Saturday, May 21, 2011

The "Catholic Professors'" Alternative Plan for Medicare

We were not surprised to read that a bunch of the Usual Suspects who happen to teach at various Catholic colleges accused Boehner (really, Ryan) of 'eliminating Medicare.'

It's an ignorant--or simply unprincipled--claim, but we expect nothing more from such as Massingale, Reese, et al.

So. The alternative is to do what the Democrats want to do: nothing*.

But that has its problems:

If the trust funds are exhausted, immediate benefits cuts would go into effect. Starting in 2024, Medicare could pay about 90 percent of benefits, but that would drop to about 75 percent in 2045. In other words, despite Democratic attempts to savage the Ryan/GOP budget for “ending Medicare as we know it” (starting in 2022), the fact is that “Medicare as we know it” simply won’t be around much longer anyway on it’s current path. Social Security benefits, meanwhile, would receive an immediate 25 percent cut. --AOSHQ quoting NRO

And THAT'S not even accurate: those figures are based on the ultra-rosy scenario which was blown to smithereens by the auditor's report as we mentioned earlier.

HT: Ace

*Actually, the Democrats do have another plan: confiscating all income to balance the books.

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