Without Medicare Privatization, GOP Budget Won't Eliminate The Deficit

[Donnachaidh]

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/05/without-medicare-privatization-gop-budget-wont-eliminate-the-deficit.php

House Republican leaders see the political writing on the wall and won't be making a hard push for their plan to privatize Medicare.

That's a bitter pill to swallow for rank and file members who already voted for the GOP budget. Now the official position of the House of Representatives, it has won praise from conservatives -- and even many mainstream media figures -- for making "hard choices" to tackle long-term debt and deficit. But crucially, a huge chunk of the savings in the plan came from ... the now-withered plan to privatize Medicare -- to shift a significant portion of Medicare costs on to consumers.

It turns out that if you strike the Medicare plan from the GOP budget -- authored by Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) -- it doesn't achieve fiscal balance anymore.

"It certainly blows a major hole in his plan," said Paul Van de Water, a health care and budget expert at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, in a phone interview.

More at the link --

[ejpoeta]

1. does it actually eliminate the deficit WITH the medicare privatization? just wondering.

[Warren Stupidity]

6. no of course not, that would require raising taxes on billionaires.

[ejpoeta]

10. lol. exactly. they try to make it sound like getting rid of medicare would even make a dent.

the plan makes things worse!! but we can't do anything that would make those rich folks have to sacrifice anything.

[aquart]

7. Nope. Greedy, whiny, unpatriotic bastards.

I'm not in a sympathetic mood.

[LiberalAndProud]

2. I thought it never did.

Didn't the GAO give Ryan's budget a failing grade?

[Wounded Bear]

3. D'uh.......nt

[brooklynite]

4. Only one solution: TAX CUTS!

See, when you cut taxes, you generate MORE INCOME (it's true! I read it on the internet...).

[KansDem]

5. Why are these folks getting paychecks?

How many of us here can sit around bitching and moaning about our employer while producing no work?

[Donnachaidh]

11. AMEN!

:thumbsup:

[county worker]

8. A budget deficit is the right's tool to cut all social spending.

They will never really get rid of the deficit just like they never really wanted to capture Ben Laden.

If we eliminated the deficit and hung on to social programs the repukes if they ever get in power like the Bush years would run it back up again.

To create the deficit the repukes spend money on their corporate supporters.

[mrcheerful]

9. Wait did I miss something i the kill grandma GOP plan that forces elderly and disabled

to use a worthless voucher to try to get an health insurance company to cover them while at the same time cutting more taxes on those who least need it. Which will then address the deficit for the first time 20 or 30 years from now? If so then how can they say theres a deficit crisis now that demands immediate attention now? Do these nit wits ever pay attention to what comes out of their mouth's, oh wait thats right, they are conservatives who haven't a clue about reality, never mind.