Republicans aim big guns at Medicare and Medicaid

by Larry Geller

This tweet just in, from Nicholas Kristof, New York Times columnist, two-time Pulitzer Prize winner

If this guy is scared, I figure I should be scared. Checking it out, I found this headline story from this morning’s Democracy Now:

GOP Proposes Sweeping Changes to Medicare & Medicaid

In news from Capitol Hill, Republican House Budget Committee Chair Paul Ryan is set to outline a budget plan today that would cut more than $4 trillion from federal spending over the next decade and make sweeping changes to the nation’s Medicare and Medicaid programs. Medicare now pays most of the healthcare bills for 48 million elderly and disabled Americans. The Wall Street Journal reports Ryan’s plan would essentially end Medicare as a program that directly pays those bills. Healthcare advocates say the proposal would shift more healthcare costs to older Americans, while the block grant proposal for Medicaid would lead to reduced benefits and make fewer people eligible for the program. Ryan appeared on Fox News Sunday this week.

Rep. Paul Ryan: "Medicare itself, literally, crowds out all other government spending at the end of the day. We can’t sustain that. We have got to get Medicare solvent."

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They say that “seniors vote.” It seems that just voting may not be enough. Without action between elections, those that we have put in office will take away everything we have.