Medicare Budget Cut Proposal to Hurt Those 55 and Younger
Apparently our politicians don’t know the difference between cost saving and cost shifting. I’m not averse to lower taxes, but when lower taxes results in lower essential benefits we aren’t left with much of a bargain.
Apparently if I’m like the average American I’m on track to put $150,000 into Medicare and could expect to receive $400,000 in benefits if no changes are made to Medicare. I can certainly understand that when you add to my personal deficit the deficit of a few hundred million other Americans you wind up with a large and ugly number.
Although I know that pointing fingers and looking at the past isn’t going to help… Why was this allowed to happen? Why weren’t the taxes set at a level where the tax revenues assigned to Medicare would cover not only the current expenses but the future ones as well? Did all these baby boomers just show up out of the blue in the last few years? Was there no one in Washington that had both a calendar and a calculator?
I’ve got to end the rhetorical questions there. Otherwise this would cease to be a G-rated blog.
The Republicans want to cut spending. That OK with me, but this proposal is like me proudly announcing to my wife that I was going to save us $2,400 a year by not paying our $200-a-month light bill. If we assume that the most likely scenario doesn’t happen, (This scenario involves my wife didn’t kicking me in the head and making me pay the bill.) we are left with only a few possible choices. My wife pays the bill and then files for a divorce. We go without lights and then my wife files for a divorce.
If our Medicare benefits are cut dramatically the health care costs for seniors do not go away. Either we or they (and we are they) find other ways to pay for health care or our lights go out prematurely.
In another words, these… (Fill in the blank with your favorite curse word.) morons want to balance the budget by shortening my life expectancy.
What the Fred Flintstone are these people smoking?