From the black hole of the stupidest of the stupid ideas we now have this:
Sens. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) and Tom Coburn(R-Okla.) acknowledged that there's something in their Medicare plan for just about everyone to dislike. But they say it's necessary to bring the program under control.
"Nobody's going to like this plan. We understand that," Coburn said at a press conference Tuesday as he and Lieberman rolled out their proposal.
Most of the plan's savings would come from some form of benefit reductions or shifting costs to seniors — a stark contrast to the Medicare cuts believed to be on the table in talks over the debt ceiling. Negotiators there are looking at cuts to healthcare industries after Democrats drew a line in the sand over benefit cuts.
But Lieberman and Coburn's proposal includes several politically risky benefit changes, such as making seniors pay more for their prescription drugs. It also would raise the eligibility age for Medicare.
For you visual learners:
Follow me over the scrambled legs to find out why this concept is idiotic.
We seem to be having a tad bit of an unemployment problem. These statistics are misleading because they only apply to those eligible for and receiving unemployment benefits. In reality these numbers are at about 1:3 adults are un/under employed. In certain communities 1:2 adults are un/under employed. How are these two issues related?, keep reading.
BLS:
Year Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Annual
2001 4.2 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.3 4.5 4.6 4.9 5.0 5.3 5.5 5.7
2002 5.7 5.7 5.7 5.9 5.8 5.8 5.8 5.7 5.7 5.7 5.9 6.0
2003 5.8 5.9 5.9 6.0 6.1 6.3 6.2 6.1 6.1 6.0 5.8 5.7
2004 5.7 5.6 5.8 5.6 5.6 5.6 5.5 5.4 5.4 5.5 5.4 5.4
2005 5.3 5.4 5.2 5.2 5.1 5.0 5.0 4.9 5.0 5.0 5.0 4.9
2006 4.7 4.8 4.7 4.7 4.6 4.6 4.7 4.7 4.5 4.4 4.5 4.4
2007 4.6 4.5 4.4 4.5 4.4 4.6 4.7 4.6 4.7 4.7 4.7 5.0
2008 5.0 4.8 5.1 4.9 5.4 5.6 5.8 6.1 6.2 6.6 6.8 7.3
2009 7.8 8.2 8.6 8.9 9.4 9.5 9.5 9.7 9.8 10.1 9.9 9.9
2010 9.7 9.7 9.7 9.8 9.6 9.5 9.5 9.6 9.6 9.7 9.8 9.4
2011 9.0 8.9 8.8 9.0 9.1 9.2 9.1 9.1
Older workers are not retiring. One they had their retirement nest eggs stolen in the casino we call Wall Street. So they are trying to restock the retirement shelves before they stop working. This keeps younger workers out of those same jobs. Do you see any similarity in the numbers in the bolded text below?
The recession appears to be having a different impact on young and older Americans —mainly keeping older adults in the workforce and younger ones out of it. Nearly four in 10 employed adults age 62 and older say the economy has forced them to delay their retirement plans, according to a Pew Research Center survey released today. Most adults between the ages of 50 and 61 are considering working during the traditional retirement years as well. At the same time, younger workers are struggling to find a place in the workforce. More than four in 10 nonworking people between the ages of 16 and 24 say they have tried without success to find a job, the Pew Research Center found. Many young people also say they plan to stay in school longer.
Security is important to these workers. Security like having health insurance as their bodies age and their medical needs increase.
Security trumps salary. By a ratio of nearly two-to-one, survey respondents say they would prefer a job that offers better security (59%) over one that offers higher pay (33%) but less stability. It's not the recession that drives this preference. A similar question asked by the General Social Survey in 1989 (when the economy was in the midst of an expansion) produced a similar result.
So having workers dependent upon job based health insurance hang on to their jobs for two more years is going to help our economy how?
To be sure, the current state of the economy has influenced nearly everyone's calculations about work to some extent. But the recession appears to be having a very different impact, depending on age -- keeping older adults in the labor force and younger ones out of it. According to the Pew Research survey, nearly four-in-ten adults who are working past the median retirement age of 62 say they have delayed their retirement because of the recession. Among workers ages 50 to 61, fully 63% say they might have to push back their expected retirement date because of current economic conditions.
All of these survey findings are consistent with a Pew Research Center analysis of U.S. Census Bureau data that show that the labor force participation rate of older adults, which declined from 1950 until the middle of the 1980s, has been rising ever since. This trend has accelerated during this decade, especially in the current recession.
All I see this proposal being is another way of eroding consumers ability to consume and since consumption is the basis for our economy it is irresponsible to forgo the newer consumers that will spend this money now over older consumers saving this money for their future.
What are they thinking?