Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Is there any substance to this? I mean are there specifics?
You do understand that exactly $0 comes out of the General Fund for Social Security, right?
Social Security is entirely funded by the FICA payroll tax, so what part of the budget is Social Security?
No part.
So how can one possibly speak of budget cuts for Social Security, when Social Security is not part of the budget?
Now, Medicare is a different animal.
Medicare is funded by both monies from the HI (Medicare) Tax and from the General Fund. However, note that the reason Medicare has to be funded in part from the General Fund is due to the fact that Congress have repeatedly refused to implement any of the suggestions offered by the Medicare Trustees in their annual reports. So for the past 15 years or so, every Congress has either refused to increase the HI (Medicare) Tax or refused to implement the service/payment cuts.
What my data shows is that you can raise the HI (Medicare) Tax to the level recommended by the Medicare Trustees in their 2012 Annual Report without causing any harm to your economy over the short or long terms.
However, my data also shows that you cannot save Medicare over the long-term without a major overhaul of the Medicare system.
My recommendation would be to "go Euro" with Medicare.
You can do just like the Germans, the Brits, the Swedes, the Ioti, and everyone else does.....
"In the past 20 years, our overriding philosophy has been that the health system cannot spend more than its income." -- Franz Knieps German Minister of Health (2009)
Okay, so for calendar year 2012, the HI (Medicare) Tax generated $205,729,561,955.19 --- $205 Billion -- in revenues.
So that's all that you spend on health care for Medicare. In reality, the figure is slightly higher, because you do actually generate interest off of the tiny bit left in the HI (Medicare) Trust Fund -- which will go belly up in about 4 years -- and you do collect monies from means-testing Social Security benefits --- that would be the "Taxation of Income" thing.
Like in the Euro-States, when you spend up the $205+ Billion, that's it....Game Over....no more money to be spent on health care for that year.
To resolve that problem, this is what the Germans have done...
"Virtual budgets are also set up at the regional levels; these ensure that all participants in the system—including the health insurance funds and providers— know from the beginning of the year onward how much money can be spent". -- Franz Knieps German Minister of Health (2009)
The Germans use virtual budgets to plan their health care spending for the year, to try and stretch those limited tax dollars as far as they possible can.
To do that, Germany, like Britain and Sweden and Canada deny health care to people, or they delay health care treatment, or they dilute the health care to the put of being ineffective.
So, like Alzheimer's patients, uh, you can't cure Alzheimer's, so spending money on medication -- even if it is nothing but generic drugs like Europe and Canada use --- is totally stupid and pointless. You provide only palliative care until they die (which hopefully is very quickly so they don't suck up too much tax money for health care).
I'm guessing the NAZIs will be out in full force and the propaganda and disinformation running thick and heavy on Social Security and Medicare.
Seeing...
Mircea
I agree with you 100%. We have a limited number of health dollars.
We overspend billions each year on many medical conditions especially near end of life.
I am a physician and have repeatedly said the only way to truly control cost is to ration care.
But it comes down to "yeah ration care for the other guy". "Just don't ration care for me" type of society we live in.
I've said this before this made news, beware that Obama was going to betray you, yet the Obama groupies (luckily there's 1 or 2 on here that don't buy into Obama's rhetoric) thought that Obama was going to save them and everything because he's so liberal and loving. LOL, don't say I didn't warn ya!
So the republicans and conservatives want cuts to Social Security and Medicare? Be careful of what you wish for.
He's specifically putting means-tested medicare on the table because retirees who actually saved for retirement vote strongly Republican. It's a political move -- he's saying, well, you want cuts to entitlements, here I'm going to offer the one that would hurt my (Obama's) base the least and yours (Republican's) the most.
Now, he knows this won't fly, but, it lets him say "well I offered cuts to entitlement spending but they didn't take me up on it", which is technically true, and low information voters (and heck, high information voters who don't step back and think about it) won't realize what he's doing.
He already cut medicare for 500 billo over ten eyars in obamacare.he says it wll be the same because of savingslyea right.He alos included medicaid. But all three will have to be reformed if they are to survive ;it just seems he wants no cuts but to these three.But SS is not funded by general funds so its moe a case of reform or automatic cuts by the SS law itself as the trustee explined in their last report. I would say like past cuts to medicare which were refunded becaue its poltical suicide will not i the end happen. One only has to remmber that we have aging society of voters who voted in high per cenatge numbers.
He's specifically putting means-tested medicare on the table because retirees who actually saved for retirement vote strongly Republican. It's a political move -- he's saying, well, you want cuts to entitlements, here I'm going to offer the one that would hurt my (Obama's) base the least and yours (Republican's) the most.
Now, he knows this won't fly, but, it lets him say "well I offered cuts to entitlement spending but they didn't take me up on it", which is technically true, and low information voters (and heck, high information voters who don't step back and think about it) won't realize what he's doing.
You have it right this is not going anywhere because part of Obama's deal will include tax increases and the {R}s are not going to go for it. Long live the sequester.
Not surprised of this and expect him to cut Medicare and Social Security while keeping welfare. Our idiot governor cut funding for the elderly and disabled but didn't touch welfare (even though many on welfare in Illinois are illegals). The message to this? elderly and disabled don't deserve help but illegals and welfare queens do.
He's specifically putting means-tested medicare on the table because retirees who actually saved for retirement vote strongly Republican. It's a political move -- he's saying, well, you want cuts to entitlements, here I'm going to offer the one that would hurt my (Obama's) base the least and yours (Republican's) the most.
Now, he knows this won't fly, but, it lets him say "well I offered cuts to entitlement spending but they didn't take me up on it", which is technically true, and low information voters (and heck, high information voters who don't step back and think about it) won't realize what he's doing.
I want cuts to welfare... the people who didn't pay their fair share. Welfare queens and kings need to pick up garbage on the road side to earn their check.
So the republicans and conservatives want cuts to Social Security and Medicare? Be careful of what you wish for.
I want you to work and pay your fair share. Why should anyone who collects welfare have any say in anything.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
