A Few Reads for Thursday

The whole reason the far right and billionaires like the Kochs despise Social Security and Medicare and want them gone is because they don't want to pay their share of FICA.  It is really that simple.  The despicable Pete Peterson and equally despicable Cato Institute came up with the bogus "insolvency" in order to create resentment from younger people and to try and undermine faith in the program.

Because SS is a tax, it can't go broke, and any shortfall can be handled through the general fund, as this article makes clear.    Ditto for Medicare.  This is why Congress is in no big rush to handle the "crisis."  As long as the assholes in the GOP don't mess with them, the programs should remain viable forever, or for as long as the planet exists.

Snip:

If Congress does nothing in the mere, uh, 4,000 days it has left to avert calamity, Social Security checks will still go out to beneficiaries nationwide. They’ll just be for less money—specifically, everyone will receive only about 83 percent of their current monthly benefits.

That would be a terrible outcome that Congress absolutely can and should avoid. But it is still a better outcome than Social Security disappearing altogether, which is what half of millennials think is going to happen. If the Social Security trust fund depletes in 11 years, that just means that it will have depleted a nest egg it built up a few decades ago. In that event, Social Security will just pay out every cent that it takes in. Our checks will be for less, but we will still get checks.

My fellow millennials’ misconceptions make sense, however: Our whole lives, we’ve been subjected to Pete Peterson propaganda that depicts our parents as stealing our earnings to fund programs we’ll never enjoy. Journalism’s job is to cut through that noise, not exacerbate it.

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The NFL nitwit Harrison Butker's speech saying women should pursue an Mrs. rather than an MS has gone over like a turd in a punch bowl, to read social media comments.

Sixty years ago, those comments would have been standard.  Somebody like Betty Friedan giving a commencement speech saying young women should be free to pursue their dreams of a career and such would have been totally condemned by the media and much of the public.  How times have drastically changed, thank God.

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It's About Shielding Assets

I think this is what it is...the Dragons want to be able to preserve assets before Daryl gets incapacitated and winds up in nursing home care. Medicare doesn't pay for nursing home coverage--Medicaid does, and you HAVE to spend all of your assets down before you qualify for it. You HAVE to be destitute to get it. Getting a divorce preserves the healthy spouse's share of the estate and that spouse doesn't wind up destitute. However, there are all kinds of regulations in there such as a "five-year lookback rule" so that people aren't shielding assets that can be seized such as the family home, bank accounts, and so on. Contrary to widespread myth, Medicaid is NOT "free" health care. It is a giant loan leveled at people who have the unmitigated gall of being poor, which can happen to ANYBODY who is not Bill Gates. If you qualify for it as a part of ACA and are over 55, you MUST sign away your estate so that any expenses on Medicaid--including monthly premiums--are subject to asset recovery when you die or your spouse dies if that spouse outlives you. Asset recovery is a part of the federal code, which has been in effect for over 20 years. States HAVE to recover those assets to pay for Medicaid. It's very lucrative for lawyers.

Lots of older couples "divorce" not because they decided they hate each other after living together 40, 50, or more years but because of these rules designed to prevent "abuse" of the system.

More

A Republican in Democratic Clothing

Who else?

This asshole waged war on the Great Society and the New Deal even before he was inaugurated. Believe me, I remember it.

To Obama, his plan to cut Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, while funding the Wall Street bailout, was an act of political courage. (In his interview with the Washington Post, he “pledged to expend political capital on the issue.”) It was his long-term plan, even though the polls showed widespread opposition to it. This was a matter not of expediency, but of conscience, for him: He needed to find some way to fund both the ongoing Wall Street bailouts, and the massive federal debt that would be caused by the 2008 Wall Street crash and its resulting plunge in federal tax collections. This “balanced approach,” of tax hikes and spending cuts, would be his solution to both problems.

Is there any doubt who this fucker's constituency really is? Does Robert Rubin ring a bell? Does Bill Gates? Does Eli Broad? Does Lloyd Blankfein? Does Peter J. Peterson?

A worse president I have yet to see, and all in the name of "Democratic Party principles."

He has single-handedly killed the Democratic Party brand for decades.

Remember who he admired as a "transformative" president?



He fancies himself as some deep thinker, but he has a piece of shit for a brain.

A "Democrat" Tries to Destroy the Legacies of FDR and LBJ

thanks to his utter bullshit "austerity" beliefs that everybody else should pay for the fuck-ups by his Wall Street backers. Those same backers should be in prison with their assets seized, not be allowed to further influence policy.

“I am willing to make tough choices that may not be popular within my own party, because there can be no sacred cows for either party,” Obama wrote in a letter to Congress included in the budget, referring to the move’s repudiation of the Democrats’ traditional association with the programs of the Great Society and New Deal.

The budget proposes to slash $400 billion from Medicare spending over ten years, and would introduce a new measure of the cost of living that would mean an effective cut of $130 billion from Social Security benefits during the same period.

This despite overwhelming opposition to this despicable proposal.

If Congress wants to impeach the fucker, I say go right ahead. He deserves it.

Paul Krugman is having a hard time facing the reality Barack Obama IS the real-life Manchurian candidate and Trojan horse of right-wing, billionaire and bankster, interests.

That "D" after Obama's name has inoculated him from much-deserved criticism and investigation as to who was backing him when he first ran for president in 2007 despite having very little national political experience.

It's time to take the mask off this fake.

Krugman:

Since the beginning, the Obama administration has seemed eager to gain the approval of the grownups — the sensible people who will reward efforts to be Serious, and eventually turn on those nasty, intransigent Republicans as long as Obama and co. don’t cater too much to the hippies.This is the latest, biggest version of that strategy. Unfortunately, it will almost surely fail. Why? Because there are no grownups — only people who try to sound like grownups, but are actually every bit as childish as anyone else.

After all, if whoever it is that Obama is trying to appeal to here — I guess it’s the Washington Post editorial page and various other self-proclaimed “centrist” pundits — were willing to admit the fundamental asymmetry in our political debate, willing to admit that if DC is broken, it’s because of GOP radicalism, they would have done it long ago. It’s not as if this reality was hard to see.

Krugman can't face the fact Obama is proposing this shit because he really IS one of them.

Why Am I Not Surprised?

Ever the narcissist, Obama has every intention of raising the Medicare age in order to paint himself as "post-partisan" without regard to how badly this would affect people.

People like me, who are past 55 years of age and are bound to spend our "golden years" completely impoverished and can't be hired for any kind of full time work. Therefore, we have to do without health insurance and can't afford his stupid "Obamacare" load of shit.

He can't be trusted--EVER.

As a report released on Tuesday by the Center for American Progress (CAP) confirms, raising the eligibility age would harm seniors dramatically and could leave as many as 435,000 people uninsured if implemented.

The reports says that such a move would pose the greatest threat to low-income seniors "now that the Supreme Court’s decision upholding the law rendered the Medicaid expansion optional for states."

According to CAP, "tens of thousands of low-income 65- and 66-year-olds, who would be cut off from Medicare—particularly the most vulnerable seniors living below the federal poverty level—will have nowhere to turn for coverage if their states reject the Medicaid expansion."

We can all just die as far as these assholes in Washington are concerned.

Etc.

At least we know Ayn Ryan hasn't sold his mother--yet.

I doubt his mother is destitute.
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Another dumb shit teacher gets convicted for "consensual" sex with FIVE students.

What kills me is the "libertarian" "argument" that because these kids are around 18, they have "consented" to this. Teachers, the "argument" goes, shouldn't go to jail for predatory activities just because the kids are over 16.

Well, no. "Age of consent" has NOTHING to do with this. It's the power, stupid, and the abuse thereof. "Consent" is irrelevant when a teacher has control of their grades and where it is mandatory they attend school in order to graduate.

Some 23 states have made such inappropriate relationships subject to criminal charges when in the old days people didn't see a whole lot wrong with it even to the point where marriages resulted. That's before sexual harassment became a big issue with all of the liability involved if the relationships go sour and also some high-profile idiot teachers getting into trouble with students. There is something terribly demented with teachers who get involved with young students instead of socializing with people their own age.
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Obituary? Until there is an official report, I removed the hoax obit on William Windom.

A good actor like that shouldn't have an obit before he is even pronounced dead.

It Takes "Democrats"

to destroy a program once created by Democrats to help people in need. That is because the party has been completely co-opted by neoliberal interests:

The Wyden-Ryan proposal makes further recommendations that would undermine Medicare. These include means testing, whereby “wealthier seniors would receive less help,” a fundamental change that would transform Medicare into a welfare-type program.

These proposals constitute yet another boondoggle for the insurance companies. Through the mechanism of “premium support,” funds would be taken from Medicare and handed over to the private insurers. The inevitable result would be substandard health care provision for America’s elderly and disabled population, resulting in rationing and denial of services, increased illness and suffering, and death.

Ron Wyden is such an idiot he doesn't remember that Medicare was put into existence BECAUSE private insurers WON'T pay for senior coverage. That is because seniors are the group most likely to need health care. They won't be able to afford coverage at all.

Idiot. Asshole. I will work to make sure he doesn't get another term.

But hey, you have a president who thinks Ronald Reagan was just such a great transformational president or whatever stupid term that is:



Our country is fucked.

Another Worthless Democerat

It is none other than Oregon's Ron Wyden, who seems to want to gut Medicare as much as any Republican:

What Wyden did was to give cover to the fundamental fallacy of right-wing attempts to dismantle Medicare: the claim that market competition is the key to reducing health care costs. We have overwhelming evidence on this — and it just isn’t true.

Just like neolib Obama.

Our Washington politicians are worthless and destructive.

The Reason for Medicare

in the first place was because private insurance couldn't and WOULDN'T insure the elderly for the simple reason they are the group most likely to USE health care. Therefore, any "debate" over whether Medicare should exist in its current form or even at all is based on lies and not on facts or history.

The neolibs have really done a number in their neverending quest to destroy the institutions designed for the common good. It's all about the "rights" of a tiny number of people at the expense of everybody else.

You No-Good Son of a Bitch

Leave the goddamned Democratic Party, you asshole, if you DARE try to turn Medicare into Medicaid and thus force people who are "too rich" to buy scam insurance policies, assuming ANY of them will insure older people.

He is a motherfucking sack of shit. Get the hell out, Obama.

link

You "means test" Medicare, you turn it into Medicaid. Medicaid is means-tested, not Medicare.

What a rotten sack of shit he is.

Later the White House had to issue a "clarification" to all of the outraged masses:

Currently, Medicare premiums for doctors and for prescription drugs are already means tested, meaning that couples making over $170,000 or singles over $85,000 (about 5% of Medicare beneficiaries) already pay somewhat higher Medicare premiums. What the President referenced today was his openness, as part of a potential big deal, to asking Medicare recipients over those high-income thresholds to pay modestly higher premiums. At no point did the Administration express openness to raising premiums on Medicare beneficiaries below those income levels. (Note that the Affordable Care Act already included a nominal freeze of those high income thresholds through 2019, resulting in modestly greater means-testing for high income Medicare beneficiaries).

Don't use the term "means test" which is used to determine eligibility for a program. Especially when referring to so-called entitlements.

OF COURSE Raising the Medicare Benefit Age

is a benefit cut.

Why don't Obama and his fellow fascists raise the eligibility age to 90? That'll save a LOT of money with all of the people having died off.

I never thought I'd be nostalgic for Bush and Cheney, but there it is. The Republicans talk a good game, but it is so-called "Democrats" who actually put in rightwing policies.

Look at Clinton and so-called "welfare." What a disaster that was. I had thought of voting for Nader in 1996, but the way the GOP were going after Clinton on bogus charges, I voted for him instead.

This ain't gonna happen with Obama.

John Nichols:

Democrats had their most significant victory in the past two years when Kathy Hochul won the special election in New York's 26th District. Hochul grabbed a traditionally Republican seat by campaigning as a stalwart and unyielding defender of Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security. She offered real alternatives for voters who were concerned about deficits and debts: arguing for fair taxation and a broad examination of waste, fraud and abuse in federal programs.

That was a powerful, winning argument. But it cannot be made by a president or a party that imposes deep and unnecessary cuts in Medicare. Accepting that so-called “entitlement” programs are the source of America’s fiscal challenges effectively endorses House Budget Committee chairman Ryan’s false premises.

Obama needs to switch parties.

Since Neoliberal Obama Cannot Be Trusted,

then we shouldn't believe one thing he says about Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security, for you know he is going to force people to take deep cuts in order to appease the fascists on the other side of the aisle.

I want this bastard out of office, and that there be somebody who actually gives a shit about the people.

Etc.

Both parties are complicit in their desire to destroy Medicare.

Congress is so stupid they don't understand the program was put in there to begin with because private insurance would NOT insure the elderly.

If Medicare is abolished, it is nothing more than legalized murder.
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Political Rhetoric and Whatever

There are so many lies out there told by the right and neoliberals about Medicare, it's a wonder these cretins can sleep at night.

As we know or should, the facts don't matter. Instead, it's all about an ideology.

Never mind private insurance will NOT cover seniors because they need more medical resources; that is why Medicare was instituted in the first place.

And don't get me started about the morons arguing against MEDICAID, which the vast majority covered are the elderly, typically in nursing homes, and the disabled, who cannot work.

Etc., Etc.

There is NO doubt in my mind whatsoever IMF head Dominique Strauss-Kahn was set up, given the fact he was critical of the neoliberal direction the IMF was in and felt it needed to be reversed.

He pissed off somebody in the economic elite, so he was set up:

To understand how powerful forces are using the current scandal, one need only refer to a front-page story in Wednesday’s Wall Street Journal headlined “Pressure Is Building on Jailed IMF Chief.” The piece states that the Obama administration has “strongly signaled it was time for the International Monetary Fund to replace Dominique Strauss-Kahn as its chief, indicating that he can no longer be effective in his job.” Clearly, the arrest of Strauss-Kahn is seen by the US government as a political opportunity.

In his first public comments on the case, the Journal reports, US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner “called for more formal board recognition that the IMF's No. 2 official, American John Lipsky, who has filled in since Mr. Strauss-Kahn's arrest, will continue in the role for an interim period.”

Strauss-Kahn was set up for political reasons. Case closed.
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Thanks to there being a weasel in the White House, the GOP is going to continue its assault on Medicare.
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News, Etc.

This teacher should apply for "chancellor" of D.C. schools.

She has "celebrity" written all over her.
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The GOP has been playing Obama like a sucker so long, with him caving on seemingly anything, they will try privatizing Medicare just to see if this idiot takes the bait.

He is stupid or arrogant enough to do it.
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Time for Governor Sandoval to be impeached.

Misappropriation of funds is a serious offense.
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Why Doesn't This Moron Politician

ask himself why Medicare was created in the first place? It's because private insurance is a failure--especially for older people because of the need for insurance companies to make a profit.

Older people need medical care more than any other group, including children. That's why they have to have "government assistance."

I hope AARP and other organizations torpedo this pile of shit legislation.

It's Time for People to Join Together Against Those Forces

hellbent on destroying Social Security and Medicare.  Here is one group dedicated to fighting those "reforms" put forward by our corrupt politicians to destroy this country as we know it or once knew it.

I'll put this link on my left sidebar under the blogs list.

Robert Reich

correctly points out the alarmist nonsense about Social Security is just that--nonsense. While Medicare has its problems, they can be easily fixed, for the problems facing that program have everything to do with rising medical costs.

Again it is all about political will and the fact so many of "our" representatives really don't represent us at all but instead the corporations and their lobbyists who financially support them.

Miscellaneous.

A torn parachute is being examined to see if it belongs to the legendary D.B. Cooper.
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Now we get more propaganda about how terrible Medicare and Social Security are and how we need to privatize both.
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Oh, my God. That child is going to be so screwed up, it won't even be funny:

I am transgender, legally male, and legally married to Nancy. Unlike those in same-sex marriages, domestic partnerships, or civil unions, Nancy and I are afforded the more than 1,100 federal rights of marriage. Sterilization is not a requirement for sex reassignment, so I decided to have chest reconstruction and testosterone therapy but kept my reproductive rights. Wanting to have a biological child is neither a male nor female desire, but a human desire.

Ten years ago, when Nancy and I became a couple, the idea of us having a child was more dream than plan. I always wanted to have children. However, due to severe endometriosis 20 years ago, Nancy had to undergo a hysterectomy and is unable to carry a child. But after the success of our custom screen-printing business and a move from Hawaii to the Pacific Northwest two years ago, the timing finally seemed right. I stopped taking my bimonthly testosterone injections. It had been roughly eight years since I had my last menstrual cycle, so this wasn’t a decision that I took lightly. My body regulated itself after about four months, and I didn’t have to take any exogenous estrogen, progesterone, or fertility drugs to aid my pregnancy.

Not to mention the "man" or "woman" or whatever he/she is is missing a few screws in the head.

Actually this person who claims he's a man is a woman, whether he or she likes it or not. Assuming this story is true at all.

Well, the regular news media are picking it up.
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Given how much teenage girls are brainwashed to hate themselves, it's little wonder more than a few of them are undergoing the knife to have boob jobs so that they look better to guys.
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Is the L.A. Times in deep shit regarding its story on the Tupac Shakur murder?
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