Medicare became law on July 30, 1965, 48 years ago, and America has never been the same!
Imagine America without this most significant Lyndon B. Johnson Great Society program, which gave the elderly, those over 65, peace of mind, knowing that they would be able to afford to survive, many on fixed incomes in retirement. without the fear of being unable to have medical treatments, including surgery that could prolong life! Nothing has been as important since the passage of Social Security under Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal in 1935!
My own mother had open heart surgery at age 80 in 1987, and lived another four years, due to Medicare, and the number of such situations are in the millions!
Yes, there is a budget crisis involving Medicare now, but that is not a reason to wish to do what Congressman Paul Ryan, head of the House Budget Committee, has proposed, to have a voucher system for future retirees, something that will assure poverty and lack of medical care, and shortening of life span. Such an idea is immoral!
The answer is to raise the percentage of tax paid on Medicare, as an essential to promote security for the senior citizens and prolonging the quality of life, as part of the responsibility of all of us for our parents and grandparents!
And not only should Medicare be protected, but also what has happened in Detroit, the threat of NOT paying pensions to senior citizens who have dedicated their lives to public service, because of a financial crisis, reminds us of the urgency of not only protecting those in Detroit, but ALL public workers who do their years of service, and should be guaranteed payment of their pensions until death, no matter what the cost!
Anything else on Medicare or pensions is unconscionable, immoral, unethical, and ultimately illegal!
This nation cannot afford to do anything else in meeting its obligations to the elderly, and if that requires higher taxation, so be it!
Random thoughts II:
“Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passions, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence.†(John Adams)
“We do not live in the past, but the past in us.†(U.B. Phillips)
“The first thing a man will do for his ideals is lie.†(J.A. Schumpeter)
“Half the harm that is done in this world is due to people who want to feel important. They don’t mean to do harm — but the harm does not interest them. Or they do not see it, or they justify it because they are absorbed in the endless struggle to think well of themselves.†(T.S. Eliot)
“The study of human institutions is always a search for the most tolerable imperfections.†(Richard A. Epstein)
“A government with all this mass of favours to give or to withhold, however free in name, wields a power of bribery scarcely surpassed by an avowed autocracy, rendering it master of the elections in almost any circumstances but those of rare and extraordinary public excitement.†(John Stuart Mill)
“A society that puts equality — in the sense of equality of outcome — ahead of freedom will end up with neither equality nor freedom. The use of force to achieve equality will destroy freedom, and the force, introduced for good purposes, will end up in the hands of people who use it to promote their own interests.†(Milton Friedman)
I agree. It needs to be protected!
Thought this was important. Instead of listening to republicans who ate trying to repeal Obamacate, listen to a real health care professional. There are a lot of us and we are ready to roll over right wingers who lie about the ACA.
Anti-Obamacare Ad Gets The Smackdown By An Actual Doctor http://samuel-warde.com/2013/07/anti-obamacare-ad-gets-the-smackdown-by-an-actual-doctor/
http://safeshare.tv/w/zwhKdMtFHf
Congressman Mike Rogers says we have the greatest middle class in America? What planet is he living on, when the Republicans, who have controlled the White House for 24 of the past 40 years, and Congress for 12 years, and the House for 3 years of the past 20, have destroyed the middle class, which reached its peak in 1973? Give me a break!
“Here is a guarantee that I’ve made. If you have insurance that you like, then you will be able to keep that insurance. If you’ve got a doctor that you like, you will be able to keep your doctor. Nobody is trying to change what works in the system. We are trying to change what doesn’t work in the system.” President Obama – http://www.whitehouse.gov/realitycheck/3
Among the questions that HHS recently added to the website we have of course: “Can I keep my own doctor?” https://www.healthcare.gov/can-i-keep-my-own-doctor/
“Depending on the plan you choose in the Marketplace, you MAY be able to keep your current doctor.” In other words Obamacare guarantees neither. Doctors may be only available through certain networks, just as in the current system. And only plans that existed ( https://www.healthcare.gov/what-if-i-have-a-grandfathered-health-plan/ ) in their current form on March 23, 2010, are even eligible to be “kept.” The vast majority of plans will be new, subject to a raft of new regulations, requirements, and restrictions.
So the IRS is in charge of imposing Obamacare and its mandate on all of us, well except The President, members of Congress and the rest of the privileged hierarchy, yet they,the IRS employees via their Union want nothing to do with Obamacare! But if Obamacare is so great, if its good enough for the rest of us working mortals, then why isn’t it good enough for the IRS and the rest?
http://capwiz.com/nteu/issues/alert/?alertid=62634726&type=CO&utm_source=Illinois+Policy+Institute&utm_campaign=7790111647-0613_ecompass&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_0f5a22f52c-7790111647-10830129
Lulz @ You Know Who In Disguise!
Thanks for the link Maggie! 🙂
Robert, why are you ignoring what I said above about the middle class, and what Congressman Mike Rogers said? Could it be because you well know that the middle class has evaporated under GOP policies for much of the past four decades?
Ronald, I did not reply to your comment regarding the middle class mainly for two reasons.1) It was not the subject of my post but rather Obamacare which is related to Medicare, the theme of your post, and 2) I really do not believe in the myth of the middle class. What is the middle class? As a matter of fact David Mamet explained this better than I ever could in his Village Voice article, “Why I am No Longer a Brain-Dead Liberal” – http://www.villagevoice.com/2008-03-11/news/why-i-am-no-longer-a-brain-dead-liberal/full
“Do I speak as a member of the “privileged class”? If you will — but classes in the United States are mobile, not static, which is the Marxist view. That is: Immigrants came and continue to come here penniless and can (and do) become rich; the nerd makes a trillion dollars; the single mother, penniless and ignorant of English, sends her two sons to college (my grandmother). On the other hand, the rich and the children of the rich can go belly-up; the hegemony of the railroads is appropriated by the airlines, that of the networks by the Internet; and the individual may and probably will change status more than once within his lifetime.”
Demagogues often talk about “the rich,” “the poor,” and “the middle class” as if these were static groups of people. But here in America they are not. They are not , not only by the passage of time, but also with regard to their location. Is it the same to live on a 60k per yer salary in Elk City, Oklahoma than it is New York city? Of course not. Therefore your argument, I humbly believe, is based on a flawed premise. That is why I did not care to address it.
Let’s just forget for the moment the term “middle class!” Is it not alarming that the average American family has seen almost no increase in their wages and assets, while the rich have seen quadrupling since 1989? Is that not a sign of a problem?
I consider myself a middle class person. I’m not in the poverty level but I’m certainly no millionaire.
Like the Professor said, I am one of many millions of Americans who’ve had very little increase in wages and assets while the millionaires and billionaires get richer and richer.
Ronald: I respectfully disagree with your point of view. This article linked below pretty much sums up why. I really don’t feel like giving a long explanation of the various objective data available that debunk your premise, specifically from the US Census Bureau and Federal Reserve. This explanation as to why I do not agree with your premise I have known for years after believing what you have said. So I find it easier and more practical to share a link which explains what I agree with it much better that I can. If you understand but still disagree fine by me. As I said I am not here to change anyone’s point of view. I’m only here to share maybe a different point of view and provide explanations which you are free to accept or reject. http://www.policymic.com/articles/12319/6-myths-about-income-inequality-in-america
“It would be hard to motivate most people if everyone had the same earnings, status, prestige, and other rewards.†Gary Becker Economist Nobel Prize winner
“The rapid economic advance that we have come to expect seems to be in large measure a result of this inequality and to be impossible without it. Progress at such a fast rate cannot take place on a uniform front but must take place in an echelon fashion, with some far in front of the rest.†F. A. Hayek Economist Nobel Prize winner.
The idea that somehow the economy is a pie of fixed size where If one person gets a bigger portion of the pie, others of necessity get smaller pieces, and the role of government is to divide up the slices of that pie, is misguided. In reality, in an economy the size of the pie is infinite. That is why the success of other doesn’t not harm me. Bill Gates, Steve Jobs and anyone’s success does not harm me or anyone in any way.
Your last few lines of the last entry by you certainly makes sense, so I will grant you that, Robert!
Some reading material for You Know Who In Disguise:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_middle_class
Thanks for posting that Rustbelt. You Know Who In Disguise especially needs to read #8 of that.
link for #8: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_middle_class#Middle-class_squeeze