The war on old folks by republicans of course....

[merrill]

Month in and month out, this rag features well-preserved, wealthy, beaming celebrities who suggest that aging can be defied, and also that it’s just one big blast.

I’d like to see a somewhat different cover. This one would feature a sick, homeless grandma taking risks and doing all the things Keaton can’t imagine. Like living without Medicare.

Or Social Security. Or affordable housing. Because if the Republicans get their way, more and more retirees are going to be increasingly impoverished. Sarah Palin and others may have gone ballistic over alleged “death panels,” but the real ghouls facing older people are the right-wingers in Congress, and in all too many state houses and legislatures.

While the Republican War on Women has gained national attention, there has been less outrage over the Republican War on Older Americans. But the battles are everywhere.

State after state is going after pension funds. Here in Michigan, for example, one of the first things Republican Gov. Rick Snyder did was to impose new and higher taxes on retirement income and public pensions.

Making matters worse, our state’s long recession forced many people in their 50s to take early retirement as employers downsized. When you retire early, your benefits are lower than if you wait until you’re 65. So now, a larger percentage of smaller retirement eggs will be subject to income tax. Why? To make up for cuts in the state’s business taxes.

Beyond Michigan, the AFL-CIO finds that older workers who lose their jobs have the highest rate of long-term unemployment, which in turn means significantly reduced retirement income. Plus, they often have to tap into what savings they have to get by.

So how are compassionate conservatives at the national level responding to the needs of aging Americans? Congressman Paul Ryan’s (R-Wis.) proposed budget is a full-out, concerted assault on old folks. According to the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), he would cut Medicaid by $1 trillion over the next decade and convert it into a block grant to the states, which would result in deep cuts to vital services for seniors.

Medicaid, according to SEIU, “is the nation’s main source of payment for long-term care, covering a million nursing home residents and paying for 41 percent of all long-term care expenditures in the country.” Clearly, those folks will be much more comfy living in a refrigerator box under an overpass.


http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/...r_on_old_folks

[merrill]

Also, under Ryan’s plan, starting in 2022, Medicare would no longer exist. Instead, people currently in their early 50s would, when they retire, get a voucher to purchase private health insurance, thus transferring control of Medicare to the health insurance industry.

Citing a Congressional Budget Office estimate, SEIU predicts that under this plan 20 million retirees won’t have Medicare when they retire, and that such a voucher program will double healthcare costs for seniors. It also notes that Ryan’s plan proposes to “cut future Social Security benefits for everyone who is earning more than $22,000 a year right now.”

[Citizen]

Name one social program from any country that lasted more than a century without the cost growing out of control or the benefits being reduced to smaller and smaller portions. Either the cost rises, benefits dwindle first then eventually cost rises and benefits dwindle.

[Slick]

Also, under Ryan’s plan, starting in 2022, Medicare would no longer exist. Instead, people currently in their early 50s would, when they retire, get a voucher to purchase private health insurance, thus transferring control of Medicare to the health insurance industry.

Citing a Congressional Budget Office estimate, SEIU predicts that under this plan 20 million retirees won’t have Medicare when they retire, and that such a voucher program will double healthcare costs for seniors. It also notes that Ryan’s plan proposes to “cut future Social Security benefits for everyone who is earning more than $22,000 a year right now.”

You mean as opposed to Obama's caskets for clunkers program?

[goin2fast10]

Beyond Michigan, the AFL-CIO finds that older workers who lose their jobs have the highest rate of long-term unemployment, which in turn means significantly reduced retirement income. Plus, they often have to tap into what savings they have to get by.

Duh.....astute observation. Is this supposed to be a clincher? LOL

[merrill]

Moving Medicare to the insurance industry will cost taxpayers a ton of money which the industry is looking for to as they laugh all of the way to the bank.

[merrill]

The opponents of Social Security will stop at nothing in their long crusade to destroy the most efficient retirement system in the world. Opponents have taken two tracks to attack Social Security.

The first is to claim the system as it is will fail, and the second is to claim that privatization is a better way to provide for retirement security. The first claim was the favorite from 1935 to about 2001.Then the privatization claim became the vogue. Now the first is back on the table.

http://www.dollarsandsense.org/archi...0/0111orr.html

[merrill]

With corporations routinely defaulting on their pension promises, more and more workers must rely on their individual wealth to make up the difference.

The stock market collapse at the turn of the millennium wiped out much of the financial wealth of middle class Americans, and the collapse of the housing bubble has wiped out much of their remaining wealth.

Making any cuts to Social Security now, either by raising the retirement age or cutting benefits, would have a huge impact on their remaining retirement income and are not necessary to “save the system.”

[Darmosiel]

With corporations routinely defaulting on their pension promises, more and more workers must rely on their individual wealth to make up the difference.

The stock market collapse at the turn of the millennium wiped out much of the financial wealth of middle class Americans, and the collapse of the housing bubble has wiped out much of their remaining wealth.

Making any cuts to Social Security now, either by raising the retirement age or cutting benefits, would have a huge impact on their remaining retirement income and are not necessary to “save the system.”

Another scam is reverse mortgage. Seniors borrowing on their equity so the bank continues to own the house.

[Vilifier of Zombies]

With corporations routinely defaulting on their pension promises, more and more workers must rely on their individual wealth to make up the difference.

The stock market collapse at the turn of the millennium wiped out much of the financial wealth of middle class Americans, and the collapse of the housing bubble has wiped out much of their remaining wealth.

Making any cuts to Social Security now, either by raising the retirement age or cutting benefits, would have a huge impact on their remaining retirement income and are not necessary to “save the system.”

There in lies the rub - the older the baby boomers get - the more distinctive their votes become...it's not that SS isn't a priority even amongst the elected officials - it's that we won't be able to pay for it and keep the status quo going at the same time, low income middle aged America with families to feed will feel the brunt of just how relevant the power the baby boomers will be able to wield by the time they're retired en masse.

It's the reason larger economies across the globe that're interdependent on the US have started regressing - to stave off the inevitable catastrophe - basically our baby boomers retiring is going to reverberate throughout the entire global economy, never mind that everyone else's baby boomers are retired as well...

What's going to be necessary is to find some sort of neutral ground - not some cockamamie Marxist utopian mediocracy nor a good ole fashioned fascist rabble-rousing gone wild - light the torches, grab the pitch forks, and start driving the fringe over the edge of the highest cliffs is really the best answer as they're not about finding happy mediums or neutral grounds...