Medicare
Let's say you're a doctor, and you have two patients. One of them has a cold, and one of them has a chronic and severe heart condition. If you took the patient with the cold and gave him massive heart drugs and shocked him with the defibrillator and did radical surgery , would that be wrong? What if you gave the heart patient a big plate of poutine and sent him home? It could be fairly said that you were trying to kill both patients.
And so it is with Medicare and Social Security. Social Security requires a small adjustment to make it last - and be more fair - by raising the limit on income deductions to make the affluent pay more. And Medicare needs big new cash.
And yet, Georgie has pushed to eliminate Social Security while doing nothing to save Medicare. He obviously wants to kill both programs, so it makes perfect sense - radical invasive procedures for the healthy Social Security program, nothing for the dying Medicare.
The impending death of Medicare brings us back to what liberals should be running on: universal health care.
Dancing around Medicare funding does nothing but complicate the issue. It keeps the reactionaries in the game by making it seem like it's all about the numbers. That's all a smokescreen.
Liberals need to stand for something. What better to stand on than Universal Health Care? It's good for the poor and the middle class. The US wastes more money on health administration than anyone ever. Is there a constituency - outside the Junta - for protecting HMO profits? No.
Look: no matter how it polls, it shows what Democrats are supposed to stand for. People don't like any of the policies of the Reaction-ublicans, but they like their feisty attitude. Tax cuts are no more popular than health care, but are the standard for rightists.
Hey Democrats: you're losing elections now. Why not lose on what you believe in?
My fear is that with the plummeting approval ratings of both Georgie and the Congress, Dems will play it safe and no fight a spirited battle to win back the government. That would be a huge mistake.
If you want to beat the champ, you've gotta knock him out. Nothing less will do.
And so it is with Medicare and Social Security. Social Security requires a small adjustment to make it last - and be more fair - by raising the limit on income deductions to make the affluent pay more. And Medicare needs big new cash.
And yet, Georgie has pushed to eliminate Social Security while doing nothing to save Medicare. He obviously wants to kill both programs, so it makes perfect sense - radical invasive procedures for the healthy Social Security program, nothing for the dying Medicare.
The impending death of Medicare brings us back to what liberals should be running on: universal health care.
Dancing around Medicare funding does nothing but complicate the issue. It keeps the reactionaries in the game by making it seem like it's all about the numbers. That's all a smokescreen.
Liberals need to stand for something. What better to stand on than Universal Health Care? It's good for the poor and the middle class. The US wastes more money on health administration than anyone ever. Is there a constituency - outside the Junta - for protecting HMO profits? No.
Look: no matter how it polls, it shows what Democrats are supposed to stand for. People don't like any of the policies of the Reaction-ublicans, but they like their feisty attitude. Tax cuts are no more popular than health care, but are the standard for rightists.
Hey Democrats: you're losing elections now. Why not lose on what you believe in?
My fear is that with the plummeting approval ratings of both Georgie and the Congress, Dems will play it safe and no fight a spirited battle to win back the government. That would be a huge mistake.
If you want to beat the champ, you've gotta knock him out. Nothing less will do.
posted by fiduciary at 10:47 AM
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