Some Americans have vehemently opposed any safety net for the poor and the infirm, the elderly and the young ever since social safety-nets were implemented. These "Darwinians" are ready to toss the unlucky and the unfit, onto society's landfill. These same politicians feign compassion for the unborn, but outside their mothers' womb, and in need of food or shelter, it's trash cans and the cardboard castles of the third world.
Compassionless, they regard those in need, as a burden on society. They say "entitlement" because it stinks of privilege. When I hear "entitlement" from the lips of a millionaire fresh from a limousine, it rings hollow. Republicans who assure us that we can afford Corporations with ZERO tax burden also insisting that we who earn hourly wages must be taxed on every cent. This K-Street Mob has even gotten their tax-grubbing fingers around the pennies of Social Security.
If you'd rather hear this truth from the successful, Warren Buffet said in 2007 that he was taxed at 17.7% on his taxable income of $46 million; his receptionist was taxed at 30%.
Ryan protects the richest Americans by removing the flimsy safety net beneath the high-wire act that is the life of working Americans. We must pay more, he says; our lives are too easy. Dashing from paycheck to paycheck, we hope to keep enough creditors at bay to maintain a roof over grandma and the kids. Trying to keep the lights on and enough gasoline in the tank to drive to work -- if there's work.
Just a few harsh highlights of the Ryan plan...
(a) Remove any recognizable federal healthcare. After all, some insurance executive might find a way to wring another penny from your pocket.(b) In place of Medicare, they plan a partial payment toward overpriced PRIVATE HEALTH INSURANCE for seniors.
(c) Revealing colossal cynicism, they offer us a greedy shell game -- If you're in your LATE FIFTIES...you keep your benefits, but -- "LOOK OUT BELOW!" -- anyone younger is on their own. So they manage a MIRAGE of SAVINGS by gutting Healthcare MEDICAID and MEDICARE. This way they can increase the tax breaks for their "paymasters."
The Disney quality smoke and mirrors that Congressman Ryan conjures requires the CBO to "assume" that the costs of the MEDICAID and MEDICARE BLOCK GRANTS which he pegged to inflation will grow no faster than the rate of INFLATION. The only problem is that those costs never have grown that slow.
It's like planning a trip to the moon, and hoping to live on MOON CHEESE, but the moon isn't made of Cheese. Ryan's savings are like moon-beams, cute in starlight, but worthless in the cold light of day.
The result is that health-care costs are shifted to seniors at a time when they need care the most and are least able to pay higher rates. But the real magic (watch this hand) is to ENABLE Corporations to enjoy the Republican Tax-Holiday and about the richest 1% getting more... fagettaboutit!
