Where Do We Go From Here?

Sometimes one can find gems in comments. These two were at Gawker.com of all places, on the post with the video of : Bill Clinton and Paul Ryan whispering about Medicare:

“JackPaper”:

Your premise ignores the fact that getting health care costs under control would a) help Medicare immeasurably, b) help the overall economy more than almost any other single thing we can do, and c) be the harder choice and achievement.

There are people who believe two things above all others: 1) we can solve any financial problem by cutting taxes on the wealthy, and 2) we shouldn’t try to solve the hard problems, but should, instead, pretend to solve them by cutting anything that helps secure a better life for people who are not extremely wealthy. I’m not accusing you of being one of them, but they do exist, and they are called Republicans.

If restoring long-term solvency to Social Security and Medicare was their goal, Paul Ryan could have come up with a plan to do exactly that. That would be absolutely antithetical to their goal. They want these programs to appear to be unsustainable, and fail, as they want all government programs that don’t pay a lot of money to outside contractors (like the DOD) to fail. It’s the foundation of today’s Republican philosophy. There is nothing they want to build, nothing they want to grow, nothing they want to improve. They simply want to make the case that the government is overspent and should be dramatically cut back, with no consideration for the consequences. Which might even be okay, except that they created most of the deficit while they owned both houses of Congress and the White House.

Now, “Jackpepper”responded:

I firmly believe that any true Medicare reform must include some type of cost-controlling – but be clear that Medicare is part of the problem vis a vis medical costs because Medicare, as it currently exists, encourages unnecessary and expensive tests while discouraging any sort of cost-benefit analysis to providing health care. I know this sounds heartless, and it is, but spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to keep people alive whose brains are functionally dead is simply not worth it.

To your second point I would add this: There are people who believe two things above all others: 1) we can solve any financial problem by taxing the wealthy, and 2) we shouldn’t try to solve the hard problems, but should, instead pretend to solve them by promising people that they can have whatever they want as long as they force a small percentage of the population to pay for it. I am not accusing you of being one of them, but they do exist, and they are called Democrats.

If Democrats actually cared about Medicare or Social Security in the long run, rather than their immediate re-election prospects, they would put forward plans that actually reform these programs. If they actually cared about health care reform, they wouldn’t have granted a significant number of opt-outs from PPACA coverage to their political supporters. If they actually cared about anything except re-election, Democrats would have affirmatively put forth a budget plan that made politically risky decisions instead of just waiting for the other side to do so and then basing their plan on how its better than what the Republicans suggested.

Of course Jackpaper believing that Republicans only want a better life for the wealthy is absurd. Does it ever occur to liberals like himself that most Republicans are NOT wealthy? Does he honestly believe that we don’t want to secure a better life for ourselves? He should visit a Tea Party meeting. Solid middle class. : What Republicans want to grow is the economy and jobs, but don’t let that fact distract from your bias JackPaper.

I’m sure the liberals here could tell me why JackPepper’s comments about Democrats aren’t true. Feel free.

I posted these two comments to illustrate the ridiculous beliefs that are out there that prevent anything productive from being done. : As long as we keep throwing these tired talking points out there, we will never solve anything. I think we are all fed up with it. I’m afraid it will take everything falling apart for anything to be done, and by them it might be too late, and much suffering will happen.

So far, I support Paul Ryan’s plan not only because he seems to be the only one brave enough to truly address it and work hard doing so, but because what he clearly states makes the Democrat’s scare tactics, a lie.

He says his Medicare reform package “makes no changes for those in or near retirement, and offers future generations a strengthened Medicare program they can count on, with guaranteed coverage options, less help for the wealthy, and more help for the poor and the sick.”

Now, you can tell me that you think he’s lying, but I have seen no credible source that says that he is.

I have long complained here how ridiculous it is that wealthy Americans are automatically put on Medicare, when they don’t need it. This plan addresses just that.

Update: Let me address Paul Krugman’s Op Ed in the NYT, just because I know someone will bring it up. Let me say first that I don’t consider Krugman a credible source, and I don’t care what liberal prize he has won. His partisan blinders keep him from being anywhere near objective. He might as well be writing for the Daily Kos. Krugman says Ryan is lying about seniors getting the same coverage as Congress, but then he doesn’t say how! Sorry, that doesn’t fly. He’s writing for the NYT and he can’t back up a slur with facts? Not one? Congress gets to pick from three insurances that give them coverage. Ryan says that is what his plan proposes for seniors. So, how is he lying? Krugman doesn’t say. Then Krugman says another claim is “dubious.” Really? Just another way to say he disagrees with Ryan. Again, no facts to back that up. His whole piece seems to be based on the premise that medicare will be completely transformed as if that isn’t what Ryan has been saying all along! Ryan has never claimed that medicare would remain the same. Good grief. Krugman might as be a liberal troll commenting on a conservative blog. That is how he writes.

At least my liberal commenters back up what they say with sources and facts. Seriously. The ones I have here do a better job than Krugman.

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