Social Security Needs Your Help, NCPSSM Speaks Up, No Joint Committee Progress, Romney & Medicare

Please write today . . .

Once again I am asking you to contact your US Senators and your Congressman to express your support of the aged and disabled and to ask your Congressperson to protect and preserve Medicare, Social Security, and Medicaid.  Also ask them to advocate for the aged and disabled; the wealthy and privileged do not need Congress to be their advocate.  Also, once again, please contact the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction.

Saving Social Security

To re-iterate a point made last week in a different way:  Raising Medicare Eligibility Age Erodes Social Security.  "A proposal to increase the Medicare eligibility age, which the Super Committee is considering, would drive up health care costs to the point where they would consume almost half of the Social Security check of a middle-class retiree, according to a new analysis by Social Security Works."

This "testimony in favor of raising the age comes on the heels of public endorsements by the American Hospital Association, the leading trade association for the nation’s for-profit hospitals, and the Healthcare Leadership Consortium, a consortium of health insurance companies, pharmaceutical companies, and other medical providers."

Again and again, businesses with their own vested interests work against the aged and disabled.  Even if corporations could really be considered people, would they be allowed "one dollar - one vote?"  That's how campaign contributions and lobbying work.  Money talk.

From NCPSSM

Congress Should Reject Benefit Cuts Whether or Not GOP Agrees to New Revenue

Joint Committee - No Progress

"Washington’s latest exercise in debt reduction appeared to be at an impasse Thursday, as members of a special congressional committee barreled toward a Thanksgiving deadline with no movement on the fundamental question of whether to raise taxes.  Talks continued between congressional leaders and members of the supercommittee, but the panel had no further meetings scheduled and no path to compromise on a plan to slice at least $1.2 trillion from projected borrowing over the next decade."

National Romney(Non)Care

More about Mr. Romney's plan to repeal Medicare and replace it with a voucher-like "defined contribution" plan:  "On Medicare, Romney's plan is remarkably similar to the controversial proposal released by Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan earlier in the year.  Romney hasn't finalized many details, but he would offer future Medicare recipients an effective voucher to spend on private insurance or a version of the traditional program."

"'The idea instead is to set the Medicare payment to provide each senior with money that they can go out use to go and buy a plan,' a senior Romney adviser said before the speech.  'In that respect, it's exactly the same exact thing as a Ryan plan.'"

MORE:  Romney: Overhaul Medicare and Social Security to reduce debt

Again, here is a Conservative Republican attacking Medicare as if it were a budget problem or even part of the solution to a budget problem.  It is neither.  Nothing regarding the budget or the debt would change.  The only change is that Medicare as we know it -- an effective and economical way of paying for services decided upon by physicians and then delivered by health care providers would no longer exist.

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