Budget Debate Straight Talk (Guest Voice)

Budget Debate Straight Talk
And the truth about Medicare

by Susan Stamper Brown

If indeed the road to Hell is paved with good intentions, President Obama and his cohorts in the Democratic Party must be feeling the heat on their backsides on the eve of the Cut, Cap and Balance (CCB) vote.

In response to the GOP’s proposal, it should come as no surprise that White House spokesman Jay Carney would use scare tactics to suggest that the CCB bill would impose egregious cuts to Medicare. Democrats currently engaged in the debt ceiling budget debate refuse to tell the truth about the financial state of our union, and choose to continue down their spendificant pathway — which is expected to dead-end by way of a brick wall in 2019.

Republicans have done their part to sound the warning bell, and offer an alternate route, via Rep. Paul Ryan’s, (R-WI) “Pathway to Prosperity,” and more recently, Cut, Cap and Balance. Both proposals tell the unvarnished truth about America’s date with financial destruction and provide a sensible, alternative.

In April, the Congressional Budget Office produced an analysis showing Ryan’s plan would “reverse the course of fiscal history by lowering federal health care spending from 8 percent to 5 percent by 2050,” as compared to a 14 percent spending hike, should we stay on the current path toward insolvency.

Whether the irresponsible spendaholics admit it or not, Medicare is one of the largest (and fastest growing) federally funded programs, with federal spending expected to reach 20 percent by 2016, exceed the cost of Social Security by 2018, and exhaust trust funds by 2019.

Medicare’s funding is out of actuarial balance in significant part because the number of workers paying Medicare taxes is shrinking while the number of retirees is on the rise – as America’s baby boomers retire. Is it not ironic that the same generation that pushed Roe v. Wade on American society, resulting in over 52 million abortions since 1973 — and ostensibly 52 million fewer taxpayers – is now facing an unprecedented budget shortfall to pay for their incessant list of taxpayer-funded programs-the same programs they now need?

Unfortunately, the GOP’s attempt to warn Americans about the pending budgetary derailment has fallen upon deaf Democrat ears, which are in tune only with causes promoting their own political expediency, rather than our nation’s financial health.

What Fortune Magazine’s senior editor-at-large, Shawn Tully describes as “the best choice in a world of poor alternatives,” Democrats view as an opportunity to manipulate facts, misrepresent the truth, and mask the outcome.

Speaking on behalf of the party bereft a conscience, during a recent appearance on CBS’ “Face the Nation,” Democratic National Committee chairperson, Debbie Wasserman Schultz, argued the GOP plan will “throw you to the wolves and allow insurance companies to deny you coverage.” In reality, the GOP plan will provide seniors more control and promote health insurance company competition to drive down costs.

The only political party that has voted to cut Medicare is the Democrat Party – when they voted to cut $500 billion out of Medicare in the Obamacare bill.

The Democrats want us to climb aboard their bandwagon headed to the Promised Land; only problem is, this bus is headed over a cliff the size of the Grand Canyon. Along the way, a few Republicans are trying to give us warning of the dangers ahead for Medicare and a host of other similarly periled programs. We can heed the warnings and make a U-turn, or we can keep going with the pedal to the floor, off into financial oblivion.

© Copyright 2011 Susan Stamper Brown. Susan’s weekly column is nationally syndicated exclusively by Cagle Cartoons newspaper syndicate. For more info contact Cari Dawson Bartley at 800- 696-7561 or email cari@cagle.com and is licensed to run on TMV in full.