Medican't

As Congress readies a senior drug plan for President Bush to sign, ponder this chart prepared by the Heritage Foundation.

Some more background is here.

Comments

[R. C. Dean]

Jason - you might ask your dad why he thinks we should be transferring wealth from the poorest segment of society (young wage-earners) to the wealthiest (retirees).

[joe]

Uh huh, like you'd all be behind the bill if the benefits were means tested, and the cap on income subject to payroll tax were removed (thus eliminating the upward redistribution). Sure you would.

[Phil]

joe,

Nice straw man (for the zillionth time). I'd still be against it if it were means-tested. I just wouldn't be as angry about it.

[Ellie]

notJoe: I think I love you.

[thoreau]

Phil-

What you say makes sense. In the hierarchy of bad programs, programs without means testing are worse than those with means testing. Both bad, but some worse than others.

Once this atrocity is in place, means testing will be a valid reform proposal (i.e. a way to reduce the cost and scope of the program). But until the monstrosity is passed (any minute now?) it should be opposed, with or without a mean test.

[The Merovingian]

Unless the government of the US gets in control of medicare and its pension system, it will destroy the value of your currency. The same thing will happen to the Euro unless there is reform in Germany, France, etc. Luckily we had a moderate amount of success this summer by lengthening the worklife of government employees to that of private sector employees. But we need more and the US needs less pass out the candy legislation, and more privitization and a fully-funded pension system. It amazes me that Chile has both of these things, yet it is supposed to be a "developing nation."

BTW, does anyone else think that this was the other curse of Bismark?

[Warren]

OK, did anybody look at this chart? 500 billion is half a trillion not five trillion. I guess high order math skills (like counting) are beyond the capabilities of the Heritage Foundation. (The error is repeatedly repeated in the online article http://www.heritage.org/Research/HealthCare/bg1673.cfm)

I must say I'm pretty disappointed that nobody spotted this sooner.

[grylliade]

OK, did anybody look at this chart? 500 billion is half a trillion not five trillion.

I think that the $5 trillion refers to the total shortfall, not the annual shortfall. I might be wrong, but that's how I interpret it.

[Warren]

Ahhhh OK
I was afraid I had my head up my ass.

Mea Culpa

[Ellie]

If I see one more of those TV ads for it I'm going to scream. The worst are the ones (AARP?) whining "It's not good enough, but you better pass it NOW! So we can start asking for MORE benefits!"

Between that and the damn Medicare blimp ... *sigh*

[Rick Barton]

Our only chance now, to stop this monstrosity is a filibuster in the senate. Contact your senators!

[R. C. Dean]

It boils down to this: Before, if you earned a paycheck in the US, you were fucked. Now, you're double-fucked.

And its only going to get worse as the baby boom generation works its way through several decades worth of medical care, lifestyle support, etc. on the government tab.

[Rick Barton]

Contact your senators immediately, as the vote is supposed to come up in just an hour and a half from the time of this post!

[Jason Ligon]

It is disgusting. The rhetoric is absolutely New Deal 2003.

My father called me the other night to ask, "Did you know that your grandmother's friends have to choose between medicine and food?"

He further added, "It used to be when somebody said, 'You money or your life!' they would go to jail. Now they robbers just call themselves drug companies." Every sentence on the subject is a soundbite. After being accused of wanting to murder my grandmother a couple of times, I had to cut the call short.

The people paying for this benefit are the same people that are supposed to save the rest of Medicare from shortfall, the same people who are supposed to save Social Security from its shortfall, and the same people who will be paying for the war. How much is too much entitlement for something you never had to pay for, you old coots?

Somebody needs to break up the Grey Mafia.

[heh2k]

first linky no worky. just garbage.

[Dave Straub]

I find that the first link is gibberish in Mozilla (my preferred browser), but works fine in IE.

[Ellie]

My father called me the other night to ask, "Did you know that your grandmother's friends have to choose between medicine and food?"

According to Neal Boortz today, Medicare's own poll had ~85% of respondents saying that it's "not at all difficult" to get their prescriptions, with another ~10% saying it was "slightly difficult." I would imagine your grandmother's friends are in a very small minority. $400 billion!

*holds a funeral for her paychecks*

[Jason Ligon]

... And the whole notion of the filibuster is that this isn't enough?!!

Arrgh! I hate them all.