Saturday, July 31, 2010

Andy Griffith Pitches Medicare



They're stripping half a trillion dollars from Medicare to pay for uninsured people. Many seniors, having paid into the fund for decades, oppose that. The solution? Use more Medicare money to hire a pitchman.

These tactics remind me of our mayor, lying John Dickert, who also uses our money for propaganda purposes: http://news.racinepost.com/2010/07/flood-averted.html. And here I thought that rain had something to do with the recent flooding in SE Wisconsin. I should have known that lying John was in charge all along.

5 comments:

Huck Finn said...

Under medicare I almost lost everything back in 98. Meds I needed, med equipment I needed, uncovered portions of hospital bills, and a SSDI allotment that just put me out of reach of medicaid all caused me to come close to losing my house. That's when I finally went into the VA system and they saved my day. As things tighten up for seniors, expect them to face the same problems.

OrbsCorbs said...

But, but Sheriff Taylor says everything is gonna be all right . . .

hale-bopp said...

Well, I doubt they are really going to do it. Most of the "savings" come from cuts to reimbursement rates. This is in the budget every year and every year, Congress votes to not cut the rates (or at least not cut them as much). It's a book keeping gimmick to hide the cost and then all the politicians act surprised when it happens.

Just like the Bush tax cuts. It's only $1 trillion over 10 years, we can afford that. Look at all the budget surpluses.

Now anyone not living under a rock knows they were being snookered by Republicans who, no matter what was happening 10 years later, would argue that the tax cuts couldn't possibly be allowed to expire even though that's how they were sold. Of course those projections of surpluses used to justify the tax cuts were also based on lots of assumptions (like those reduced medicare reimbursement rates) that anyone who is paying a modicum of attention knows are not going to happen.

OrbsCorbs said...

Well, we'll see, won't we? I'll give you that the last deadline was extended. The fact remains that the health care "reform" has to be paid for, just like the wars, and everything else. I don't think that an ever-increasing deficit is sustainable.

I also resent that Medicare is spending $700,000 on an ad campaign to pimp itself. That seems politically motivated to me.

I have no faith in government anymore, nor either political party.

kkdither said...

I believe politics is an intentional, concerted plot to missle, mussle, misguide, confuse and then insult our intelligence.

People get to the point you claim to be, orbs, and they just quit listening. They feel powerless against the machine and apathetic in their ability to stop it... which leaves the door wide open to more misappropriations and downright criminal misdoings.

p.s. I love the Sheriff Taylor reference. Too bad we don't have more Mayberry to spread around.