent Payment Advisory Board, a cost-cutting panel. The board is a radical departure from Medicare as we’ve known it. Congress cedes nearly all control of Medicare spending to the board on the rationale that budgeting decisions should be shielded from outraged seniors and political pressures. On April 13, the president reiterated that the board would decide what care is “unnecessary” for seniors. Even the CBO cautioned that as the nation’s debt crisis worsens, benefits will be put on the board’s chopping block."
“Will Americans now in their 40s and 50s choose to put their health care in the hands of this cost-cutting board, or pick their own health plan when they retire?”
http://www.lincolnclub.org/2011/04/paul-ryans-premium-support-plan-is-preferable-to-obamas-rationing-panel/

Bill Hedges of MO 9:40PM May 21, 2011

well one thing is sure the people by a large margin want no part of the ryan plan.it,s going no where fast.

bruce b of NV 5:50AM May 21, 2011

“A good article from the Wall Street Journal."
“Here are the highlights."
“Beginning in 2022, the Ryan plan offers each new Medicare enrollee a choice of private health plans and a premium paid to the plan they choose. The key is that the premium will be equivalent to what Medicare is projected to spend under the Obama health law: $15,000 a year on average, more for the oldest enrollees, less for the youngest, all inflation adjusted."
“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."
“The Obama health law leaves that up to an unelected board of presidential appointees called the Independent Payment Advisory Board, a cost-cutting panel. The board is a radical departure from Medicare as we’ve known it. Congress cedes nearly all control of Medicare spending to the board on the rationale that budgeting decisions should be shielded from outraged seniors and political pressures. On April 13, the president reiterated that the board would decide what care is “unnecessary” for seniors. Even the CBO cautioned that as the nation’s debt crisis worsens, benefits will be put on the board’s chopping block."
“Will Americans now in their 40s and 50s choose to put their health care in the hands of this cost-cutting board, or pick their own health plan when they retire?”
http://www.lincolnclub.org/2011/04/paul-ryans-premium-support-plan-is-preferable-to-obamas-rationing-panel/

Bill Hedges of MO 2:58AM May 21, 2011

“CBO: Obamacare Would Increase National Debt, Spend Medicare ‘Savings’”
“The CBO writes that, by the end of 2019 alone, Obamacare "would amount to a net increase in federal deficits of $226 billion." Elsewhere, in a conclusion that only the truly credulous could accept, the CBO says that Obamacare would decrease deficits. But, as the CBO notes, that's before "factoring in that the [Medicare Hospital Insurance] trust fund would hold more than $358 billion of additional government debt by the end of 2019 compared with its holdings under current law."
“The CBO writes, "the majority of the [Medicare Hospital Insurance] trust fund savings under PPACA [Obamacare] would be used to pay for other spending and therefore would not enhance the ability of the government to pay for future Medicare benefits." In other words, the money "saved" from Medicare would be spent elsewhere: on Obamacare.”
“But, really, that's just the beginning. Alluding to the whole range of Obamacare's double-counting and budgetary gimmickry, the House Budget Committee writes, "Add it up -- $115 billion in discretionary costs, plus $521 billion in double-counting, plus $208 billion for a long-term doc fix (minus the $143 billion of claimed savings) -- and the law would add $701 billion to the deficit over the next ten years." (For a clear and succinct summary of the budgetary gimmicks employed by Obamacare, Ryan's statement at the "health summit" is hard to beat.)”
“the CBO says that, before the beginning of the next decade, Obamacare -- if not repealed -- would increase the national debt by $341 billion.”
http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/cbo-obamacare-would-increase-national-debt-spend-medicare-savings_536716.html
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“CBO: Obama’s Budget Adds $9.5 Trillion to Deficit”
http://reddogreport.com/2011/03/cbo-obamas-budget-adds-9-5-trillion-to-deficit/

Bill Hedges of MO 2:29AM May 21, 2011

the majority of the people are ahead of the curve on the ryan plan,by this i mean they have figured out that it,s a new twist on that old con the ponzi scheme.
the ryan plan runs huge deficit, over the next ten years.all the while demolishing medicare as a program that senior,s have counted on for over fifty years.all the while taking care of tax breaks for people and companies who donn;t need them.
they voted for it and they own it.now lets see how many of these bravehearts in the senate vote for it,this will be interesting.

bruce b of NV 1:07AM May 21, 2011

Anybody can go after a bunch of old people. If Ryan had real cojones he would go after the military industrial complex.

MoonlightMile of CO 10:02PM May 20, 2011

Except not a bunch of wavers (unions of all kinds, big business, 3 States, and Pelosi & Reid districts), bought votes, and 4 year wait for most of it to kick in. Compared to obamacare, Ryan’s plan is transparent. Not hidden until passed...

Bill Hedges of MO 8:59PM May 20, 2011