Is it just me, or has anyone else noticed that giant albatross that's hanging from Paul Ryan's neck? It's clearly there for all to see. Doesn't even take much research to find the details. And yet, not a word of concern has been expressed--by Republicans or Democrats--about the fact that Ryan clearly has a huge, gigantic albatross hanging from his neck, an albatross that could...and should...be used as a giant anchor to sink his and his fellow Republicans' hold on the House of Mis-representatives next year.
So what's that big elephant in the room, the albatross round his neck that we should be using as an anchor to weigh him and his fellow Republicans down next year? (Talk about mixing metaphors...but it seems to be...so appropriate in this case.)
It's called Medicare. And, more precisely....
...it's Paul Ryan's plan to privatize Medicare through the use of vouchers. Like all of the Republican plans to privatize things like Medicare and Social Security, it's not exactly a very popular proposal taking the country by storm, not among the elderly, at least, or, for that matter among many young folks, either.
And yet, with all of the fanfare about the House of Mis-representatives hailing Paul Ryan as their Republican savior-in-waiting (we're waiting for the part where he saves the country, that is), oddly enough, there has been very little discussion about Ryan's once highly publicized plan to privatize Medicare.
And now, the overwhelming majority of Republicans in the House of Mis-representatives are on record as supporting someone as their leader who wants to...kill off Medicare with a risky privatization scheme, a scheme whose numbers don't add up and which would, essentially, destroy the primary federal medical support system for seniors.
What Paul Ryan has proposed, and what so many of his fellow Republicans love about him, is his plan to end Medicare as we know it and, instead, give seniors a voucher worth X amount of money (based on a somewhat complicated formula) for them to use to buy their own medical insurance plans. The "voucher-ization" of Medicare isn't exactly something that's popular with the American public.
So...what to do...what to do?
Actually...that seems like a no brainer to me:
Use Paul Ryan's love affair with throwing people off Medicare through a risky voucher-ization scheme...as the primary weapon to kick Republicans out of the majority. It may not happen next year, but it's possible. And even if it doesn't happen next year, it could, at the very least, be used as a weapon to significantly reduce their majority next year, get rid of some of the craziest Republican crackpots and help create momentum to be rid of the Republican majority by 2018.
It seems to me that Democrats should focus like a laser on the fact that Paul Ryan and his colleagues in the House are all-in when it comes to trying to destroy Medicare as we know it.
Exactly how much money in vouchers people would get under Ryan's plan is...some kind of a mystery based on a formula (as alluded to above) that Ryan and his Republican colleagues are using to give them "wiggle-room" from having to actually tell people what the exact amount of a voucher seniors might be able to expect.
However, at least by one estimate (published in the L.A. Times), under Ryan's plan plan seniors could end up paying $12,500 a year MORE for medical care by the year 2022 than under the current Medicare system. Ouch. It's hard to see where someone living on a minimal fixed income like Social Security is going to be able to come up with that.
http://articles.latimes.com/...
The overall problem with a voucher program is that if everyone gets one fixed amount of money or voucher to buy health insurance, there's no guarantee anyone, let alone everyone, would actually be able to buy a policy at that price. And for those folks with a complicated medical situation and/or history, it could be virtually impossible for them to actually afford a policy, rendering the voucher pretty much useless...or of minimal benefit at best.
In any case, the stark silence over this particular issue has me scratching my head. It is the one major thing that Paul Ryan is known for, but never came up during Ryan's recent rise to power in the House. It seems to me that Ryan's risky Medicare privatization scheme should be a major drag on him and the Republican Party next year. So far, however, there doesn't seem to be anyone doing much to tie it around his neck.
And it would sure be great if some Democratic Party official could say the following the next time that a Republican even mentions the possibility of privatizing Medicare or Social Security:
We've already tried that...and it failed miserably. We used to have a 100 percent privatized health insurance system for seniors in this country. And it proved to be a complete failure. Same, too, for retirement income. We used to have a 100 percent privatized system for retirement income in this country...and it failed miserably. In fact, the only reason we have Medicare and Social Security today is because when they were completely 100 percent privatized...they failed miserably and the American public demanded action from their elected officials.
https://www.ncpssm.org/...