I'm Old, Gimme Gimme Gimme!

New at Reason: Is the Republican Medicare giveaway really a Trojan Horse to dismantle Medicare? Republicans should be so smart, sez Jacob Sullum.

Comments

[Steve in CO]

So the "greatest generation," will be succeeded by the "greediest generation?" How quaint.

:0

[Rick Barton]

Jacob,
All this good information might have been really helpful, as ammunition, prior to the votes since they were so close. (five votes in the house, and one of the votes to sustain the filibuster in the senate feel only one vote short; the one that appealed to cost considerations)The fact that info didn't seem to get out in time for a meaningful debate might well have been due to, an ultra short deliberation was part of the Bush administration's game plan. (see Julian's first citation in the "Rational Ignorance" thread, two down.) The couple dozen or so, Republicans in congress who opposed this costly monstrosity deserve our support. Now, we will have to work to undo it. The fight will probably have to be waged for years.
Oh well,
Happy Thankgiving Everyone!

[Rick Barton]

...Make that "Happy Thanksgiving"...Hey, whats that "preview" button for? None of these threads are about movies...

[Jeff Smith]

None of this will ever be "undone". That's
why this is such a pathetic failure on the
part of the Republicans, the party of "limited
government" except when it comes to buying
their way to another four years. What is the
point of getting elected if you then don't do
anything because you are too timid? They are
just dime store democrats.

The *truly* bizarre thing, though, is the story
over on Yahoo! about rebellion among AARP members
because the 400 billion isn't enough.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20031126/ap_on_re_us/medicare_aarp_2

Gimme, gimme, gimme indeed.

Remind me again why people who get regular
checks from the government should be able to
vote ...

Jeff

[Matthew Cromer]

What an absolute disgrace.

Let's hope the folks up in New Hampshire succeed in their project and withdraw that state from this kind of idiotic federal stupidity.

[not Weishaupt]

Okay, Logan's Run time. All in favor? And a very happy Thanksgiving from your friends in the (not just yet) frozen north. Pass the stuffing.

[David T]

Rick Barton: In the nature of things, Congressional Republicans will *never* exercise the restraint over spending with a Republican president that they do with a Democratic one. Period.

If you want some spending restraint, a Democratic president and a GOP Congress is your best bet.

[Ruthless]

Somewhere in here should be inserted what I got from another Reason posting, namely we already have more socialized medicine than Scandinavian countries--measured by gummint medical spending per capita.
It's going to take something much more drastic than a democratic president and a GOP Congress to reverse it.
Besides, where's the "sample ballot" to produce even that?

[xray]

The only way it will be undone is when America has a president honest enough to exercise Clintonian restraint on spending.

[Rick Barton]

The spending restraint didn't come at Clinton's behest. It was a feisty GOP congress and prodding
from Alan Greenspan. We have got to get the Republicans to put the same clamps on Bush's big spending agenda instead of underwriting it.

[M. Simon]

You know I would put more blame on the drug companies than on the boomers.

A lot of shit is being done in our name that is not in our interest. The only clamoring for this legislation came from Congress and the drug companies.

Oh, yeah. And the Old Farts Lobby. (AARP). The fact that a lobby group wants something is not necessisarily a sign that the members of the group want it.

[R C Dean]

I see no way to undo this without completely restructuring Medicare, and no way to completely restructure Medicare unless and until there is a truly catastrophic crisis.

The feds should start sending everyone a small tube of KY jelly with their tax forms. As they say in the service, BOHICA.

[StMack]

Long before a crisis leads to the implosion and restructuring of the system, they will invent a financial crisis then confiscate the money from the rest of us to soleve it and the system will endure. It will probably take something as grand as the Free State Project to succede to force any real change.

[Watanabe Tsune]

EMAIL: [e-mail]
IP: 62.213.67.122
URL: http://www.enlargement-for-penis.com
DATE: 01/26/2004 08:24:36
You get what anyone gets. You get a lifetime.