The Medicare issue and its requisite scare tactics are not going away any time soon. Like past election years, Medicare is set to play a leading role in the 2012 race to occupy the White House and control Congress. With Democrat Kathy Hochul’s victory this week in the special election to fill New York’s vacant 26th Congressional district, Democrats think they’ve got their winning issue for 2012. Unfortunately for all of us, it boils down to a broad misunderstanding of Medicare and the GOP’s plan to save it.
Scott Stantis, Chicago Tribune
The scare tactics and demagoguery over Medicare have to stop. As the creator of the GOP’s “Roadmap” budget and proposals to save Medicare, Representative Paul Ryan is rightfully concerned about the skewed picture many Americans hold about Medicare and efforts to save it.
To set the record straight, Ryan’s proposed reforms don’t change any Medicare provisions for Americans 55 and older, and any statement to the contrary is at best willfully misleading. For Americans younger than 55, Medicare must change in order to ensure its survival for future generations.
Our country, saddled with a current debt of 14 trillion dollars, simply cannot sustain Medicare in it’s current structure and we can no longer falsely promise that it can or will. The money required to indefinitely fund Medicare doesn’t exist. Ryan’s proposal of privatization with voucher programs enabling consumers to partially pay for Medicare will result in greater program efficiencies, a higher quality healthcare delivery system, and long-term solvency for Medicare. Again, these proposed changes apply only to Americans currently under the age of 55 (repeated in case Democrats try to scare you).
Liberal progressives do not want to hear any talk that an entitlement program cannot be funded in the long run without reforms. They envision a bottomless barrel of money that can pay for all of their programs in perpetuity. Republicans, under the intelligent and commonsense leadership of folks like Paul Ryan, understand the challenges confronting our nation that the left can’t seem to recognize or accept.
California offers us the best example of any on how this “bottomless barrel” approach to entitlements erodes economic vitality. What I call “The Freebie State”, California was in the 80′s and early 90′s the eighth largest economy in the world. So what happened? Illegal immigrants poured into the nanny state of California and swamped Medi-CAL, the state’s medical entitlement program. California now has exceptionally high crime rates, the highest incarceration rate of any state, and brutal levels of unemployment contributing to a Medi-CAL that is critically underwater.
Lisa Benson, Washington Post Writers Group
California entered a downward spiral leaving it billions of dollars in the hole with unemployment hovering in the 18- 22% range in many areas as illegal immigrants continue marching in. To address their broke corrections system, California will soon release thousands of inmates back onto the streets, further draining the system while threatening public safety.
The liberals and progressives long in charge in Sacramento have demonstrated that they can’t get enough of their entitlement programs regardless of the dire consequences such unchecked programs have on society in the long run. California serves as a small example of where America is headed if we do not reign in our multi-trillion dollar debt while reforming and properly funding entitlements like Medicare.
We owe it to future generations to face reality and address entitlements like Medicare before they’re destroyed. The left’s demagoguery and scare tactics over Medicare reform may serve the short-term election interests of Democrats but they do a grave disservice to the country and our future.
Medicare Cartoon Credit: Scott Stantis, Chicago Tribune
California Currency Cartoon Credit: Lisa Benson