This is the kind of issue that, if the GOP leadership was smart, will very shortly be showing up in commercials and talking points from now till the 2010 elections
In the first showdown over the Senate health care bill, Democrats on Thursday successfully defended more than $400 billion in Medicare cuts, turning back a potentially lethal stab at the measure.
On a 58-42 vote, the Senate defeated an effort by Sen. John McCain, Arizona Republican, to send the bill back to a committee where lawmakers would have had to drop the cuts in Medicare payments and instead find another way to pay for the bill, which overhauls the nation’s health insurance system and guarantees coverage for tens of millions of people who lack insurance.
Are you paying attention, senior citizens and those soon to be considered eligible for Medicare? The Democrats formally and officially just voted to reduce Medicare spending. All that money that has been taken out of your paychecks? Yeah, forget it. Want to see the doctor? Well, you will just have to get in line. Need a knee replacement or hip surgery? Nope, sorry, here’s a cane. A cheap one.
In addition to the Medicare cuts vote, the Senate adopted an amendment that gives the government authority to eliminate co-payments for women’s health screenings such as mammograms – and along the way turned back a Republican effort to try to stop the government from relying on task force recommendations to decide what services should be covered.
What I would like to know, and cannot find in this story or any other, is from whom are the co-payments being eliminated? From Medicare and/or Medicaid? Or from private health insurance providers? Is the government now dictating even more rules in the private sector?
And the second part, those would be what Palin was referring to when she called them “Death Panels.” Government bureaucrats dictating treatments, and who gets what.
As the saying goes, read the whole thing. Lots of information packed into the story, including the typical Democrat claim of “fear-mongering.”
Crossed at Right Wing News and Stop The ACLU
Teach,
Could you explain for me how you have arrived at the conclusion that these cuts in Medicare spending will result in seniors waiting in line to receive medical services, or being given a cane instead of a needed surgery?
Can you explain to us, realsick, how seniors will benefit from these cuts?
While you’re at it, Teach, Reassic needs you to explain how you came to the conclusion that water is wet.
Well, Reasic, if there is less money, that means less service.
Meanwhile, what do you think about the Democrats voting to cut Medicare by $400 billion dollars?
Just as I suspected… Much like a small child, trying to jam a square peg into a round hole, you all are yet again trying to apply overly simplistic thought processes to a very complex reality. This is not your typical child’s piggy bank, in which case less money would indeed equal less expenditures. We’re talking about a very large government program.
http://www.cbpp.org/cms/index.cfm?fa=view&id=2917
[…] LINKS: Ace Of Spades Right Wing News Pirate’s Cove […]
A very large government program. Yep. It’s a huge one. And you think that they will be able to do MORE with LESS money? I’d expect a “civil engineer” to have a some small amount of knowledge in MATH.
Do you have ANY examples of the government making anything more affordable? I don’t mean by shoving the cost off on someone else, I mean an ACTUAL AND REAL reduction in cost? We certainly have enough examples of them making things MORE costly; their demand that everyone should have affordable housing helped cause the current economic disaster we’re in. The Fed jacking with interest rates certainly wound up making things more expensive. The government mandates on ethanol has driven up the cost of food. These moronic stimulus bills have done little more than provide payola to the people who got the Dems elected and kill our economy. The government take-over of the post office, way back when, certainly hasn’t made a more efficient post office; they were a few BILLION in the red last year. Taking over public schools hasn’t helped much; our country spends more on education than any other country, and yet we’re still in the bottom half rankings. How about Cash For Clunkers? The money allotted for that was supposed to last for months; instead it was drained in a weekend, with many dealerships STILL waiting to get paid.
It’s been awhile since I sat in a Math class, but I seem to remember that if you SUBTRACT from and amount, the amount is LESS than the original. It doesn’t take a degree to figure out that money buys service, and less money buys LESS SERVICE.
And frankly, anything coming out of a group run by a dyed-in-the-wool liberal like Robert Greenstein should be taken with several grains of salt. And lime. And tequila.
TFMo,
Did you even visit the link? I provided you with a link, which explains in detail how these specific cuts in Medicare are aimed at wasteful spending, and you don’t seem to have addressed that argument. You’re STILL trying to make overly simplistic arguments about a complex problem. What is it with you guys?
Oh, and you’re so hot on government-run programs, but what about when we’ve privatized services? How has that gone? Enron, anyone? Blackwater? Yeah, those went real well… Neither system is perfect, and both have their strengths and weaknesses.
Yes, I did go to the link, Reasic. And again, I have trouble trusting anything that comes out of a liberal’s mouth. I’ve also seen the fudged data that came out regarding AGW. I’ve also seen politicians lie through their teeth to push their agenda. And you expect people to trust them, despite the fact they’ve PROVEN themselves untrustworthy at every turn.
Enron and Blackwater. There are thousands upon thousands of privately owned business in the US, and because TWO didn’t do what they were supposed to, we should just shut down the private sector. Well, by your criteria, we have to shut down all public services, in that a far higher percentage of them are corrupt, inefficient, and causing more troubles than they solve. Unions would have to go to, given the amount of corruption there; the failure of the US auto industry is due, in no small part, to union and government involvement. Our public schools are a mess, far more expensive and less efficient since the government took them over. The Post Office is a disaster, Social Security is bankrupt, Medicare, Medicaid, and nearly ALL other welfare programs are bankrupt (these things were made as a part of a War on Poverty…how’s that going, by the way?) Bernie Madoff goes to jail for the rest of his life because of his ponzi scheme…and yet most of these socialist welfare programs operate identically to ponzi, but the left and the government is fine with that. The government bilks the taxpayers for BILLIONS of dollars to bail out banks, and yet our economy is still in the crapper and unemployment is still in the double digits. TARP, Stimulus 1 and 2, and another Stimulus bill in the works, and we read how this money is going to districts that DON’T EXIST. Millions of dollars for TURTLE TUNNELS that the turtles rarely even use. A 300 million dollar bribe for Mary Landrieu WRITTEN INTO THE THE HOPERcare BILL, Reasic. These people aren’t even TRYING to disguise their corruption anymore.
And you expect us to trust them? Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me. How many more times can YOU Stand being lied to before you stop and say What the Hell?
I grew up in a Dem household. I remember my folks being so happy when Carter was elected. And I thought it was a good thing too. I trusted my folks, and they trusted the Dems. Then we all got a gas shortage, a hostage crisis, disastrous foreign and domestic policies, insane taxation, and more inflation than a balloon convention. I remember sitting in a car during the hot Arkansas summer, waiting for hours in line for gas. I remember my folks paying up to FIVE BUCKS for a single loaf of bread.
That was a long time ago, but I don’t see much change for the better coming from the left. I see Carter policies on crack. I see greater corruption than ever in my lifetime. And I see idiots like you cheering your heads off for it with no clue what these things will lead to. So no, I’m not buying what your little link had to say. I’m not buying AGW. I’m not buying HOPERcare. I’m not buying the government takeover of the private sector. The left has given me NO valid reason to trust them, and EVERY reason not to.
So… you went to the link, but it’s liberal, so you just wrote it off as bunk, without really giving it any thought? It sounds like you’d rather put your FAITH in rightwing political talking points, than really examine the issue in depth, in order to determine what is best for America. I guess that makes you an excellent candidate for brainwashing. Your partisanship seems to have blinded you permanently.
The same goes for the issue of AGW. You talk all day long about how wrong it is, and how it’s based on “fudged” or “manipulated” data, but when pressed for specifics, or provided with rebuttals, you either clam up or respond with more unrelated conjecture.
I find it very interesting that you are so confident in your views, but at the same time, you can’t seem to explain them very well, much less back them up with hard evidence.
I don’t have all day to undo all of the misinformation you’ve spread in your post. Let’s stick to the subject at hand, which is whether the proposed cuts in Medicare will result in reduced services. I provided a link, explaining the cuts, and how they’re aimed at waste in the system. If you have a counter argument for that, I’d love to see it. Otherwise, I’m only left to assume that you can’t provide one, which would mean that this argument about reducing services for seniors is debunked.
The lefties have been caught too damn many times lying, Reasic, for me to trust them. While there are people who claim to be on the right who have also erred, for the most part, they tend to tell the truth. And again, I don’t expect you to understand it, nor will I bother explaining it to you any further.
Okay, TFMo, you don’t let my facts and figures get in the way of your ideology…