Physician, Heal Thyself
Presumptive GOP
vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan should begin his campaign rallies
by blasting Eric Clapton’s recording of “Before You Accuse Me (Take a
Look at Yourself).” This blues tune perfectly reflects the neurosis of President Obama and his troops. They constantly bellow that Mitt Romney and Ryan lust to cut Medicare. Yet, in fact, it is Team Obama that already has chopped deeply into it.
Obama and his comrades echo each other on this point. Republicans are “weakening the safety net,” Obama said
Monday. “Romney and Paul Ryan are dead set on slashing seniors’
Medicare benefits to pay for more millionaire tax breaks,” Democratic
strategist Kelly Ward wrote
donors on Tuesday. “It’s a rigged deal,” Obama political guru David
Axelrod told MSNBC on Thursday. “The Ryan budget, endorsed by Mitt
Romney, would end Medicare,” screamed MoveOn.org.
Unfortunately for Democrats, who have sung this song since last year,
the truth refuses to harmonize with their vocals. Indeed,
PolitiFact.com crowned the Left’s “Republicans voted to end Medicare”
mendacity as “the 2011 Lie of the Year.”
The Washington Post caught Democrats with their hands, arms, and shoulders in the Medicare cookie jar.
“Romney is right,” read last Tuesday’s WashingtonPost.com headline. “Obamacare cuts Medicare by $716 billion.” Post reporter Sarah Kliff’s
extensive evidence explains “all the various Medicare cuts Democrats
made to pay for the Affordable Care Act” — also known as Obamacare.
For starters, Congressional Budget Office director Douglas W. Elmendorf wrote House Speaker John Boehner
on July 24. Elmendorf determined that if Congress repealed Obamacare,
“spending for Medicare would increase by an estimated $716 billion
over that 2013–2022 period.” Conversely, if Obamacare remains law, so
will Obama’s $716 billion in Medicare cuts.
The Washington Post conveniently itemizes Obama’s ten-year decreases in Medicare:
The lion’s share — some 34.8 percent, or $249.2 billion — involves
“reductions in how much Medicare reimburses hospitals and private health
insurance companies,” as the Post’s Kliff observes. Team Obama
lamely argues that these are not Medicare-benefit cuts. Nice try. This
is like saying that Washington is not reducing student aid, just
limiting tuition payments to colleges and university systems.
Another 30.2 percent of Obama’s Medicare reductions, or about $216.2
billion, is gouged out of Medicare Advantage. This highly popular
program lets seniors choose among private insurers. But since Obama
knows best, this market-friendlier approach gets catapulted off a cliff.
“These cuts will force seniors to pay $3,700 more for their health care by 2017,” according to the Ethics and Public Policy Center’s James C. Capretta. “The Medicare trustees project that the cuts will drive some 4 million seniors out of Medicare Advantage plans between 2012 and 2018.”
A further 8.8 percent ($63 billion) comes from slashed payments to home health providers.
An additional 5 percent in cuts ($35.8 billion) affects
Disproportionate Share Payments. These subsidies assist hospitals that
treat large numbers of uninsured patients.
The remaining 21.2 percent ($151.8 billion) consists of cuts to another ten or so Medicare services, the Washington Post reports.
It would have been bad enough if Obama had redistributed the funds
from these cuts, but kept them within the Medicare system. Instead, he
siphons much of this money from Medicare into Obamacare, a brand-new
entitlement, many of whose beneficiaries are not even senior citizens.
sector, Obama simultaneously applies the same funds to Medicare and to Obamacare.
“So,” Congressman John Shimkus (R., Ill.) asked Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius
at a House hearing on March 3, 2011, “are you using it [this money] to
save Medicare, or are you using it to fund health-care reform? Which
one?”
Secretary Sebelius confessed: “Both.”
“So,” Shimkus replied, “you’re double-counting.”
Liberals are hammering Romney, Ryan, and Republicans for something
that they themselves already have done. This mental condition is known
among psychologists as “projection.” When it comes to gutting Medicare,
Obama and the Left are projecting enough to fill an IMAX screen.
http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/314226/physician-heal-...
Top Opinion
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ed 2012/08/20 19:06:55
To avoid from not receiving enough to substantiate maintaining such services, perhaps approach accomplishing fair and resonable fair compensation, perhaps through multiple forms of reciprocal services could be offered from the resources of the local "collective", circumventing Government or complementing some compensatory element of National Healthcare reimbursement?
This was not unlike what existed before Medicare was introduced. A side of beef or several bushels of sweet corn offered, maybe lawns mowed, houses cleaned, legal and accounting service ... all of which could be provided outside of governent on a local basis and at lower prices for medical services? It worked for centuries, why not learn the benefits of what previously was done, rather than go out of business as a medical service or making the choice not to pursue a need to obtain it? Food for thought, ok?
It's not just that the Romnhoid is a "Republican in Name Only," because the Republican "establishment" have proven that they'll put a knife in us just as viciously as will the National Socialists - and even give it a brisk twist of the wrist while they're at it - but that he's not even a CONSTITUTIONALIST in name only.
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