“WASHINGTON - Mitt Romney's
choice of Paul Ryan as his running mate has already reignited the debate over
the future of Medicare. Ryan has proposed ending the guaranteed benefit and
instead giving individuals vouchers to pay for private insurance, which Ryan
refers to as "premium support." By reducing the amount of money that
Medicare would pay out over time, the plan reduces its long-term costs in an
effort to become solvent without raising taxes or lowering health care costs.
But it leaves seniors on the hook should costs rise faster than the value of
the vouchers.
“It's a proposal strikingly
similar to his suggested Social Security reform in 2005, which also relied on
shifting risk from society at large to the individual.”
Cassi
Creek:
The battle lines are drawn. The campaigns will pit the right of center
Obama/Biden incumbents against the Romney/Ryan duo. The new Robber Baron, in thrall to the far
right GOP will team up with the ultra-right teavangelist, Ryan, in another attempt
to destroy Medicare and Social Security by privatizing them.
Wall street bankers and financiers are
salivating like hunting hounds at the possibility that they will be given another
chance to bleed the middle class penniless while incurring no personal
risk.
Ryan plans to replace Medicare with a
voucher system that will leave seniors holding worthless promises that the
voucher will purchase two aspirin and a band-aid before the insurance companies
claim that the vouchers are no longer sufficient to pay for any health
insurance. Seniors will be encouraged to
beggar their selves and then contract a lethal disease.
Social Security accounts will be sold
to the highest bidders. Seniors will no
longer have insurance; they will have apologies from the investment firms that
emptied their accounts to provide bonuses for the new robber barons.
This campaign will be the decision point
for the continued existence of our social safety nets, for the continued
existence of the ragged remnants of the middle and working classes, and for
avoiding the transformation of our republic into a theocracy such as we find
unacceptable in Iran, Afghanistan, and Saudi Arabia. The effort to sell the country and its assets
began in earnest during the Reagan administration as he and his handlers sold
legislative power to the Christian right in exchange for votes. With the exception of increased unemployment
and increased religious interference in government by the Christian right,
nothing has trickled downward yet. We must
turn out every voter we can to re-elect Obama in November. He was the default choice in 2008. He is now the only hope for our seniors, our
working class, and our poor.
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