Glenn Beck

[GenuineRisk]

Originally Posted by Princess Doreen

What make you think that those of us on Medicare don't pay for it? A retired couple on Medicare with a supplement plan pays anywhere from $600 - $800 a month.

And, I don't have blue hair. I may be old, but if you have the good fortune to get to be my age, you'll wonder how the hell you got to be "old" so swiftly and wonder why the younger generation is so rude and dismissive of those who came before them. So save the slams at the elderly. It only makes you look more the fool than you already are. Age discrimmination is as bad as racial discrimmination.

But, yes, by all means - stop Medicare cold. Pay out benefits to those who are already retired and about to be retired in the next 5 years, and give back the money paid into the plan by all others. Let them decide how best they want to plan for their medical requirements in retirement.

I can't believe I'm actually trying to explain this, since it's clear that you are that thing that makes me fear most for the future of this great nation, a willfully low-information voter, but I am a sucker for lost causes (Odysseus having been one of my fantasy stable choices):

First of all, there is no "Medicare savings bank" to pay anyone back out of. That money is not put in a savings account; it is contributed by hard-working slobs such as myself EVERY YEAR so that old folk like you can afford to go to the doctor. If they were to end the program there would be no one to pay back and it would end right away, not in some mythical manner where there is magically money for all of you retired folk to continue to get yours for free. The money you may or may not have contributed yourself (since you just have to be old to qualify, not old and a life-long wage earner, as you do with Social Security) has long since been spent on people who are now dead. There. Is. No. Savings. Account. For. Medicare.

Second of all, regarding your "Flat Tax Good! VAT Bad!" statements from earlier- they are very similar so make up your mind, good? Or bad? Because they're essentially the same damn thing. They are both consumption taxes. And you know who bears the brunt of consumption taxes? Why, the poor and middle class, who spend far more of their income on consumption than the wealthy, who generally have enough money to buy food and necessities and still have money left over. What both of those taxes do is shift the tax burden even farther from the wealthy than it is being shifted already. As it is, the wealthy pay a lower percentage of their income in tax than the middle class, and it's because of the idiotic belief that capital gains should be taxed at 15 percent, not at the same level as wages. But hey, the rich might, just might start a business! Which they don't; they look for more investment opportunities with quick turnarounds and then you get credit default swaps. And those have worked out really well for us, haven't they? What's your home worth lately?

Third, this will break your Reagan Was the Best Thing Since Jesus heart, but the truth about the Soviet Union is that as early as the 1970's it was known the nation wasn't going to last. We knew, long before Reagan blew up our budget with his military fetish, that they were going to collapse economically. Did building the miliary speed it up? Maybe, but what did we get from that? The Soviets, for all that Ohmigawd, Communism is the Worstest Thing Ever, were a nation with essentially the same goals at the US- we weren't going to war with them in the 1980's because neither side wanted to die. Mutually Assured Destruction, remember it? Negative sounding, but remarkably effective in maintaining detente. What Reagan did was blow up an economy that, through bi-partisan work, had been fairly well built up over the previous 40 years, and now, 30 years later, we're seeing it all come to a head. And it's not good.

(Side note to Nascar- one year and 3 months is enough time to undo how many years of economic malfeasance? Seriously, dude? Seriously? You know, I read comments on blogs about how right-wingers will get all pissy and say, "But, but, but Obama's had a year and things aren't better yet!" and I think, "Oh come on. No one is that ridiculous and would really think anything that asinine." Sir, I stand corrected.)

Fourth, the health care reform that you're yelling about IS NOT A GOVERNMENT PROGRAM. Why you right-wingers can't get that through your heads is beyond me. Oh, right, because you don't actually bother to do any research, you just gobble up whatever Rushbo tells you because he's more entertaining than reading what's actually in any of these things Congress writes. (And yes, Congress wrote the bill, not Obama. Congress creates law; the Court interprets it; the Pres enforces it. How hard is this to understand?) In fact, a lot of this bill is exactly what the Republicans wanted in 1993, and some of it is stuff McCain campaigned on in 2008. And this is not secret knowledge; it's all been right out there for ages.

Doreen, I'm a screaming liberal. I believe in Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, veteran's benefits and while we're on the subject, gay marriage, anti discrimination laws (including ones to protect the elderly, who I think are incredibly discriminated against, especially when they have to go back to work) and anything else that helps to give everyone the best possible chance to be productive. And I don't benefit from a single one of these government programs- I'm working, have employer-provided health insurance and have been blessed with a pretty good constitution so that I've never had a chronic debilitating illness; mine have been temporary (Timm, thanks again for the advice on my shoulder, by the way; it's doing great now). Hell, I'm almost six months pregnant and I still go running 3 times a week. But I know that life can be crummy and dark and unexpected and I believe in safety nets to catch those who might being having it tougher than I am. Whether it's their own fault or not, I don't care. It's not my business to judge; it's my business to see that they don't starve and can take their kids to the doctor.

And I don't understand the right-wing, "I got mine, f*ck the rest of you all." And I don't understand the right-wing "If the other side wants it, I'm against it!" Because I really do think right-wingers confuse politics with sports and their party with their favorite sports team. If the Dems do something good for the country (and this health care reform, flawed as it is, is MUCH better than the status quo), it's not a blow against right-wingers; it's a victory for all of us. Likewise the Republicans, when they... if they... okay, I'm sure they've done some good stuff for the middle class; I'm just having trouble thinking of an example. But anyway, if, when, they do something positive, it's good for all of us. And when each side does something bad (invading Iraq, for which there's plenty of blame on both sides), it's not an occasion for the other side to celebrate; it's bad for all of us. Because believe me, we liberals were not celebrating when it became clear our gov't lied us into war. We were upset and angry and despairing because it's not about seizing political advantage; it's about a bunch of young men and women, woefully underpaid, dying or being maimed overseas for no goddamn good reason. Just like healthcare is not about Dems winning; it's about getting people who can't get healthcare coverage covered so they can get and stay healthier. And the Republicans could have been part of that and they chose not to because they want to keep you all screaming and waving your foam "We're # 1" fingers, rather than actually taking the time to really look at what's being proposed.

And, if you've even gotten this far, you're not going to take in a word of it, because it's so much easier and more satisfying to just pick a team and root for that team and not bother to take the time (and it takes time) to actually get to the bottom of what's being said and proposed and come to a conclusion about it. It's much easier to listen to entertainers tell you what to think and you get the emotional high of getting angry, too. And that makes me feel bad for you, and annoyed at myself for wasting my time trying to explain this, but I can't help it. We all have our windmills, and I guess low-information voters are mine. Well, better that than shooting up, I guess.