Mature Americans should be fighting Obamacare repeal TOOTH AND NAIL. The Medicare phase-out is next.

[pnwmom]

Destroying Medicare has long been a primary goal for the GOP. Don't think that because we have been "paying for it with our taxes" that it is safe. It is not.

Obamacare contained new taxes meant to put Medicare on a much stronger financial footing. They want to eliminate those taxes so they can say Medicare is not sustainable and needs to be replaced by coupon care for the elderly poor.


https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2016/11/15/paul-ryans-plan-to-phase-out-medicare-is-just-what-democrats-need/?utm_term=.e92104d8ea38

I’m speaking of Paul Ryan’s wish to privatize Medicare, or phase it out, depending on how you want to look at it. In an interview last week with Fox News, Ryan made clear that as part of the legislative bacchanal Republicans have planned for Trump’s first months in office, he plans to begin the Medicare phaseout he has long advocated. He seems to want to package it together with the repeal of the Affordable Care Act: “Well, you have to remember, when Obamacare became Obamacare, Obamacare rewrote Medicare, rewrote Medicaid. If you are going to repeal and replace Obamacare, you have to address those issues as well,” he said. “What people don’t realize is because of Obamacare, Medicare is going broke.”

As part of his strategy, Ryan must convince people that Medicare is all but dead already, so we don’t actually lose much by putting it out of its misery. That’s why he says things like, “Because of Obamacare, Medicare is going broke.” This is not just a lie but the precise opposite of the truth, and Ryan knows full well it is; in fact, the ACA extended the solvency of the Medicare trust fund by over a decade. And be warned: Any time you hear Republicans say the phrase “entitlement reform,” understand that phasing out Medicare is what they’re talking about.

[Eliot Rosewater]

1. Ryan wont sleep till Medicare is gone and old people are dying in the streets.

I can keep saying this over and over and over and over and over but until people actually REALIZE this is true, nothing will happen.

They will repeal ACA with this "let's see how many Americans we can kill" bill, and then Medicare and Soc Sec are gone too.


Want more good news? Progressives are already lining up to not support the D party if their candidate isnt the one, so we will lose more seats in 2018 and permanently lose this country, if we havent already.

[doc03]

2. A very large percentage of Trump supporters

are on Medicare. I would guess a good many don't
know it is a government program. Beside that they don't care as long as it doesn't affect them screw
the next generation.

[pnwmom]

3. They think it is protected because they paid taxes into it. They are wrong. The GOP's aim

is to destroy that "contract."

[flamingdem]

4. I agree. Where is the emotion? It's not coming from dems as much as constituents

Hate to say it but it's partly because they themselves and their families aren't going to get screwed.

Those that most need ACA and Medicaid are not those that vote in the largest numbers.

They're only now beginning to get the truth of what will happen.

Of course then there is Medicare. We have to tie Medicare to ACA repeal - and why can't the Dems message better on this?

[Liberal In Texas]

5. Yep. n/t

[Orrex]

6. My local community's FB page is chock full of retirees who HATE Obamacare

Hate it almost as much as they hate him, and they're glad to see it (and him) gone.

Mostly this is because either they (or their spouses) had union jobs with good pensions & benefits, and they collect social security benefits. As a result, they see themselves as impervious to economic risk.

I suggested to them that they laugh it up while they can, because social security will be in the crosshairs soon enough, and then the GOP will go after the pension plans and benefits packages that are subsidized and/or guaranteed by the fed.


And you can bet that these aging locals will blame Democrats when that happens, because that's what Fox News tells them to do.

[pnwmom]

7. You should post the pieces from AARP. Obamacare helped extend the life of Medicare.

We need those funds to remain in place.

Unless your town's seniors are happy with the idea of coupon care, they should be fighting the repeal of Obamacare, with its taxes on the very wealthy that are specifically directed to Medicare.

Paul Ryan is lying through his teeth -- he's telling seniors that Obamacare weakened Medicare. It's the exact opposite. AARP gets it right.

http://www.aarp.org/politics-society/advocacy/info-2017/aarp-opposes-healthcare-bill.html?intcmp=AE-HP-FLXSLDR-SLIDE1

AARP Opposes Health Care Bill

Proposal raises premiums and weakens Medicare

http://www.aarp.org/content/dam/aarp/politics/advocacy/2017/03/aarp-letter-to-congress-on-american-healthcare-act-march-07-2017.pdf

Our members and older Americans believe that Medicare must be protected and strengthened for today’s seniors and future generations. We strongly oppose any changes to current law that could result in cuts to benefits, increased costs, or reduced coverage for older Americans. According to the 2016 Medicare Trustees report, the Medicare Part A Trust fund is solvent until 2028 (11 years longer than pre-Affordable Care Act (ACA)), due in large part to changes made in the ACA. We have serious concerns that the American Health Care Act repeals provisions in current law that have strengthened Medicare’s fiscal outlook, specifically, the repeal of the additional 0.9 percent payroll tax on higher-income workers. Repealing this provision could hasten
the insolvency of Medicare by up to 4 years and diminish Medicare’s ability to pay for services in the future.[1]

[Orrex]

8. That's a good suggestion

I'm confident that many of these people stopped listening to reality before I was born, but it might be worth the effort to snap a few of them out of their delusion.

[pnwmom]

9. The AARP carries some weight with seniors. Maybe at least some of them will listen. n/t

P.S. I added a second AARP link above with more information.

[salin]

10. Kick and Recommend

It was on Price's hit list, too, when he was in Congress.

Add - another Price goal - change the tax code to give incentives to employers to drop insurance coverage and decouple health coverage from jobs. Total privatization (individual choice vs. employer choice aka individual with no bargaining power vs. employer with bargaining power.)

These clowns are so wedded to a failing economic ideology based on nothing (Reagan!!) that they won't stop til there are no entitlements (including social security). Everyone needs to take a long hard look at Kansas. Six years in the experiment looks like it is wrecking the state and causing grave harm to its institutions (like schools, local govt etc.) and its students.

[uponit7771]

11. Its NOT next its part of their plan no? They'll be reducing the amount of recipients IIRC