gekaap
Rookie
- Jan 25, 2011
- 1,795
- 136
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- Banned
- #61
I don't see contracting out Medicare to private insurance being a cost cutting measure. I see that as increasing costs. In government run medicare, when government pays $100 to cover the cost of a recipient's health bills, that money reduces the bill by $100. When you're talking about a private insurance company, they will collect $200 from the government to pay the $100 bill. That's how they make their money. I see the proposal as being nothing more than "Hey, we can say this and make it sound like we're doing something, when we're really just giving a handout to our buddies."
Overall, any cuts to medicare or social security should be at least matched with, if not exceeded by, proportionally equal cuts to defense spending. If that means we have to pull out of Iraq and Afghanistan tomorrow, and let those two countries fall on their faces, then so be it. I kinda like the idea of setting a budget equal to Clinton's last budget, adjusted for inflation. But I fear that adjusting for inflation might not be as good as it sounds. Over the last decade the rich have gotten richer, and the poor have gotten poorer. Since it's the more wealthy that drive inflation, simply adjusting for inflation would probably mean that such a budget today would be even more difficult on the poor than that budget back in 2000.
Overall, any cuts to medicare or social security should be at least matched with, if not exceeded by, proportionally equal cuts to defense spending. If that means we have to pull out of Iraq and Afghanistan tomorrow, and let those two countries fall on their faces, then so be it. I kinda like the idea of setting a budget equal to Clinton's last budget, adjusted for inflation. But I fear that adjusting for inflation might not be as good as it sounds. Over the last decade the rich have gotten richer, and the poor have gotten poorer. Since it's the more wealthy that drive inflation, simply adjusting for inflation would probably mean that such a budget today would be even more difficult on the poor than that budget back in 2000.