Republicans are Sneaky & Nasty! Propose Keeping Tax Cuts for Rich while Insisting Upon Massive Cuts to Social Security & Medicare!

Today, the Republicans in Congress, led by John Boehner and Paul Ryan, have just outed themselves! Horrible! John Boehner made an AWFUL counter proposal to our President today regarding the Fiscal Cliff.

Here is what Republicans are proposing:
1. NOT ENDING TAX CUTS for Rich: Boehner said NO to the President's proposal to end Tax Cuts for the Rich 2%! Instead, he proposed....

2. CUTTING Social Security: SS is SOLVENT until 2033. Yet Boehner and the Republicans are asking for $200 billion through revising the Cost of Living "CPI". This means that those on SS will see IMMEDIATE CUTS in their Social Security benefits. No more cost of living increases...instead, if approved, each retiree will see a CUT of up to $1000 each month by the time they reach 75.

3. RAISE MEDICARE ELIGIBILTY AGE TO 66 - 70: $600 billion in Medicare savings that would include raising the eligibility age and "structural Medicare reform." That's what they euphemistically call Ryan's voucher system, but it's not clear from the information available if that's what they're talking about now.


4. $800 billion in unspecified "pro-growth tax reform that closes special-interest loopholes and deductions while lowering rates."


5. $300 billion in other "mandatory" savings, including farm subsidies. No further details there.

6. $300 billion in further unspecified discretionary cuts.

WHAT TO WATCH FOR IN NEXT 2 DEBATES: On Day ONE -- Romney Obliterating Health Care and Tax Deductions for the Middle Class and Poor!

During the debates, both Romney and Ryan said they will make changes ON DAY ONE that will significantly impact the Middle Class, the Elderly and the Poor.
-- LISTEN FOR THESE TOPICS DURING THE NEXT 2 DEBATES --
1. VETO Obamacare.
2. Significantly reduce funding for Medicaid.
3. Cut Taxes for Rich by $5Trillion and Eliminate Tax Deductions which will impact the Middle Class and Poor:

1. VETO OBAMACARE: What most Americans don't realize is that many provisions within the Affordable Healthcare Act (ie: "Obamacare") have been in place since 2009 and Romney's VETO of "Obamacare" will ELIMINATE these provisions ON DAY ONE.

a. Pre-Existing Conditions Coverage Protection: --
(Watch for this during the debates)
THIS IS THE BIGGEST FACTOR that Healthcare Providers and Business Owners want to Eliminate. Romney LIED during the 1st debate saying his Plan would cover pre-existing conditions "just like Obamacare." This is a LIE and after the debate, Eric Fehrstrom, Romney's Top Aide, told CNN that Romney's plan would ONLY cover pre-existing conditions "for those who already have insurance." This means that millions of Americans today who are guaranteed with Pre-existing Condition Protection will LOSE IT as soon as Romney Vetos "Obamacare." The Romney/Ryan plan is to END THIS PROTECTION and hand-off the implementation of a privatized Healthcare system to States. States may determine whatever they want, no guarantees for anyone.This means that those with pre-existing conditions which is over 75% of seniors, will be forced to find a carrier that will provide them coverage and if Ryan's voucher system replaces Medicare, Seniors will only have a measly voucher to pay for their coverage. This is perhaps the most SHOCKING aspect to the Romney/Ryan plan.
b. Coverage for children 23 - 26: This has been in place since 2009 and it will be gone on day one of the Veto. Back in 2009, I remember my old employer griping and complaining about having to cover the 23 - 26 year olds. I can just imagine how quickly these employers will give these young folks (primarily college students) the Boot - as soon as Romney signs the Veto!
c. Closing the Donut Hole for Seniors on Medicare: Most Americans are unfamiliar with the donut hole. Seniors with medical conditions are very familiar with it. Prior to "Obamacare" seniors who required costly medications were forced to pay "out of pocket" for their prescription costs between  (approx) $2000 - $5000 (the Donut Hole). Starting in 2009, "Obamacare" started closing this hole by paying between 10 - 50% of these costs -- with plans to close the hole by 2020.
Remember, OVER 50% of seniors rely solely on Social Security and Medicare. Can you imagine how costly this was for them to pay for their prescriptions while in the Donut Hole? Many of them are forced to decide whether to take their medications or to eat. Most seniors view this coverage as a Godsend. Now, with the VETO, Romney/Ryan will take this coverage away!
d. Preventable Healthcare Coverage: Since 2009, Obamacare pays for needed/required preventative coverage including Colonoscopies and Mammograms. (So you thought this was covered by your insurance company out of the goodness of your heart??) Nope. That's Obamacare and that goes away on Day ONE of Romney signing the Veto.

2. REDUCE FUNDING FOR MEDICAID: On Day One, Romney/Ryan plan to cut Medicaid by $750 BILLION. This means that MILLIONS of Seniors will lose their Medicaid coverage. These Seniors are the Most Vulnerable! These are the sick, disabled elderly, many in Nursing Homes.

(click on picture for larger view)

3. Cut Taxes for Rich by 20 percent ($5Trillion) without causing the US Govt revenue. He can only do this if he Eliminates Tax Deductions that impact the Middle Class and Poor:

(CLICK ON PICTURE FOR LARGER VIEW)

a. Mortgage Income Tax Deduction: This is the favorite deduction of the middle class. This deduction benefits all home owners -- primarily the Middle Class. These are deductions to buy, build or improve your home.

b. Family Tax Credit: This is the favorite deduction for Working Families -- most are Middle or Lower income families.

If Romney/Ryan are elected, the elimination of these Tax Deductions will IMMEDIATELY and DIRECTLY Impact ALL Middle and Lower Income Americans.

LISTEN FOR ROMNEY REFUSING TO NAME THESE DEDUCTIONS DURING THE NEXT TWO DEBATES. ROMNEY CONTINUES TO PLEDGE HE WILL CUT TAXES FOR THE RICH BY 20% BUT HE REFUSES TO NAME THE DEDUCTIONS HE WILL CUT TO PAY FOR THEIR PLEDGE. THE ONLY WAY HE CAN FUND HIS PLEDGE TO THE 1 PERCENTERS IS BY TAKING MONEY OUT OF OUR POCKETS!

VP Debate Update: Ryan ADMITS his Plan to Change Medicare, Social Security and MEDICAID! Plans to THROW GRANNY FROM A CLIFF!

During last Thursday night's VP Debate, Paul Ryan finally admitted two things (which Romney has been avoiding):
1. The Romney/Ryan plan will change Medicare to a Voucher Program -- to occur in 2016.
2. The Romney/Ryan plan will significantly REDUCE Medicaid and leave it to the States to provide the significantly Reduced Coverage -- to occur IMMEDIATELY.
It is critical for the American Public to understand what this means. Romney has refused to state these positions publicly. Now, Ryan has OUTED their Agenda.

Most Americans DO NOT want to think about what will happen when they become Senior Citizens. I spoke to two young Romney voters this week. My (barbie type niece) said she was voting for Romney because he was "cuter" than Obama. My 30ish Yuppie friend said he was voting for Romney because he said he believes the country should take a new direction and he believes in the "tax cuts for the rich - trickle down" theory (Fox News watcher) -- as if that has ever worked. Of course he cited Reagan, but I had to remind him that Romney RAISED TAXES 4 Times! Barbie said, "I'm glad that Romney's discontinuing Medicare and SS cause I'm tired of paying my money for lazy people." 

Social Security: Ryan's Plan calls for privatizing Social Security. I will blog about this in a future post.
Medicare: Voucher Program. I will blog about this in a future post.

Medicaid: Ryan said Romney's plan is to CUT MEDICAID ON DAY ONE! On today's post, I'm going to talk about Medicaid.

As many of my long time readers know, after I retired from my Process Engineering job at a large Communications company in 2009, I became a Consultant working for Medicare Enrollment and Retiree Investment Corporations. As a consultant, I have learned so much about the retiree experience. I purposely sought out these jobs because, now that I am in my 60's, I wanted to learn more about the Senior Citizen experience before I enter into it.
As a Medicare Consultant, I learned that over 50% of our Seniors rely solely on Social Security and Medicare for their existence. They have no other source of income. I learned that a large number of Medicare recipients are Dual Eligible - meaning they recieve both Medicare and Medicaid. Many of them are in Nursing Homes.
Not long ago, I spoke with a woman whose Aunt was in a Nursing Home. Her aunt had been a teacher her entire life and enjoyed being self reliant. Throughout her career, her aunt was healthy, independent and saved much of her income, planning for retirement. She had a considerable nest egg when she retired at 65. She had accumulated over $750,000. In her early retirement she traveled around the country and across the world. However in her late sixties, she became ill. At first she was ok. She had medicare to take care of most of her medical expenses. However, in her seventies, her health took a turn for the worse. She needed daily care. At first, a nurse came to her home a few days a week. Then she needed daily help. Then finally, she was unable to take care of herself at all and it was necessary for her to be placed in a care facility -- a Nursing Home.
Her niece helped her find a nicer facility but it was very expensive. Soon, her aunt depleted her entire retirement savings and the monies from the sale of her home. Her niece said to me, "It only took a little over a year. You would be surprised at how quickly the money runs out.  The nursing home cost was $10,000 a month. This did not include the Medical or Prescription Drug costs, this was only the Nursing Home costs."
Statistics tell us the average daily cost of a private room in a nursing home in the United States is $120,000 a year.
Once her aunt's savings were depleted, her niece helped her apply for Medicaid to help pay for her Nursing home costs. Her Aunt would not have been happy with the turn of events. She spent her life being so proud of her ability to save and being independent. This was only SEVEN YEARS since she had retired thinking she had plenty of savings to take care of herself until she died.
Her niece told me it was difficult applying for aid from the government. She had to prove that her Aunt had depleted her savings, lost her home and had no other sources of income. Her aunt would have been humiliated by the extent of what her niece had to do -- providing so much documentation, filling out so many forms, make call after call, making sure all requirements were met, all so her aunt could receive Medicaid. "I had to jump through hoops for her just so she could receive the aid she so direly needs. She would have hated it. Like so many others, she thought Medicaid was a handout. But she paid her taxes and worked all of her life. If anyone deserves this, my Aunt certainly did. She was such a good person. She helped me, her students and so many other people all of her life."
Her niece told me one other thing. "I know that I did all that I could to find a nice place for my aunt, but it is really like so many others. My aunt needs the daily care, but what is so mind boggling to me is how much the Nursing Home costs. It costs $10,000 a month and the place has only One Nurse. It's really the minimum wage Care Workers that are providing my aunt all the support she needs."

The bottom line is: Ryan ADMITTED on the stage on Thursday that a Romney/Ryan ticket will CHANGE Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid as we know them -- and Medicaid ON DAY ONE! Most Americans DON'T UNDERSTAND THE IMPLICATIONS!!! Ryan Romney PLAN TO THROW GRANNY OFF A CLIFF!

Ryan Plans to Demolish Medicare and Lies About Obama's Plan to Save Medicare

Ryan plans to demolish Medicare as we know it. He wants to replace it with a Voucher Program which does not cover the needed healthcare costs of our seniors. In other words, he wants to push granny off a cliff. Ryan's plan also gives MASSIVE Tax Cuts to the Rich 1 percenters.
While the President's Affordable Care Act (ACA) includes plans on reducing $7B in excessive charges by insurance companies, redundancies and fraud, Politifact says Romney/Ryan are Lying when they say ACA cuts patient care. ACA Does NOT touch one dollar of patient care. Additionally while Ryan and Romney are complaining about these cuts, Ryan's plan includes these same cuts.
Politifact.com: Today, Medicare operates as a government-run health insurance plan for Americans over age 65. Ryan’s idea is to eventually move Medicare toward private insurance companies by giving people a set amount to buy their own health insurance plans... it would give them voucher-like credits to buy traditional fee-for-service Medicare or competing private insurance plans.
"Mitt Romney derides the $700 billion cuts in Medicare that the president achieved through health care reform. Those cuts take subsidies away from insurance companies, taking rebates away from prescription drug company. Is that what Mitt Romney wants to protect? And interestingly enough Paul Ryan protected those cuts in his budget."
Danny Kanner: "First, Ryan attacked the President for the very same ($700B) Medicare savings that he includes in his own budget. In the same breath, he falsely claimed that the Romney-Ryan budget protects Medicare -– in fact, their plan would end Medicare as we know it, leaving seniors with nothing but a voucher in place of the guaranteed benefits they rely on today. Then, Ryan refused to name a single tax loophole they’d close to pay for their $5 trillion tax plan. We know what that means: as independent experts have confirmed, Romney and Ryan’s tax plan would either explode the deficit or raise taxes on middle class families to pay for their tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires. As Romney and Ryan run away from the plans they have laid out -- and in Ryan’s case, passed through the Republican House twice -- they’re revealing that they’d take the American people back to the same failed policies that crashed our economy in the first place, and have zero interest in the bold, honest, substantive debate that they claim is at the center of their campaign."

Republicans' Kill Medicare Bill Defeated in the Senate! Paul Ryan won't be Pushing Granny off a Cliff!

Joined by several moderate Republicans, Democrats controlling the Senate rejected a controversial House budget plan for turning Medicare into a voucherlike program for future beneficiaries.

Five Republicans joined all the Democrats in killing the measure, which calls for transforming Medicare into a program in which future beneficiaries - people now 54 and younger - would be given a subsidy to purchase health insurance rather than have the government directly pay hospital and doctor bills.

Democrats said the GOP plan would "end Medicare as we know it," and they made it the central issue in a special election Tuesday in which Democrats seized a longtime GOP district in western New York, rattling Republicans.