2012 Presidential Election

[SoCal]

If the democrats in today's congress and senate heard this speech today, they would throw JFK out of the party.

Interesting how much he sounds like today's republican party AND Paul Ryan.

[Mistermoonlight]

This is exactly what I'm saying in terms of a true leader not being constrained by party politics. Kennedy scholars know that he began his political career as a Conservative Democratic Senator, was good friends with Richard Nixon, and even espoused notorious Republican Joe McCarthy in his his vendetta against the government.

That incident, all-too-much like the current catcalls of 'socialism' by the right are all too similar to the partisan trumped-up charges against President Barack Obama and his vilification by conservatives, except that in the prevous case it was an ever-changing number of 'communists' who served in the State Department. This went on until McCarthy was taken down in disgrace by journalist Edward R. Murrow (of CBS) and members of his own Republican party.

But Kennedy's views changed as he learned more about the challenges America faced, He was on the forefront of leading the cause for equal rights among Americans, even going so far as to call in federal troops to insure that African American James Meridith could attend college at Ole Miss.

It is precisely this change in viewpoint, that we've seen before in Supreme Court justices, but hardly ever in holders of the highest office in America that makes him a hero. He grew as he got more experience.

Again, research will do wonders in estabishing context and meaning. I've just finished my third book on Kennedy's Presidency.

Kennedy was one of the few presidents in modern times who was able and unafraid to reach across to the other side of the aisle.

My favorite quote of his in the book Jack Kennedy: Elusive Hero by Chris Matthews is:

"The best politician is the one who does not think too much of the political consequences of his every act."

Every American should pay attention to that quote and cast off the falsely created limits that bind them within a two-party system.

So. beholden to no one with his family's great wealth he sent us to the moon, championed the cause of a system such as Medicare to take care of those elder Americans who had no safety net, and created the Peace Corps, an organization in which young Americans like him could serve not only our country but the world at large. He also sought and got an agreement with Russia that resulted in the dramatic reduction of nuclear warhead and testing of them.

Just like in the 1960s, Kennedy would win in a heartbeat even without changing any of his views. And don't kid yourself, for he never would. He was and is a Democrat.

By the way, if you ever should wonder I'll be glad to tell you why there were so many conservative Democrats in the south up until the 1964 election--and why there should be again, as well as why there should be a Centrist third party that works.

[Aeryn]

Aug 13, 2012 22:16:50 GMT -5 SoCal said:

If the democrats in today's congress and senate heard this speech today, they would throw JFK out of the party.

Interesting how much he sounds like today's republican party AND Paul Ryan.

I absolutely agree with you.

[Mistermoonlight]

Aug 13, 2012 23:57:18 GMT -5 Aeryn said:

Aug 13, 2012 22:16:50 GMT -5 SoCal said:

If the democrats in today's congress and senate heard this speech today, they would throw JFK out of the party.

Interesting how much he sounds like today's republican party AND Paul Ryan.

I absolutely agree with you.

Again, a lesson from history. As you see in the video Kennedy proposed a series of tax cuts that were to take effect a month and a half after an assassin's bullets took him down. They would have taken effect January 1st, 1963, and totalled $10 billion dollars over the next three years.

When Lyndon Johnson ascended to the Presidency he pushed through most of JFK's legacy, including an $11.5 billion dollar tax cut that took place in 1964 and 1965.

Additionally Johnson successfully had President Kennedy's Civil Rights legislation enacted, as well as his planned amendment to the Social Security Act that resulted in creating a safety net for America's senior citizens and poor that was christened Medicare.

Johnson's enacted Great Society proposal of 1965 included:

• aid to education,
  
• attack on disease
  
• Medicare,
  
• urban renewal
  
• beautification,
  
• conservation
  
• development of depressed regions and a wide-scale fight against poverty,
  
• control and prevention of crime and delinquency, and
  
• removal of barriers to the right to vote.
  

,
These were funded by the enhanced revenues created by those tax cuts.

This is what it means to have an America in which ideas are debated on their individual merits rather than locked-in-step party platforms.

We can have it again.

All we have to do is not wait for those in power or seeking power to tell us what to think, and instead do a little research of our own and decide what is right for us as voters, irregardless of what a political party or some ratings-seeking blowhard on radio or TV tells us we should believe .

"The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposing ideas in mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function."

"Either you think -- or else others have to think for you . . ."

--both quotes by F. Scott Fitzgerald

Sources: www.u-s-history.com/pages/h2292.html
www.answers.com/topic/what-presidents-have-proposed-tax-cuts-to-stimulate-the-economy

[Aeryn]

Aug 14, 2012 11:51:14 GMT -5 Mistermoonlight said:

Aug 13, 2012 23:57:18 GMT -5 Aeryn said:

I absolutely agree with you.

Again, a lesson from history. As you see in the video Kennedy proposed a series of tax cuts that were to take effect a month and a half after an assassin's bullets took him down. They would have taken effect January 1st, 1963, and totalled $10 billion dollars over the next three years.

When Lyndon Johnson ascended to the Presidency he pushed through most of JFK's legacy, including an $11.5 billion dollar tax cut that took place in 1964 and 1965.

Additionally Johnson successfully had President Kennedy's Civil Rights legislation enacted, as well as his planned amendment to the Social Security Act that resulted in creating a safety net for America's senior citizens and poor that was christened Medicare.

Johnson's enacted Great Society proposal of 1965 included:

• aid to education,
  
• attack on disease
  
• Medicare,
  
• urban renewal
  
• beautification,
  
• conservation
  
• development of depressed regions and a wide-scale fight against poverty,
  
• control and prevention of crime and delinquency, and
  
• removal of barriers to the right to vote.
  

,
These were funded by the enhanced revenues created by those tax cuts.

This is what it means to have an America in which ideas are debated on their individual merits rather than locked-in-step party platforms.

We can have it again.

All we have to do is not wait for those in power or seeking power to tell us what to think, and instead do a little research of our own and decide what is right for us as voters, irregardless of what a political party or some ratings-seeking blowhard on radio or TV tells us we should believe .

"The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposing ideas in mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function."

"Either you think -- or else others have to think for you . . ."

--both quotes by F. Scott Fitzgerald

Sources: www.u-s-history.com/pages/h2292.html
www.answers.com/topic/what-presidents-have-proposed-tax-cuts-to-stimulate-the-economy

[SoCal]

Obama Conceded in 2009 that 1/3 of Obamacare Funding Is Taken from Medicare

In 2009, President Barack Obama conceded that 1/3 of Obamacare funding is taken from Medicare:


ABC's JAKE TAPPER: "One of the concerns about health care and how you pay for it -- one third of the funding comes from cuts to Medicare."

BARACK OBAMA: "Right."

TAPPER: "A lot of times, as you know, what happens in Congress is somebody will do something bold and then Congress, close to election season, will undo it."

OBAMA: "Right."

TAPPER: "You saw that with the 'doc fix.'"

OBAMA: "Right."

TAPPER: "Are you willing to pledge that whatever cuts in Medicare are being made to fund health insurance, one third of it, that you will veto anything that tries to undo that?"

OBAMA: "Yes. I actually have said that it is important for us to make sure this thing is deficit neutral, without tricks. I said I wouldn't sign a bill that didn't meet that criteria."

[SoCal]

by Tony Lee 14 Aug 2012, 3:48 AM PDT

On a day in which GM announced it was recalling at least 38,000 of its vehicles due to a crash risk, the Treasury Department said in a new report that it now expects to lose $25 billion on the auto bailout, which is $3.3 billion more than was previously forecast.
According to The Detroit News, the report may actually underestimate the losses and comes on the day in which GM’s stock price fell $.07 to $22.20 a share. At this price, the government, which spent $50 billion of taxpayer monies to bailout GM, would lose another $850 million on its “investment” in GM.
The report notes the government still has 500 million shares of GM and needs to sell those shares at $53 a share for the government to break even on the GM bailout. This seems unlikely, and officials said no sale will take place before the November election.
The government holds another 74 percent state in an auto finance company, which is part of another bailout portfolio in which the government invested $17.2 billion. They have only recovered $5.7 billion to date.

And the recalls are not going to help GM become more profitable.
According to Reuters, over 38,000 Impalas -- including 36,413 police cars in the U.S. and 1,713 more in Canada -- from model years 2008 to 2012 will be recalled, and the recalls should begin on August 21st. Non-police versions will not be impacted.

National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) documents revealed that the cars are being recalled because defects “can lead to loss of control of the car.”


Meanwhile GM’s CEO Dan Akerson said he would take actions to boost the company’s stock price, and this could mean a doubling down on the company’s subprime lending. The Obama administration has crusaded against subprime lenders except when those lenders -- like GM Financial -- can benefit the administration politically.

[SoCal]

by Mike Flynn 14 Aug 2012, 5:41 AM PDT

The Obama campaign, lacking much else to run on, wants to make this election a referendum on who best can help the "middle class." To bolster his case, he cites various targeted government benefits and programs he supports which hand out taxpayer money to favored groups or activities. But, these government programs do little to support the overall economy, which is the engine of our prosperity. Without robust economic growth, the "middle class" will see its fortunes shrink. This is the first in a series examining how Obama's policies have harmed the "middle class."
Appropriately, we'll begin this series with jobs and employment. A job, after all, is the necessary first rung on the ladder to the middle class. A job provides some measure of financial stability and, more importantly, independence. It is the basic building block of American society. Unfortunately, under Obama, it is becoming an unattainable goal for many people.

In January 2009, when Obama took office, not long before the official end of the recession, there were 11.6 million people unemployed. Last month, there were 12.8 million people unemployed. So, there are 1.2 million more people unemployed than when Obama took office. But, wait, its worse than that, because our population grew over the past three years.

In January 2009, the civilian labor force--the pool of available workers--was 153.7 million. In July, 2012 it was 155 million workers. If employment stayed at the same level as January 09, we would have around 10 million unemployed workers, instead of the 12.8 million we have now. So, in real terms, we have 2 million more unemployed persons than we did when Obama took office.

You can have all your happy talk about jobs created this month or that, but throughout Obama's term, 2 million more people are unemployed. Keep in mind, this doesn't count the people that are discouraged and have left the labor force entirely.

And, it isn't just the top-line jobless number that has deteriorated under Obama. When he took office 2.6 million workers were "long-term" unemployed. Last month, that number had doubled to 5.2 million. When he took his oath of office, 7.8 million workers were in part-time jobs because they couldn't find full-time work. Last month, that number had grown to 8.2 million.

Again, remember, we had significant population growth over these three and a half years. Not only are we not keeping up with this growth, we're falling further behind.

So, yes, Obama has a plan for a sprinkling of tax credits. He will use the Treasury to make student loans slightly cheaper. He will continue to trim payroll taxes at the expense of the Social Security trust fund. But, his policies will do nothing to correct the existential threat to our economy; the lack of jobs.

Talk about protecting the "middle class" is cheap. Obama is good at cheap talk. Unfortunately, he's not so good at supporting policies to help people get there

[SoCal]

Joe Biden is a fucking moron.

HE is reason enough to vote Obama and himself out of office.



Biden tells audience GOP, banks would put them 'back in chains'By NBC's Carrie Dann


Updated 1:23 p.m. - DANVILLE, VA -- Vice President Joe Biden said Tuesday that a Republican-led effort to loosen new regulations on Wall Street would put voters "back in chains."

"Romney wants to, he said in the first 100 days, he's gonna let the big banks again write their own rules," Biden said of the GOP nominee's proposals to roll back the Obama administration's financial reforms. "'Unchain Wall Street!'"

Lowering his voice, Biden added, "They're going to put you all back in chains."


Travis Long / AP

Vice President Joe Biden speaks to campaign supporters at the Durham Armory in Durham, N.C.
Danville city is about 48 percent black, according to 2011 census numbers. The audience of about 800 at the Institute for Advanced Learning and Research here in Danville reflected the area's demography.

"As the full quote makes obvious, the vice president was clearly using a metaphor to describe the devastating impact of deregulating Wall Street and the financial industry, as well as how Governor Romney’s policies would take us back to the same failed formula that led to the 2008 financial crisis – the same failed formula that benefitted a few, but crashed our economy and hurt the middle class," an Obama campaign official said after Biden's speech.

The Romney campaign reacted sharply to the vice president's remarks.

"After weeks of slanderous and baseless accusations leveled against Governor Romney, the Obama campaign has reached a new low. The comments made by the Vice President of the United States are not acceptable in our political discourse and demonstrate yet again that the Obama campaign will say and do anything to win this election," said Romney spokeswoman Andrea Saul. "President Obama should tell the American people whether he agrees with Joe Biden’s comments."

The vice president's remarks came during a rally, where he described Romney's choice of Paul Ryan as his running mate as a "good thing" that clarifies the race and makes the contest more like one against an incumbent with a concrete record.

"This is a good thing, a good thing for the country that we have this stark, stark choice," he said, referencing items from Ryan's much-discussed budget plan.

Appearing in Virginia, just a few miles from the North Carolina border, Biden won cheers despite mixing up the hard fought battlegrounds where he's stopping on his three-day swing this week.

"With you, we can win North Carolina again, and if we do, we win the election if we win with you," he said to applause.

Biden campaigned in North Carolina yesterday. He has two campaign events in Virginia today.

[Mistermoonlight]

I agree with Joe 100%.

Look at what the deregulation of financial industries did to the country not too long ago--pushed us to the precipice of insolvency with widespread abuse throughout the system, caused by predators who found that they could now easily use whatever means they could conceive of, mindless of the cost to others, to line their own pockets.

This is one of the shortcomings of capitalism. Unchecked, there are always those motivated by greed who will attempt to get away with murder.

I doubt most of the American public has forgotten what happened just a few short years past, even though some folks would like it better if they did.

[SoCal]

Unbelieveable that you would agree with Hairplugs Biden's race baiting in a community that is majority black by referring to republicans "returning them to chains."

That is one of the most irresponsible and stupid things I've heard him say lately, and God knows, Hairplugs say A LOT of stupid things.

[Mistermoonlight]

I have no doubt that those chains are equal opportunity offenders and are there for those of any race who should get mired in them, due to a lack of oversight and regulation.

Republicans have repeatedly called for the 'unshackling' of regulations on the banking industry. It's the same metaphor.*

Here's the video of that portion of the speech.



It's not scary at all. What is perhaps more unnerving to the Romney campaign is that it is an attack on his major donors:



After I try to find my car elevator I'll look forward to Jon Stewart's comments on the story, no matter which direction he takes and will post them here tomorrow.

*www.mediaite.com/tv/obama-campaign-spokesperson-bidens-chains-comment-just-like-republicans-saying-unshackling/

[SoCal]

In my opinion, the only "industry" that needs oversight and regulation is the federal government.

They take our hard earned money and spend it frivolously, treating it like a windfall the political class has every right to spend.

And I probably wouldn't be so outraged at Hairplugs Biden except that democrats get a "free pass" when it comes to offensive speeh.

Did Robert Byrd get a pass as a former high ranking member of the Ku Klux Klan? Yes, and he was lauded as the "lion of the Senate."
Biden says that Obama is "the first sort of main stream African American, who's articulate and bright and clean."
Harry Reid says Obama "could be a successful candidate because he is "light skinned" and that he speaks with "no Negro dialect, unless he wanted to have one."


Where is the outrage? Where are Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton? Hiding because they would never criticize a democrat who opens his mouth and inserts his foot.

There is only only party held to a higher, unbalanced standard and that is the republican party.

[SoCal]

FINALLY!!!!

Someone has the balls to say what most Americans really think:

Former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani told CNBC’s Larry Kudlow tonight that Vice President Biden may be unfit for office. Here’s the transcript:

KUDLOW: You know, what did he say? ‘Y’all going to be put back in chains’? That almost has racial overtones, Rudy Giuliani. What’s your take on that?

GIULIANI: Well, I think if it came from somebody serious maybe we’d get all excited about it. But the — I think the vice president of the United States has become a laugh line on late night television. I mean, he — I’ve never seen a vice president that has made as many mistakes, said as many stupid things. I mean, there’s a real fear if, God forbid, he ever had to be entrusted with the presidency, whether he really has the mental capacity to handle it. I mean, this guy just isn’t bright. He’s never been bright. He isn’t bright. And people think, ‘Well, he just talks a little too much.’ Actually he’s not very smart.

[SoCal]

August 14, 2012 4:00 A.M.

Obama’s Legend
Reagan dug himself out of a far deeper hole than Obama’s.
By Michael Novak


President Obama hangs his whole campaign narrative on one legend, and it is false.

The legend: that Obama began in 2009 from the worst financial hole since the Depression.

Not true. The economic hole in which Ronald Reagan began in 1981 was far deeper.

In January 2009, Obama inherited an unemployment rate of 7.6 percent. Average inflation for the previous year was 3.8 percent. The rate for a 30-year fixed-rate home mortgage was 6 percent.

In 1981, Ronald Reagan inherited an unemployment rate of 7.5 percent and on a steep uptick. The inflation rate was 13.5 percent. And the rate for a new home mortgage was 13.7 percent. The purchasing power of those on fixed incomes had fallen by 30 percent under Carter, throwing millions of seniors and others below the poverty line. There were gasoline shortages and long, long lines at filling stations. Carter himself described the mess the country was in as a “malaise.” Economists had to coin a new word for it, “stagflation”– a supposedly impossible combination of very high inflation with even higher unemployment. Carter based his presidential campaign on raising taxes on millionaires, crusading against “the three-martini lunch” (more likely among TV stars, agents, journalists, and others in the Manhattan crowd than among businessmen; it was a small and petty campaign based on resentment).


Closing out his fourth year in office in 1984, Reagan had brought the unemployment rate down to almost 7.3 percent. By the end of his second term, unemployment was 5.4 percent and the inflation rate had plummeted to 4.3 percent. During his full eight years, the economic incentives he put in place led to the creation of 16 million new jobs and the formation of some 2 million new small businesses. More Americans between the ages of 18 and 65 were employed than ever before, and the labor force had grown to historic proportions, partly because of an unprecedented number of women entering it.

Under Reagan, the gross national product, spurred by incentives rather than punishments, grew by $2.44 trillion, almost 83 percent. In other words, Reagan almost doubled the nation’s GNP — its national wealth and world-leading strength. He increased the amount of revenues through income taxes from $249 billion in 1980 to $413 billion in 1988. The wealthiest 1 percent paid a full 27.6 percent of the income-tax burden (up from 18.9 percent under Carter), and the share of total income taxes paid by the middle class went from 43.7 percent in 1980 down to 37 percent in 1988. The greatest boom in world history was under way, and Reagan’s reelection campaign motto was “Morning in America.”

Closing out his fourth year in office, President Obama has an 8.3 percent unemployment rate, the lowest rate of participation in the labor force in 30 years (63.7 percent), and more Americans out of work and out of the work force than in any of the preceding 30 years. There are also over 7 million more persons in poverty now than when he took office, a jump from 39.8 million to 47 million. And yet he chose “Forward” for his campaign slogan.

Reagan had an unusually high respect for incentives as a spur to job creation. Give people an incentive, they jump through hoops to earn it. They take the risk of forming small businesses by the tens of thousands, and they launch wholly new industries.

By contrast, President Obama seems to hold incentives in contempt. Imitating Jimmy Carter (with predictably similar results), he styles himself a “fairness president,” and sets up policies designed to punish those with incomes above $250,000. His campaign is mostly against millionaires. He will reap less investment, fewer inventions and new job-creating industries, and lower tax revenues paid by the wealthy. He is already producing malaise.

In brief, Reagan dug himself out of the far deeper hole; Obama has not yet dug his way out of his much shallower one.

Feel sorry for President Obama if you wish (he does). But feel more mightily sorry for the president who has to dig out from the ugly pit Obama will leave for his successor.

The next president will inherit the most massive national debt in history, which is pulling down the nation’s future by the weight of a trillion new dollars each year. On top of that, excruciatingly painful unemployment. On top of that, the shamefully unreformed Medicare system doomed, its own trustees say, to go broke by 2024 — just before any Americans under the age of 54 will be arriving into its dark emptiness.

— Michael Novak is distinguished visiting professor at Ave Maria University and a co-author, with Jana Novak, of Washington’s God: Religion, Liberty, and the Father of Our Country.

[Mistermoonlight]

Aug 14, 2012 18:46:20 GMT -5 SoCal said:

FINALLY!!!!

Someone has the balls to say what most Americans really think:

Former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani told CNBC’s Larry Kudlow tonight that Vice President Biden may be unfit for office. Here’s the transcript:

KUDLOW: You know, what did he say? ‘Y’all going to be put back in chains’? That almost has racial overtones, Rudy Giuliani. What’s your take on that?

GIULIANI: Well, I think if it came from somebody serious maybe we’d get all excited about it. But the — I think the vice president of the United States has become a laugh line on late night television. I mean, he — I’ve never seen a vice president that has made as many mistakes, said as many stupid things. I mean, there’s a real fear if, God forbid, he ever had to be entrusted with the presidency, whether he really has the mental capacity to handle it. I mean, this guy just isn’t bright. He’s never been bright. He isn’t bright. And people think, ‘Well, he just talks a little too much.’ Actually he’s not very smart.

Let's remind everyone that Rudy Giuliani, once a Democrat, became a Republican in the 1980s.

[SoCal]

Let's remind everyone that Jim Jeffords, once a republican became a democrat.

Let's remin everyone that Ronald Reagan, once a democrat, became a republican.

[Mistermoonlight]

Who's driving the Weinermobile now that Ryan is unavailable?

[SoCal]

Who's in charge of the Choom Gang now that Barry's otherwise occupied?

And.....at least Paul Ryan had a JOB as a teenager. That's where he learned the value of hard work and keeping what you earn to spend a you see fit. Barry was too busy doing blow to learn what real work is like.

[3sheets2thewind]

"Vulture and Voucher"

What a gift to the working class voter.

[SoCal]

Aw, gee......you shouldn't talk about Barry and Hairplugs that way.

[3sheets2thewind]

Aug 14, 2012 21:19:59 GMT -5 SoCal said:

Aw, gee......you shouldn't talk about Barry and Hairplugs that way.

Affordable HealthCare

“Let me tell you why I say that. Obamacare raises taxes on the American people by approximately $500 billion,” Romney told reporters. “Obamacare cuts Medicare by approximately $500 billion. And even with those cuts, and tax increases, Obamacare adds trillions to our deficits and to our national debt, and pushes those obligations onto coming generations.”

So, where does the Romney campaign come up with those numbers?

They cite a memo written by Richard Foster, chief actuary of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (part of the U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services), that claims the ACA will, says Romney, “cut Medicare by more than $500 billion.”

So does it “cut” Medicare by $500 billion?

Medicare spending will continue to grow, according to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), but ACA will slow that growth. According to a report from the Kaiser Family Health Foundation over the next 10 years, the federal government will devote about $500 billion less to Medicare than it would have without ACA.

CMS and the Kaiser Family Foundation tell ABC News that there will be no benefit cuts to Medicare. They say instead of Medicare’s being cut, there will be much more spending at the end of a 10-year window, but it does slow the rate of that growth. This is all unless Congress makes drastic changes to Medicare, for example passing House Budget Chairman Rep. Paul Ryan’s Medicare Plan.

CMS says—and Kaiser agrees—that spending will be reduced by getting rid of fraud and ending overpayments to private insurance companies. It sends a message to those insurance companies: Operate more efficiently.

And instead of cuts, the CMS says they will be able to fund new benefits, including free preventive care and broader prescription coverage, including closing the “doughnut hole” affecting seniors.

abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2012/06/fact-checking-romney-does-health-reform-cut-medicare-levy-500-billion-tax/

RyanCare

Premium support” or voucher proposals for Medicare are a mainstay of conservative health policy. They have been defeated for over three decades, starting with President Reagan’s FY 1981 budget proposal. They are a key feature of “managed competition” -- type reform proposals. Although President Clinton embraced managed competition in his ill-fated health reform bill, he vetoed the 1995 Balanced Budget Act which would have turned Medicare into a voucher program. Premium support proposals were defeated again in 1997 and 2003.

Sen. Paul Ryan (R-WI), chairman of the House Budget Committee and candidate for Vice President on the presumptive GOP ticket with Mitt Romney, resurrected the idea of a premium support proposal for Medicare in April, 2011. Seniors would receive a fixed federal contribution or “defined contribution” to apply towards the cost of a private plan, and traditional Medicare, with its guaranteed coverage, or “defined benefits,” would be eliminated. The plan also called for increasing the age of Medicare eligibility from 65 to 67.

A so-called bi-partisan variant of this scheme was proposed by Ryan in November, 2011, with Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR); in this version traditional Medicare would continue to be an option alongside private plans, and subsidy levels would be set at the cost of the next-to-cheapest plan, as determined by competitive bidding rather than be set by CMS. Medicare growth would be capped at GDP + 1 percent.

www.pnhp.org/news/2012/august/ryans-premium-support-proposal-for-medicare-myths-and-facts



Myths about PI and Medicare......

1. Myth: Private health insurance is more efficient than Medicare. Fact: Medicare has controlled costs better than private insurance and has much lower administrative overhead. According to CMS, Medicare spending rose by an average of 4.6 percent each year between 1997 and 2009, while private insurance premiums grew at a rate of 6.7 percent each year. The CBO has estimated that the private insurance equivalent of Medicare would cost almost 40 percent more in 2022 for a typical 65- year old. Administrative costs in Medicare are less than 2 percent of expenditures, compared to 17 percent of revenues for private insurers.

2. Myth: Expanding private plans in Medicare will reduce Medicare’s costs. Fact: Private Medicare Advantage plans have raised Medicare costs. Private insurers profit by selectively enrolling the healthy and shunning the sick, as documented in a New England Journal of Medicine article subtitled “The healthy go in and the sick go out.” Hence, they collect premiums paid by the Medicare program, and provide little care. As a result, the Congressional Budget Office estimates that Medicare Advantage plans cost Medicare 12 percent more per enrollee than the traditional program. New research from the National Bureau of Economic Research indicates that the true cost of private plans to Medicare may be much higher than the CBO estimate. Since Medicare launched a new risk adjustment scheme based on 70 diagnostic codes in 2004, overpayments to private plans have increased dramatically and accounted for $30 billion in excess spending, or 8 percent of total Medicare spending, in 2006 alone. Since then the overpayments have likely risen as the proportion of Medicare recipients in private plans has jumped from 16 percent to 24 percent.

3. Myth: Premium support will reduce Medicare’s costs. Fact: Premium support plans don’t reduce costs, they shift them onto the patient. The rising cost of premiums will quickly outstrip the value of the fixed federal contribution, and seniors will have to pay more in either premiums or out-of-pocket payments for care. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that the Ryan proposal would more than double out-of-pocket costs for the typical 65 year old Medicare beneficiary in 2022 from $5,630 to $12,500.

4. Myth: Competition among private plans will control costs. Fact: Private plans profit by competing to enroll the healthy and shun the sick. The industry is so consolidated that there is no effective competition in most regions of the country.

5.Myth: Paying private plans in Medicare via “competitive bidding” will lower costs. Fact: There’s no evidence for this. Private plans compete by selectively enrolling healthier beneficiaries. Private insurers have been competing on price in the under 65 market for decades, yet costs and premiums have skyrocketed even as benefits and choices have been reduced.

6. Myth: Premium support will increase choice for seniors: Fact: Premium support will decrease choice for seniors. Private plans with limited networks dictate which physicians seniors may see and which hospitals they may use. Medicare gives beneficiaries completely free choice of physician and hospital.

7.Myth: Competition among private insurers will reduce administrative costs. Fact: Premium support will likely boost administrative costs since patients will move from the low-overhead traditional Medicare program to private plans with far higher overhead.

8. Myth: There are no alternatives to reduce Medicare spending besides premium support. False: There are many better options for reducing Medicare spending, including the 9 listed below. Ultimately, the only way to preserve Medicare is to replace it with a single payer program with comprehensive benefits and effective cost controls. Currently Medicare is only one payer among thousands of different plans. Only a true single payer covering the entire population can slash administrative costs and control costs with budgets, negotiated fee schedules and drug prices, and health planning. Separate budgets for hospital operating costs and capital investment will permit the real health planning needed to reduce the costly and dangerous proliferation of expensive high-tech facilities.

Nine ways to reduce Medicare costs now -

1. Eliminate Medicare Advantage plans.

2. Give Medicare the power to negotiate drug prices.

3. Eliminate private Part D plans, which have high overhead, and replace them with a public drug benefit along traditional Medicare principles

4. Proscribe participation by for-profit providers, and mandate that participating providers (like hospitals) not pay any individual more than the president of the U.S.

5. Extend the self-referral ban to include doctors who refer patients to their own MRI, CT, PET, and other complex imaging equipment (about half of total cardiologists income currently comes from imaging studies that they order and perform).

6. Ban participating physicians from prescribing medications or medical devices (including orthopedic and cardiac implants) produced by drug or device makers from whom they receive payments.

7. Reduce fees paid to the highest paid specialists, generally those who prescribe or use expensive drugs and devices. Doctors should be paid for the time they actually put in.

8. Revamp Medicare's payment policies for subacute hospital care and so called "long-term acute care" (LTAC). Hospitals currently collect a set fee based on diagnosis for the acute hospital stay, and quickly transfer Medicare patients to a second inpatient facility that collects an additional fee. The result of this financial incentive has been a huge upswing in subacute and LTAC utilization, without any evidence that patients benefit. A colleague who is knowledgeable on this issue informs us that the proportion of Medicare patients with a subacute or LTAC admission after discharge from an acute care hospital has gone from 10 percent to 28 percent since these financial incentives came into effect, with about 600 LTACs appearing de novo.

9. Abolish the Medicare pay-for-performance and ACO schemes, which are causing increases in administrative costs without any evidence of benefit.

9. Myth: Medicare is already a single payer system. Fact: Currently Medicare is only one payer among thousands of different plans. Only a true single payer covering the entire population can slash administrative costs, implement effective cost-control methods like globally budgeting hospitals, negotiating fees, and doing real health planning with teeth to reduce the costly and dangerous proliferation of expensive high-tech facilities

10. Myth: Premium support will provide all seniors with the security that quality, affordable coverage will always be there. False: Premium support eliminates traditional Medicare with its defined benefits and substitutes a fixed contribution that, over time, will cover less care. Only a single payer plan can control costs while eliminating financial barriers to care for all. Ultimately, the only way to preserve Medicare is to replace it with a single payer program with comprehensive benefits and effective cost controls.

www.pnhp.org/news/2012/august/ryans-premium-support-proposal-for-medicare-myths-and-facts

Thank you very much, but I will stay with the AFFORDABLE Healthcare Act...

[SoCal]

REPEAL OBAMACARE!!!!

[KyleEl]

Aug 13, 2012 17:38:30 GMT -5 Mistermoonlight said:

And it's true, Dick Cheney did not choose himself.That was Haliburton.

Let me clarify. Cheney, by accepting when he was asked, chose to have a moron for a running mate. Everyone knows who REALLY ran this country for eight years.

[KyleEl]

Aug 14, 2012 14:41:17 GMT -5 SoCal said:

Obama Conceded in 2009 that 1/3 of Obamacare Funding Is Taken from Medicare

In 2009, President Barack Obama conceded that 1/3 of Obamacare funding is taken from Medicare:

Mike Huckabee said Ryan was the perfect choice because Obama would try to claim Ryan would take away Medicare, except Obama has already done it!

[KyleEl]

I knew I'd forget something. I saw two separate editorial cartoons in actual newspapers at the library where Romney and Obama were playing badminton.

[Aeryn]

I don't like Obama, and the more I look at Romney, the more I think he's the Anti-Christ.

Crystal the monkey should run. She'd have my vote.

[Mistermoonlight]

[Mistermoonlight]

Aug 15, 2012 13:56:33 GMT -5 Aeryn said:

I don't like Obama, and the more I look at Romney, the more I think he's the Anti-Christ.

Crystal the monkey should run. She'd have my vote.

Damn you. Now I have to rethink everything.

[SoCal]

That's for the superfical people who think "looking cool" is what matters.