No one could have predicted this:
Anxiety is rising among some Republicans over the party’s embrace of a plan to overhaul Medicare, with GOP lawmakers already starting to face tough questions on the issue at town hall meetings back in their districts.
House leaders have scheduled a Tuesday conference call in which members are expected in part to discuss strategies for defending the vote they took this month on a budget that would transform the popular entitlement program as part of a plan to cut trillions in federal spending.
One thing the average Republican lawmaker should have learned after eight years of being led around by idiots like George Bush and ideologues like Dick Cheney and bullies like Karl Rove and Tom DeLay, is that you should think for your goddamned self and not take anyone’s word for anything.
If they tell you it will be okay to vote to kill Medicare, don’t believe them, you idiots.
Medicare is necessary because old people get sick and require expensive drugs, treatments, and surgeries to sustain their lives and their quality of life. It doesn’t make sense to insure old people, especially people who already require expensive care. Insurance is a profit-industry, and they aren’t going to pay for people’s health maintenance out of the goodness of their hearts. The amount of money it would require to make an insurance policy profitable for an eighty-year old cancer patient with diabetes would probably be in the seven figures. That’s why we do something different. We have people pay into Medicare during their working lives so that they can spread the cost of old-age out and make it reasonable.
You can’t give an eighty year-old cancer patient with diabetes a voucher (calling it “premium support”), think that it will pay for a seven-figure medical bill, and say that you’ve solved the budget problem.
When you vote for a system like that, the people will vote you out of office.
