The Donald Trump Impeachment Clock Is Ticking

cawacko said:
I don't see it as non compassionate to say we have to take a look at programs with unsustainable spending. It's being responsible and 'caring for the next generation'.
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I don't either .. but that's not what is taking place.

Not sure why you're having such a difficult time seeing that.
 
""The American political system is sorting so that racial progressivism and economic progressivism are aligned in the Democratic Party and racial conservatism and economic conservatism are aligned in the Republican Party.""

Is it economically progressive to prevent the building of new housing and keeping neighbors wealthy and white? QE and the Fed creating asset bubbles with loose monetary policy is economically progressive as well it seems and f'ing savers and seniors.
 
blackascoal said:
I don't either .. but that's not what is taking place.

Not sure why you're having such a difficult time seeing that.
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I read the reports on Medicare and S.S. I see it clearly. It gets used as a political football by each party to bludgeon each other but the numbers don't lie.
 
blackascoal said:
Medicare and Social Security are the only things keeping millions of senior Americans ALIVE.

.. and you think this is a waste of money?
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I don't think it is a waste of money. I'm saying Medicare spending at the current pace is unsustainable.
 
cawacko said:
I read the reports on Medicare and S.S. I see it clearly. It gets used as a political football by each party to bludgeon each other but the numbers don't lie.
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Then the answer would be to seek to improve those programs that are KEEPING MILLIONS OF SENIOR AERICANS ALIVE .. NOT TO ELIMINATE THEM.

What about American seniors

This reinforces what I said earlier. You seem more concerned about money than helping people stay alive.
 
cawacko said:
I don't think it is a waste of money. I'm saying Medicare spending at the current pace is unsustainable.
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Sure .. and we can't afford universal healthcare either ... although every other civilized nation in the world can .. even Cubans get free healthcare and medical services from cradle to grave .. but for us, we just can't figure it out.

It's about priorities.
 
blackascoal said:
Then the answer would be to seek to improve those programs that are KEEPING MILLIONS OF SENIOR AERICANS ALIVE .. NOT TO ELIMINATE THEM.

What about American seniors

This reinforces what I said earlier. You seem more concerned about money than helping people stay alive.
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Republicans aren't trying to eliminate Medicare, they would all get voted out of office. It is irresponsible to me to close our eyes when a program is unsustainable. It is compassionate to reform it and make sure it exists for future generations.
 
blackascoal said:
Sure .. and we can't afford universal healthcare either ... although every other civilized nation in the world can .. even Cubans get free healthcare and medical services from cradle to grave .. but for us, we just can't figure it out.

It's about priorities.
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Compare the quality of care Cubans get to what we get here. It's not even close. No country in the world compares to America in creating new life prolonging/saving drugs. Let the gov't take over healthcare "to get profit out of it" and watch how much that drops.
 
cawacko said:
Compare the quality of care Cubans get to what we get here. It's not even close. No country in the world compares to America in creating new life prolonging/saving drugs. Let the gov't take over healthcare "to get profit out of it" and watch how much that drops.
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the entire civilized world idiot


see here you are lying for the republican party
 
cawacko said:
Republicans aren't trying to eliminate Medicare, they would all get voted out of office. It is irresponsible to me to close our eyes when a program is unsustainable. It is compassionate to reform it and make sure it exists for future generations.
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Respectfully .. how is it that you don't know what's going on in your own party?

Paul Ryan’s plan to phase out Medicare is just what Democrats need

Democrats have been feeling many emotions over the last week — anguish, fear, rage, and despair, for starters. Now that their heads are clearing enough to begin asking themselves how they can mount an effective opposition to Donald Trump and the Republican Congress over the next four years. One of the first tasks is to find a battle to fight. It isn’t enough to just pick up the paper or check the internet in the morning and be horrified at whatever new appointments Trump is contemplating; for Democrats to regain their focus, they need a specific controversy around which they can organize and potentially notch a win. And it looks like they may have found it.

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.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/blog...t-what-democrats-need/?utm_term=.761426aa4f25

‘Broke’ and Because of ACA?

House Speaker Paul Ryan falsely claimed that “because of Obamacare, Medicare is going broke.” The law actually improved Medicare’s financing, and the program isn’t going “broke.”

Let’s start with the claim that Medicare “is going broke.” It isn’t. One part of Medicare, though, is expected to face financial shortfalls in the future without changes to either revenues or spending, or both.

Medicare is made up of four parts. What was originally enacted in the 1960s is Part A, which covers payments to hospitals, and Part B, which covers payments to physicians. Other parts were added later — Part C (Medicare Advantage, or private insurance options) and Part D (prescription drug coverage). Part A is funded by a payroll tax that goes into a trust fund, similar to Social Security trust funds,*while the physician and prescription drug aspects of Medicare are mainly paid for with general government revenues.

It’s that Part A trust fund that’s expected to run out of money. The current exhaustion date is 2028, according to the latest report from the Medicare trustees. “HI [hospital insurance trust fund] expenditures have exceeded income annually since 2008. However, the Trustees project slight surpluses in 2016 through 2020, with a return to deficits thereafter until the trust fund becomes depleted in 2028,” the 2016 trustees report says.

But that doesn’t mean Medicare would be “broke.” There are other parts of Medicare, and Part A would still have revenue through payroll tax receipts, though not enough to*cover all of the expected expenses.

“HI revenues would cover only 87 percent of estimated expenditures in 2028 and 80 percent in 2050,” the trustees report says.

Predictions of financing shortfalls have surrounded Part A almost since*it became law in 1965. By*1970, the trustees report projected that “the trust fund would be exhausted in fiscal year 1973, unless additional financing is provided.”

In 1980, exhaustion was expected in 1994; in 1990 the insolvency date was 2003. But Congress has repeatedly pushed back those dates, mainly through increasing taxes — both the payroll rate and wages subject to the tax. Right now, that tax rate is 1.45 percent on wages for employees and employers each, with no ceiling on wages subject to the tax since 1993.*(The Affordable Care Act added a Medicare surcharge on high-income wage earners, as we will explain later.)

---

As for Ryan’s claim that Obamacare had worsened Medicare’s financing, that’s not the case, either. In fact, the law both expanded Medicare funding — adding a 0.9 percent tax on earnings above $200,000 for single taxpayers or $250,000 for married couples — and cut the growth of future spending.*Additional revenue and savings actually extend the life of the trust fund.
http://www.factcheck.org/2016/11/broke-and-because-of-aca/
 
blackascoal said:
Respectfully .. how is it that you don't know what's going on in your own party?

Paul Ryan’s plan to phase out Medicare is just what Democrats need

Democrats have been feeling many emotions over the last week — anguish, fear, rage, and despair, for starters. Now that their heads are clearing enough to begin asking themselves how they can mount an effective opposition to Donald Trump and the Republican Congress over the next four years. One of the first tasks is to find a battle to fight. It isn’t enough to just pick up the paper or check the internet in the morning and be horrified at whatever new appointments Trump is contemplating; for Democrats to regain their focus, they need a specific controversy around which they can organize and potentially notch a win. And it looks like they may have found it.

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.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/blog...t-what-democrats-need/?utm_term=.761426aa4f25

‘Broke’ and Because of ACA?

House Speaker Paul Ryan falsely claimed that “because of Obamacare, Medicare is going broke.” The law actually improved Medicare’s financing, and the program isn’t going “broke.”

Let’s start with the claim that Medicare “is going broke.” It isn’t. One part of Medicare, though, is expected to face financial shortfalls in the future without changes to either revenues or spending, or both.

Medicare is made up of four parts. What was originally enacted in the 1960s is Part A, which covers payments to hospitals, and Part B, which covers payments to physicians. Other parts were added later — Part C (Medicare Advantage, or private insurance options) and Part D (prescription drug coverage). Part A is funded by a payroll tax that goes into a trust fund, similar to Social Security trust funds,*while the physician and prescription drug aspects of Medicare are mainly paid for with general government revenues.

It’s that Part A trust fund that’s expected to run out of money. The current exhaustion date is 2028, according to the latest report from the Medicare trustees. “HI [hospital insurance trust fund] expenditures have exceeded income annually since 2008. However, the Trustees project slight surpluses in 2016 through 2020, with a return to deficits thereafter until the trust fund becomes depleted in 2028,” the 2016 trustees report says.

But that doesn’t mean Medicare would be “broke.” There are other parts of Medicare, and Part A would still have revenue through payroll tax receipts, though not enough to*cover all of the expected expenses.

“HI revenues would cover only 87 percent of estimated expenditures in 2028 and 80 percent in 2050,” the trustees report says.

Predictions of financing shortfalls have surrounded Part A almost since*it became law in 1965. By*1970, the trustees report projected that “the trust fund would be exhausted in fiscal year 1973, unless additional financing is provided.”

In 1980, exhaustion was expected in 1994; in 1990 the insolvency date was 2003. But Congress has repeatedly pushed back those dates, mainly through increasing taxes — both the payroll rate and wages subject to the tax. Right now, that tax rate is 1.45 percent on wages for employees and employers each, with no ceiling on wages subject to the tax since 1993.*(The Affordable Care Act added a Medicare surcharge on high-income wage earners, as we will explain later.)

---

As for Ryan’s claim that Obamacare had worsened Medicare’s financing, that’s not the case, either. In fact, the law both expanded Medicare funding — adding a 0.9 percent tax on earnings above $200,000 for single taxpayers or $250,000 for married couples — and cut the growth of future spending.*Additional revenue and savings actually extend the life of the trust fund.
http://www.factcheck.org/2016/11/broke-and-because-of-aca/
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I enjoy the conservation here with you so I know we are not attacking each other personally.

The WaPo column is from a progressive writer so it's not surprising he is writing from the perspective that changes to Medicare is 'killing' the program. Changes have to be made to keep it operating long term.
 
impeach_trump_large_clock-r9e8f9e125bb3401b9e5225ef9d0b93e3_fup13_8byvr_324.jpg
 
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