The Ryan budget plan, Part II: Medicare
In his so-called “Path to Prosperity,” U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan pledges to “preserve America’s social contract with retired workers” by rescuing Medicare from collapse.
“Current retirees deserve the benefits around which they organized their lives,” the plan states. “Future generations deserve health and retirement security they can count on.”
Who's on Medicare? They are, and if you're lucky, you will be too someday. (AP photo)
There’s no question that Medicare is in real trouble. It is already placing enormous pressure on the federal budget, and once the Baby Boom generation begins to retire and claim their benefits, the stress will become untenable. Unfortunately, Ryan proposes to save Medicare by destroying it.
First, some basics. Under Ryan’s plan, Americans 55 and older will be guaranteed standard Medicare benefits. However, those who turn 65 after 2021 will be placed on an entirely different plan. They will in effect be given taxpayer-funded vouchers that they can use to purchase insurance from government-run exchanges, much like the much despised ObamaCare model.
However, those vouchers will not cover the entire cost of health insurance for those retirees. In fact, under the proposed formula, by 2021 those vouchers would probably cover roughly three-fourths of the cost of current Medicare coverage, and that percentage would decline in each succeeding year. Senior citizens would be forced to cover the difference out of their own pockets.
For some retirees, that would be manageable (the plan envisions unspecified higher subsidies for low-income retirees and those with more serious health problems.) But for others it would not, particularly as private and public pension plans falter and proposals are made to slash Social Security.
Ryan argues that the change from a government-managed plan to a voucher plan would actually drive down the cost of health insurance and make it more affordable for retirees. As the plan describes it, “50 million empowered seniors holding providers accountable in a true marketplace” will be more effective than the government in driving down health care and insurance costs.
“Putting patients in charge of how their health care dollars are spent will force providers to compete against each other on price and quality,” the plan argues. “That’s how markets work: The customer is the ultimate guarantor of value.”
There’s an idealism in that claim that is almost charming. The problem is, we have considerable data proving that such belief is nonsense. We know, for example, that since 1970, per capita costs for Medicare coverage have risen more slowly than per capita costs for private medical insurance. Ryan himself acknowledges that fact, complaining that Medicare pays hospitals and doctors less than private insurers while also claiming that “the open-ended, blank-check nature of the Medicare subsidy drives health-care inflation at an astonishing pace.”
When you make an apples-to-apples comparison in what are called common costs — defined as “benefits commonly covered by (both) Medicare and private health insurance” — the price-containment difference is even more stark. Since 1997, the per capita cost for such benefits provided by Medicare has risen at an average annual rate of 4.1 percent, compared to a rise of 6.6 percent among private insurers, a difference of more than 50 percent.
The truth is, individuals in the confusing, frightening and complicated health-care marketplace don’t have the information or analytical skills needed to drive a hard bargain with providers. That’s particularly true of an elderly demographic. If you doubt that, walk into a hospital and try to negotiate a better price for a knee replacement than Aetna or BlueCross has negotiated, using their experts and market power. You can’t do it.
These are not surprises. Nor are they design flaws. The Congressional Budget Office, in an analysis of the Medicare plan requested by Ryan, laid out its impacts in a letter last fall.
“Voucher recipients would probably have to purchase less extensive coverage or pay higher premiums than they would under current law, for two reasons. First, most of the savings for Medicare under the proposal stem from reducing the amounts that the federal government would pay for enrollees on a per capita basis, relative to the projections under current law. Second, future beneficiaries would probably face higher premiums in the private market for a package of benefits similar to that currently provided by Medicare.
For both Medicare and Medicaid, the budgetary effects would become larger over time because federal payments would tend to grow more slowly under the proposal than projected costs per enrollee under current law. Although the level of expected federal spending and the uncertainty surrounding that spending would decline, enrollees’ spending for health care and the uncertainty surrounding that spending would increase.”
Ryan bristles at the description of his approach as a voucher plan, preferring the term “premium support program,” but that’s what it is. But it’s a voucher plan. Through Medicare, this country has made a commitment to its senior citizens that they will not be denied needed medical care because they can’t afford it.
The Ryan approach to Medicare reform abandons that commitment. The best thing that can be said about it — and it’s a contribution not to be belittled — is that this proposal begins a much-needed conversation about how to tackle one of the most serious financial challenges facing us as a society.
That word, by the way, was not chosen lightly. How we treat our senior citizens is an issue for our society, not our government, to solve. It is a challenge to our values, our morals, our ethics and our humanity.
– Jay Bookman
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680 comments Add your comment
Left wing management
April 5th, 2011
10:53 pm
TGT: “Ah yes, another liberal with moving sentimentalities concerning the weaker among us”
What’s a ‘liberal’?
What’s helping the least among us got to do with being a ‘liberal’ (whatever that is) when 40 years ago any member of the Republican party would agree that it was an essential part of government?
And finally, what does helping the least have to do with sentimentalism or sentimentality? I can tell you that with me it’s not based in that, but rather on a self-interested desire to live in a society with some sort of equitable distribution of welfare combined with an outraged sense of justice when the powerful grow stupid and arrogant in their exercise of that power, failing to remember that they’re part of a society with others.
Was it ’sentimentality’ that motivated Saint Just and Robespierre to run heads through the guillotine? I’m really not sure it was, on balance, but more of an outraged sense of justice.
Don't Forget
April 5th, 2011
10:54 pm
Lil’ Barry Bailout
April 5th, 2011
10:37 pm
Georgia, Texas, Norway, Malaysia, Brazil, India. Why?
Just can’t hold a job huh?
getalife
April 5th, 2011
10:55 pm
Josef,
Not at all.
He pushes good people to their limit.
I don’t recall ever seen HD leave like that.
I doubt lil bar will be here tomorrow but I do think he needs financial help like many Americans.
Mick
April 5th, 2011
10:55 pm
I’ll testify to that, HD is certainly good people, as are many others….it’s somewhat comforting to know that not everybody here thinks the same, however those with bad manners stick out like a sore thumb. If I never came here I would have never believed the divide with civility – not politics…
Left wing management
April 5th, 2011
10:56 pm
LBB: “See, that’s the scary part, LWM. Little maggots banding together and voting themselves a living paid for by the productive. Think that’s sustainable?”
It’s perfectly sustainable. Life on this level is capable of going on for eons, even with radiation pouring into the oceans from the afflicted plants.
Del
April 5th, 2011
10:57 pm
Taps…good night and silence about the decks.
1811/1801 - 0311/0317
April 5th, 2011
10:58 pm
WOW :
I think what’s more disturbing is just how many states are in political war with the president. This is a precedent at least since the War Between the States. I don’t know all of the legal, nullification, political raminfications but something is really wrong when states from the North, South, East and West go after the President.
1811/1801 - 0311/0317
April 5th, 2011
10:59 pm
Del:
Firewatch ………. man your posts.
Mick
April 5th, 2011
11:00 pm
Midori – on top of everything else right now I couldn’t imagine being stuck with an $800 bill . Blue cross and the gang should be flying the skull and crossbones as they loot and plunder,,,it’s a shame..I hope this treatment helps you heal, good luck!!!
Doggone/GA
April 5th, 2011
11:00 pm
“It’s perfectly sustainable. Life on this level is capable of going on for eons”
With the population levels we have, and will have for the forseeable future, it’s actualy the ONLY truly sustainable society. It’s no longer possible for each and everyone of us to do everything for ourselves. That’s why we have businesses to do things for us, and money to pay them for doing it.
md
April 5th, 2011
11:01 pm
“ABC news reported that even if Ryan’s $5 trillion in cuts over the next ten years are enacted, we won’t see a balanced budget for 30 years.”
And that is the interesting part………we just had a huge financial crisis that most didn’t see coming…….and now when we see one coming……..we do nothing.
Mick
April 5th, 2011
11:02 pm
**something is really wrong when states from the North, South, East and West go after the President.**
Not really scout, as a matter of fact like the song says; ain’t that america?
Don't Forget
April 5th, 2011
11:04 pm
Mick
April 5th, 2011
11:00 pm
Midori – on top of everything else right now I couldn’t imagine being stuck with an $800 bill .
And the CEO of United Health made a hundred million dollars last year. He must be a BIG TIME producer.
getalife
April 5th, 2011
11:05 pm
Mick,
Politics as usual with a divided country as usual.
Vermont wanted to secede with w.
Nothing new.
Don't Forget
April 5th, 2011
11:06 pm
md, a few saw the last financial crisis coming but no one listened. Shoot it was predicted in congress as they were passing the repeal of glass steigal (sp?)
md
April 5th, 2011
11:11 pm
“I can tell you that with me it’s not based in that, but rather on a self-interested desire to live in a society with some sort of equitable distribution of welfare combined with an outraged sense of justice when the powerful grow stupid and arrogant in their exercise of that power, failing to remember that they’re part of a society with others. ”
Do you only see the problem on one end of the spectrum??
We have one of the largest prison populations in the world with an average cost of 30/40k per inmate……….and those making the choice to drop out of the assistance program called education cost the country about 300 billion annually………
One must look at both ends of the spectrum to see our problems……..it isn’t a right left situation…..or it is.
josef nix
April 5th, 2011
11:12 pm
all right…time to go read a bedtime story to a little feller here visiting and playing video games to his heart’s content…g’night
md
April 5th, 2011
11:13 pm
DF,
Well hang on tight, as we seem to be headed for the big one…………and the misfits are fighting over a few billion………basically a rounding error.
Blue Cross employee
April 5th, 2011
11:23 pm
The truth is LBB is right.
People have a responsibility to pay for their own health care and not burden total strangers with their health care costs. Midori has had all her life to save up money for emergencies and issue such as this. I have blue cross and I work for Blue Cross. I’ve never had a problem with them paying for my care or my kids so I question her story about blue cross not paying. She either bought a bare bones coverage plan or is not telling the truth.
And the truth is that everyone is sorry for her macular degeneration. But she has no right coming on here with the woe is me and complaining about her copays. To top it off she complains about Blue Cross’s obscene profits. Our company doesn’t make anywhere near the obscene profits she claims. And does she even know what our company pofits were last year? No. She doesn’t. She is just running her mouth.
I feel sorry for her medical condition and I hope all turns out well. I do not feel sorry for her mentality that its not fair for her to have to pay for her own care. Typical welfare entitlement mentality that too many of you people have regarding health care and many other issues.
LBB is right. And that is what really ticks you people off. I’m gong to bed. Gotta work for big blue in the morning and as I said she is either lying about Blue Cross not paying or Blue Cross is probably paying for a $4,000 monthly procedure and her copay is only $800. Either way this woman is not telling the full story.
Left wing management
April 5th, 2011
11:24 pm
md:
I do tend to focus on one side of the problem because it’s on that end of the spectrum where the problem is most acute. But I must say I don’t follow your examples on the prison population/education in the least. You’ll have to explain your point.
Lies and the liberal lie tellers
April 5th, 2011
11:33 pm
Don’t forget stated that united healthcare’s ceo made 200 million dollars. Hardly.The man who runs united which isures 77 million americans 1 of every 4 of us, made less than an average football or baseball player. And I would say his responsibilities are far more enormous.
UnitedHealth Group’s Stephen Hemsley – CEO Compensation
May 14, 2009 — 4:11pm ET | By Dan Bowman
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Stephen Hemsley
UnitedHealth Group
CEO compensation
UHG
Stephen Hemsley – UnitedHealth Group
Total Compensation: $3,241,042
Details: An $895 million class-action lawsuit over stock-option back dating aside, Hemsley still manages to make the cut for this list at No. 10. The UHG CEO’s base salary was $1.3 million in 2008, to go along with a non-equity incentive plan compensation worth just over $1.8 million and “other compensation” amounting to slightly more than $119,000.
Hemsley’s other compensation was a combination of the company matching his contributions under the 401(k) plan and the company matching contributions under his executive savings plan. According to the SEC, “in May 2006, the amount of Hemsley’s supplemental retirement benefit was frozen based on his current age and average base salary and converted into a lump sum of $10,703,229.” Because of this, “there was no increase in the benefit payable to Mr. Hemsley under his supplemental retirement benefit” in 2008.
Read more: UnitedHealth Group’s Stephen Hemsley – CEO Compensation – FierceHealthcare http://www.fiercehealthcare.com/story/unitedhealth-groups-stephen-hemsley-ceo-compensation/2009-05-14#ixzz1Ii5U3AI0
Subscribe: http://www.fiercehealthcare.com/signup?sourceform=Viral-Tynt-FierceHealthcare-FierceHealthcare
md
April 5th, 2011
11:39 pm
“But I must say I don’t follow your examples on the prison population/education in the least. You’ll have to explain your point.”
Stems from: “but rather on a self-interested desire to live in a society with some sort of equitable distribution of welfare combined with an outraged sense of justice when the powerful grow stupid and arrogant in their exercise of that power, failing to remember that they’re part of a society with others. ”
No society will ever be “equitable” without ALL buying into the concept………..rich and poor alike. For every power mongering rich person there is a “self centered” individual on the other end making choices not in the best interest of the “whole”.
We choose everything we do, including dropping out of school and making the choices to get oneself into prison………….
Jefferson
April 5th, 2011
11:43 pm
Ryan is acting stupid by such a proposal, only fools wish their life away. You GOP lovers ain’t going to make it like you think you will.
Get Real
April 6th, 2011
12:06 am
Well Jay, we are all still waiting on the democrats to grow some balls and take on entitlements but yet it hasn’t happened and it not going to happen because they are not anatomically correct, in other words “smooth as a Ken doll”
As predicted by Ryan, democrats and leftists such as yourself are going to attack his proposed reform, old people will be eating dog food, children will die…and on and on. That is why this problem has grown uncontrollably and unchecked for way too long.
If you oppose, then propose but we don’t hear “didily squat” from democrats and Obama’s budget for 2012 takes a complete pass on entitlement reform, what stellar leadership.
What makes the critique on Ryan’s budget even more ridiculous is a lot of Ryan’s budget proposals come right from the President’s own bipartisan debt commission….
Stand your ground
April 6th, 2011
12:34 am
Ryan stand your grand against the Democrat agenda to bankrupt the nation. Fend off these entitlement money grubbing pig at the public trough bloodsucking parasites. Cut their welfare, cut their food stamps, their gubment housing, slash it all. Stand with America against her parasites.
1811/1801 - 0311/0317
April 6th, 2011
12:41 am
France ? Did someone say France ?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZYFxGPkPTyw
oldguy
April 6th, 2011
12:43 am
Give us a break Jay!
I am on Medicare and it will go broke (or break the budget) you make the choice! And your answer is………….?? We are waiting…….
Obozo Care??? That cuts 1/2 a Trillion dollars out of the current plan. We are still waiting for an explanation as to how that will “Improve” Senior health care!!!
Ryan says the proposed change is like Congress has currently (and I had as a Federal employee)(Yes, I confess, I was once a federal employee{oh the shame!!}). Unbelieveably I was actually able to pick a program that best met my needs and was (an am) quite happy with it (even though I am one of those senile senior citizens you don’t trust to make a choice).
I know you hate the idea of anyone but the Government making choices for us poor stupid citizens but “try it, Mickie likes it!”
TnGelding
April 6th, 2011
2:06 am
Can you imagine what the premium will be in 2022? But we senior citizens are going to have to pick up more of the tab one way or another.
Lil' Barry Bailout
April 6th, 2011
6:50 am
Wrong. Ryan’s plan changes nothing for you senior citizens. Are you willfully ignorant, or just being “uncivil”?
GOP Math
April 6th, 2011
7:09 am
Ryan’s plan has $40 trillion in spending over the next 10 years compared to $34.9 trillion in revenues.
So that’s what a Republican considers a “balanced budget.” What a loser.
Tom
April 6th, 2011
7:10 am
If one is looking for a plan to get rid of the elderly and vulnerable in our society, then Ryan’s plan would seem to be the one.
stands for decibels
April 6th, 2011
7:12 am
Ryan’s plan changes nothing for you senior citizens.
See also: GW Bush, at the end of his disastrous Social Security Piratization Tour, reduced to hissing “You’ll get your checks!”
Keep ‘em coming, LBB. This is very useful stuff.
GOP Math
April 6th, 2011
7:13 am
Ryan’s lame claim of a plan would cut 389 billion from Medicare. Isn’t Medicare for those people that we sometimes refer to as senior citizens. Why yes, I think they are. That Ryan is a real loser.
Lil' Barry Bailout
April 6th, 2011
7:14 am
Show us Ryan’s changes to current senior citizen benefits, stands.
Didn’t think so.
Normal
April 6th, 2011
7:15 am
Tom,
Ryan and the GOP need to make room for the New World Order…a wholly “Corporate Owned United Swesat Shop Of America…”
stands for decibels
April 6th, 2011
7:19 am
Switching gears for a moment for a bit of comic relief:
When has Gawker’s Nick Denton ever had anything in common with former first lady Barbara Bush? Or director Oliver Stone with Senator Lisa Murkowski?
The answer: When Sarah Palin has feuded with them.
Palin has monetized micro-blog bomb-throwing. She attacks people via her one-way Internet communication — the “lamestream” media reports it and she stays topical. It’s catnip. It’s a Real Housewives level of guilty pleasure voyeurism. She’s tapped into our love of shamelessness. The more we reward her with attention, the more she keeps giving … and giving.
To quantify this point, I’ve assembled a list of her media feuds since she was tapped to be veep. Call it a supplemental: A hyperlink to her hyper-sensitivity.
.
it’s an impressive, well documented list.
http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2011/04/the-sarah-palin-feud-watch/72133/
stands for decibels
April 6th, 2011
7:19 am
Show us Ryan’s changes to current senior citizen benefits
try grasping the actual point I had made, LBB.
TaxPayer
April 6th, 2011
7:20 am
Given that Ryan’s path to greater prosperity for the properous, aka the Road Kill Bill, is but another lame GOProposal and nothing that will ever become law, it is obvious that it has no impact on “current” senior citizens. Let’s keep it that way by ignoring Ryan’s piece of work.
Lil' Barry Bailout
April 6th, 2011
7:20 am
Ryan’s plan changes nothing for current senior citizens, or even for folks 54 and older. They get their parasite maintenance as it exists now. Those under 54 have fair warning that their neighbors won’t be picking up as much of their tab as before and can begin doing what they should have been doing all along–saving and planning for their own retirement.
stands for decibels
April 6th, 2011
7:22 am
Ryan’s plan changes nothing for current senior citizens, or even for folks 54 and older. They get their parasite maintenance as it exists now.
Thank you, LBB. do keep on referring to Medicare as “parasite maintenance.”
Dance for me, mofo. Dance!
Lil' Barry Bailout
April 6th, 2011
7:24 am
“the truly eye-opening numbers in the 2010 Retirement Confidence Survey are the percentage of Americans with little or no savings set aside for retirement – 27 percent report having less than $1,000 in savings, 43 percent say they have less than $10,000 set aside, and more than half (54 percent) have less than $25,000 saved.”
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503983_162-20000180-503983.html
stands for decibels
April 6th, 2011
7:27 am
Yes, LBB–when you systematically depress wages and hollow out government services (and sell off the commons bit by bit), people don’t have much savings left as they enter their dotage.
I have been citing the appalling median net worth of Americans for well over a year now, right here, to make that very point.
stands for decibels
April 6th, 2011
7:28 am
see also:
http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/taxfacts/displayafact.cfm?Docid=547&Topic2id=49
TaxPayer
April 6th, 2011
7:28 am
Ryan’s plan would be to wait until 2013 to start affecting senior citizens on Medicare. So, they have a couple of years to plan and think about what they’re giving up so Ryan can cut taxes more on the wealthiest while also increasing DoD spending. Who says those Republicans don’t love their killing fields.
Lil' Barry Bailout
April 6th, 2011
7:31 am
How many people could be helped if your Idiot Messiah wasn’t giving corporate welfare to the following groups to help pay their retiree benefits?
United Auto Workers Retiree Medical Benefits Trust
$206,798,086
AT&T, Inc.
$140,022,949
Verizon Communications Inc.
$91,702,538
Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio
$70,557,764
Teacher Retirement System of Texas
$68,074,118
ken
April 6th, 2011
7:31 am
And your solution is
Lil' Barry Bailout
April 6th, 2011
7:32 am
How many people could be helped if your Idiot Messiah didn’t allow GE to pay zero in taxes?
TaxPayer
April 6th, 2011
7:33 am
Ryan’s plan implements trillions of dollars in cuts to Medicare and Medicaid and food stamps and other domestic spending programs and yet it doesn’t even come close to eliminating the deficit. That’s Ryan’s idea of a plan — throw the poor and old under the bus and STILL NOT balance the damn budget. The GOP is a joke and a nasty one at that.
Lil' Barry Bailout
April 6th, 2011
7:34 am
stands for decibels: when you systematically depress wages and hollow out government services (and sell off the commons bit by bit), people don’t have much savings left
——————-
I think you’d agree that I’m not the sharpest knife in the drawer, but I’ve got more in my checking account than most folks have saved for their entire retirement.
Lil' Barry Bailout
April 6th, 2011
7:35 am
Where is the Democrat plan, TaxPayer?
TaxPayer
April 6th, 2011
7:37 am
I see Lil BB is still trying to project his worshipping of an idiot on to others. Still lame, Lil BB.
Lil' Barry Bailout
April 6th, 2011
7:38 am
I see TaxPayer likes the Democrat plan (failure).
stands for decibels
April 6th, 2011
7:39 am
Oh, and LBB? I have, personally, taken every prudent step within my grasp to provide a nest egg for myself and my family for my own retirement. Withheld a good chunk of my income for tax-deferred investments; a good mix of some aggressive, some conservative funds. Did without all kinds of niceties I’ve seen in the hands of other folks in my socioeconomic group (your shiny new wheels every coupla-three yeas, your posh holidays, your latest wireless pocket doodads). I’ll continue doing so, and I’ll continue to be on track, theoretically at least, for a reasonably comfortable retirement.
And all of that is still at risk if rat[bleep]ers like Ryan, McConnel, & Böhner get to steer this ship. It is for you and yours, too, if you weren’t so blind.
But go ahead. Call me a parasite. Like FDR put it so eloquently:
“We will keep our sleeves rolled up.
“We had to struggle with the old enemies of peace–business and financial monopoly, speculation, reckless banking, class antagonism, sectionalism, war profiteering.
“They had begun to consider the Government of the United States as a mere appendage to their own affairs. We know now that Government by organized money is just as dangerous as Government by organized mob.
“Never before in all our history have these forces been so united against one candidate as they stand today. They are unanimous in their hate for me–and I welcome their hatred.”
Lil' Barry Bailout
April 6th, 2011
7:42 am
Glad to hear that, stands. Not sure how you think Ryan’s plan has any effect whatsoever on your savings, though. Fixing our spending problem and reforming entitlements, it seems to me, would be a good thing for the economy and for your investments.
TaxPayer
April 6th, 2011
7:43 am
I see TaxPayer likes the Democrat plan
I do believe I have stated several of my dislikes of Ryan’s plan to prosperity for the prosperous.
stands for decibels
April 6th, 2011
7:45 am
Not sure how you think Ryan’s plan has any effect whatsoever on your savings, though.
Providing me with vouchers instead of the single-payer plan we have in effect, and telling me “good luck gettin’ yourself private insurance, sucker” will quickly deplete those savings if my health turns out to be not in accordance with the tender mercies of the insurance industry.
Lil' Barry Bailout
April 6th, 2011
7:46 am
Ryan is a Republican, TP. Go ahead and comment on the Democrat plan that you so love–deficit spending and government dependence.
stands for decibels
April 6th, 2011
7:46 am
Anyway, I gots to go produce. Later, all.
TaxPayer
April 6th, 2011
7:47 am
Ryan’s plan would reduce the debt from 14 trillion to 13.9 trillion in ten years and not even eliminate the deficit. That’s what the GOP calls a plan. That’s all they offer after all their whining and moaning about how bad the debt and deficit are.
Lil' Barry Bailout
April 6th, 2011
7:47 am
stands, what is the Democrat plan for keeping the parasite maintenance programs afloat then? They’re going broke and are not sustainable. What’s the plan?
TaxPayer
April 6th, 2011
7:48 am
Ryan is a Republican
DUH!
Lil' Barry Bailout
April 6th, 2011
7:48 am
The Democrat plan is to keep adding a trillion bucks a year to the deficit and do nothing to reform entitlements.
Lil' Barry Bailout
April 6th, 2011
7:50 am
CBO: Obama budget worse than projected on 10-year deficit
CBO estimates Obama’s plan would produce 10 years of deficits totaling $9.5 trillion
http://thehill.com/blogs/on-the-money/budget/150737-cbo-obama-budget-worse-than-claimed-on-deficit
——————
Oopsies!
Granny Godzilla
April 6th, 2011
7:53 am
We recently had a poster who made claims regarding an economists take on a subject and then proceeded to scurry away from backing it up….
Well I would never to that…..So
Mark Thoma: Ryan’s Budget Plan Is Part Of GOP Strategy To Create Deficits And Use Them “As A Club Against Social Insurance Programs.” University of Oregon economics
Krugman: “The Republican Plan Is A Giant Game Of Bait-And-Switch, Dismantling A Key Piece Of The Social Safety Net In Favor Of A Privatized System.” New York Times columnist and Nobel Prize-winning economist
Baker: “Almost Everything In The Plan Has Been Tried And Failed.” Dean Baker of the Center for Economic and Policy Research
IHS Global Insight Economist: “I’m Not Quite Sure What Assumption …
Would Deliver 2.8 Percent Unemployment.” Nigel Gault
And let us not forget that Messiah Ryan is part of how we got into this mess in the first place….supporting the Bush tax cuts in 2001, 2003 and during last years lame duck seesion….as well as being a supporter
of Medicare Part D
Thanks to our friends at Media Matters for America…..cause it sure does matter.
TaxPayer
April 6th, 2011
7:56 am
Ryan’s plan cuts trillions from Medicare, Medicaid and other domestic programs but only reduces the debt by 0.1 trillion. The GOP would have us believe that we should throw millions of poor and disabled and elderly under the bus in order to cut 0.1 trillion dollars from the debt in TEN years. What a plan, GOP style.
Lil' Barry Bailout
April 6th, 2011
7:56 am
Granny Godzilla
Mark Thoma: Ryan’s Budget Plan Is Part Of GOP Strategy To Create Deficits
——————-
News flash–your Idiot Messiah is the first person to hold the office to propose trillion-dollar deficits, so let’s not blame the GOP for “creating deficits”. The GOP is driving the effort to reduce them and have already passed billions in spending cuts since winning the House last November.
Lil' Barry Bailout
April 6th, 2011
7:57 am
TP, we have to reduce your Idiot Messiah’s trillion dollar deficits before we can start paying down the debt. You do understand that the deficit and the debt are two different things, right? Or did you go to public schools?
TaxPayer
April 6th, 2011
7:58 am
There goes Lil BB trying to project his idiot worshipping on others, AGAIN.
TaxPayer
April 6th, 2011
7:59 am
Ryan’s plan does not even eliminate the deficit and it cuts 0.1 trillion from the debt in TEN years. Great plan, GOP — NOT.
Corey
April 6th, 2011
8:00 am
Pablo, please don’t tell me that you cannot distinguish between a campaign slogan and a governing philosophy.
Granny Godzilla
April 6th, 2011
8:02 am
Lil Barry Bailout says “so let’s not blame the GOP for “creating deficits”.
why the hell not? there is no statute of limitations on driving the economy off into a ditch
Oh and the 1/2 of the 1/3 of Government that the GOP controls can pass anything they want…..but if it makes no sense, is unfair or actually a bad idea it’ll never get farther than Speaker Boehner’s out box.
John
April 6th, 2011
8:04 am
I say cut everything, including Medicare, Medicaid, Education and even the military if that’s what it takes to balance the budget. Where does it read in the Constitution that I’m obligate to care for anyone other than my family?
Lil' Barry Bailout
April 6th, 2011
8:04 am
Why not? Because no GOP president ever proposed or presided over a trillion-dollar deficit.
Next question.
Normal
April 6th, 2011
8:06 am
LBB seems to forget that President Obama inherited a rather massive deficit…
Granny Godzilla
April 6th, 2011
8:06 am
your Idiot Messiah is the first person to hold the office to propose trillion-dollar deficits…
which would not have been required had your brush cutting faux cowboy champagne unit Messiah hadn’t created the first trillion dollar deficit…..
Lil' Barry Bailout
April 6th, 2011
8:07 am
Normal: LBB seems to forget that President Obama inherited a rather massive deficit
———–
…and did nothing to fix it.
Lil' Barry's shadow
April 6th, 2011
8:08 am
Lil Barry is all hot air and a major train wreck in motion. Next question.
Granny Godzilla
April 6th, 2011
8:08 am
John
April 6th, 2011
8:04 am
I say cut everything, including Medicare, Medicaid, Education and even the military if that’s what it takes to balance the budget. Where does it read in the Constitution that I’m obligate to care for anyone other than my family?
Right smack tab on the top of page 1….it goes like this…..
We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.
Lil' Barry Bailout
April 6th, 2011
8:08 am
Did you vote for Obozo to have him continue our President Bush’s policies? Tax cuts, for example?
Granny Godzilla
April 6th, 2011
8:10 am
Mr shadow
it not just hot air…..I distinctly smell sulphur….
Normal
April 6th, 2011
8:10 am
Go get him Granny G. That boy needs a spanking…just sayin’.
I think his mother didn’t teach him good manners. Either that, or he was abused as a boy by an uncle who was a Democrat…It’s got to be mental, somehow.
WOW
April 6th, 2011
8:10 am
“I think what’s more disturbing is just how many states are in political war with the president. This is a precedent at least since the War Between the States. I don’t know all of the legal, nullification, political raminfications but something is really wrong when states from the North, South, East and West go after the President.”
Yeah, which is why I laugh whenever Bookman writes about how easy Obama will have it in 2012.
Not sure how Obama will carry the swing states when all of the swing states turned red.
Peadawg
April 6th, 2011
8:11 am
“LBB seems to forget that President Obama inherited a rather massive deficit…”
And it seems that he’s continuing on by adding to it:
from http://usgovinfo.about.com/
“The CBO projected that Obama’s proposed budget would increase the national debt from $7.5 trillion – about 53 percent of the nation’s Gross Domestic Product – at the end of 2009 to $20.3 trillion – or 90 percent of the GDP – by the end of 2020.”
Lil' Barry Bailout
April 6th, 2011
8:11 am
GG couldn’t answer John’s question…anyone else care to give it a try?
Granny Godzilla
April 6th, 2011
8:12 am
Lil’ Barry Bailout
April 6th, 2011
8:08 am
Did you vote for Obozo to have him continue our President Bush’s policies? Tax cuts, for example?
did you vote for George Bush twice to create a trillion dollar deficit and torture folks?
WOW
April 6th, 2011
8:12 am
“We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America. ”
Granny obviously never took US History. Granny, the forefathers never intended the federal government to take care of it’s people by giving away other peoples money.
They escaped Europe for a reason.
WOW
April 6th, 2011
8:12 am
“did you vote for George Bush twice to create a trillion dollar deficit and torture folks?”
HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Granny, GITMO is still open for business. LOL
Granny Godzilla
April 6th, 2011
8:13 am
Lil’ Barry Bailout
April 6th, 2011
8:11 am
GG couldn’t answer John’s question…anyone else care to give it a try?
Lil Barry couldn’t understand the answer, anybody got hand puppets to try it in a more simplistic form?
Lil' Barry Bailout
April 6th, 2011
8:14 am
Our President Bush’s measly $300 billion deficits look pretty tiny these days. Your Idiot Messiah presided over the first trillion dollar deficit and then more than doubled down on his failure by proposing a decade of them.
WOW
April 6th, 2011
8:14 am
“Where is the Democrat plan, TaxPayer?”
There isn’t one. They never proposed one back when they should have.
BLAME DIVERT BLAME is the Democrat mantra. No wonder they got their @sses kicked last November.
Peadawg
April 6th, 2011
8:14 am
Are we going to get a “The Ryan budget plan, Part III”??? Usually sequels are worse than the originals…but these are getter better and funnier each time.
BTW I love when Granny answers a question with a question. Too funny!!!!
WOW
April 6th, 2011
8:14 am
“Lil Barry couldn’t understand the answer, anybody got hand puppets to try it in a more simplistic form?’
In other words, Granny has absolutely no idea what she’s writing.
WOW
April 6th, 2011
8:15 am
“BTW I love when Granny answers a question with a question. Too funny!!!!”
My favorite is when she she writes “bless your heart” after asked a simple question like “what is the Democrats plan?”
Mick
April 6th, 2011
8:15 am
wow@8:12
Err…wrong, it was religious intolerance..
Corey
April 6th, 2011
8:15 am
F. Sinkwich, Mr. Jackson and Mr. Sharpton are not elected officials; however, I do remember our current governor spewing the phrase “Ghetto Grandmothers.”
WOW
April 6th, 2011
8:16 am
“Err…wrong, it was religious intolerance..”
That too. Kind of funny that you bring it up since left wingers think that our forefathers came here only to kill Indians and enslave black people.
Mick
April 6th, 2011
8:17 am
**Our President Bush’s measly $300 billion deficits look pretty tiny these days.**
Duh….your president bush kept two wars off the books, obama put them on the books, now you want to tag him for it?
WOW
April 6th, 2011
8:17 am
“Err…wrong, it was religious intolerance..’
What did I type that was wrong, Mick?
Lil' Barry's shadow
April 6th, 2011
8:18 am
F. Sinkwich, Mr. Jackson and Mr. Sharpton are not elected officials; however, I do remember our current governor spewing the phrase “Ghetto Grandmothers.”
as well as Lil Barry saying that 60% of Black Women are sluts!
Granny Godzilla
April 6th, 2011
8:18 am
Bush’s $300 billion deficits
Look he made a funny!