Friday, April 15, 2011

The Republican Vote To Kill Medicare As We Know It



And to protect the wealth of the very rich took place today:
House Republicans forced through a partisan budget blueprint on Friday that, if enacted into law, would pare federal spending by an estimated $5.8 trillion over the next decade while reshaping Medicare, a proposal certain to instigate a fierce clash with Democrats.
The bill has no chance of passage in the Democratic-controlled Senate.

...


The vote in the House on the Republican blueprint, drafted by Representative Paul D. Ryan, Republican of Wisconsin and chairman of the Budget Committee, was 235 to 193, almost entirely on party lines. Not a single Democrat voted for it; four Republicans voted against it.

The proposal, which would cut maximum corporate and personal tax rates and would overhaul the Medicaid health program for the poor as well as Medicare, is the new House majority’s most ambitious effort so far to show that it wants to rein in spending and aggressively shrink the federal government.

It's worth pointing out that Medicaid also funds nursing home care for many of the elderly, so that particular group gets a double-whammy from the Republicans. And guess what? If we are lucky we will all grow old one day! That makes attacks against the elderly different from attacks against, say, women. Or it should if people think about it a little.

I am going to write more about Medicare and its problems in the future. But the Republican approach to fixing it is like recommending euthanasia as the treatment for acne, and naturally it comes across as callous, uninformed and greedy. Which should be good news for the Democrats. Should be.