Yesterday Republican vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan addressed the AARP’s National Annual Conference in New Orleans. During his address, Ryan attacked Obamacare for taking $716 billion out of Medicare — the very same cuts included in Ryan’s budget — and made the case for transforming seniors’ health care from a guaranteed benefit into a premium support “voucher” program.
Needless to say, Ryan’s address was not well-received. Audience members called Ryan a “liar,” told him to “go home” and the repeatedly booed his critique of President Obama and Democratic health reform.
Watch for yourself:
So cool.
Doesn’t anybody ever wonder how this guy can continue to preach something that has been shown over and over to be a complete distortion of the facts? What motivates or drives such destructive, insane behavior? He’s going to have to debate these allegations nationally. To do this he must have a very low opinion of the intelligence and/or courage of Americans. He should be aware, by now, that he’s probably the most booed public speaker in history.
Just watch his mannerisms and his facial expressions. It’s obvious he doesn’t believe his own BS, and appears almost comically self-satisfied at his own blatant prevarication.
I am amazed by a bunch of selfish folks who are willing to sell out their grandchildren. They should be booing Obama. His payroll tax holiday has done even more to underfund SS and Medicare. Ever think of that? AARP is a joke.
Yeah, those AARP thugs, whadya gonna do about ’em? Obviously you haven’t read the Ryan Medicare plan, or else you would know about selling out your grandchildren. At least these AARP folks did their homework. How about doing yours?
I would read the Democrats Medicare plan, but there isn’t one. It’s just sit on your hands and wait for it to fall apart. Democrats have been selling Mediscare forever. It’s a playbook that works because it plays on retirees self interests. The Ryan plan doesn’t even affect them.
“The Ryan plan doesn’t even affect them.”
Typical Republican divide and conquer? Think that we seniors are too muddled to care or notice? Agism?
Actually it seems that telling me that my benefits won’t be changed but those of my children and grandchildren will be “plays on retirees self interests.”
And a lot of programs and regulations from every level of government don’t even affect me but nevertheless, in my more lucid moments, I care about their effects. Would someone hand me my walker, I want to back to my room for a my nap.
My point was that contrary to the Democrat lies trying to convince them otherwise, the necessary reforms won’t touch current recipients.
FMSN,
Trust but verify. Verify Ryan/Romney’s plans outside of Ryan and Romney’s claims. When you do you will find that is Ryan and Romney who are lying and lying egregiously. Under a Romney regime medicare will be insolvent before the end of his first term which WILL affect current recipients. Then there’s the unsustainable Ryan budget itself which eviscerates government as we know it. You are a fool to think that turning our government into a police state where little more than the Pentagon is supported will be a system that can maintain medicare and social security. If you don’t understand Ryan’s budget you should review it. His numbers don’t add up – at least to anything but gutting the government and handing its functions over to the private sector on a silver platter.
You are lying about Democrats and you are lying about the GOP as well.
There’s a reason Romney’s campaign isn’t forthright and eschews independent analyses. That reason is the GOP agenda doesn’t hold up under independent scrutiny and Romney’s campaign has proven to be the most audaciously dishonest campaign in American history. And where he isn’t actively lying, he’s actively deceiving by not being transparent enough to provide critical details for his “plan” without which it is impossible to know anything with certainty about his intent or its potential impact.
But the larger point is that even if current beneficiaries aren’t affected, their objection is that the program will be privatized and altered into something other than what it is now for posterity. When they speak of their interests they speak of interests of retirees, the elderly, and seniors – not just now, but our aged population in the future. Shifting risk and cost onto the beneficiary is not what AARP members want to see for their grandchildren. They know it doesn’t have to be that way. We can preserve the system for our grandchildren or we can alter the system for profiteers. That is the real choice we face and the AARP knows it. You are peddling lies.
The GOP isn’t attempting to initiate “necessary reforms” – nice, but well-worn Walker phrase by the way – their intent is to privatize and alter the structure of medicare so it is no longer the guarantee that it is now. “Reform” doesn’t need to mean obliteration – but as you well know – “reform” when used by GOP “reformers” no matter the sphere be it education, Social Security, or Medicare – always means replacement of current structure. Usually from public authority to an unaccountable private sector authority.
The private sector cannot be trusted with our treasured seniors. We the people owe all our aged citizens a decent existence in their final years.
And people act like this is news. Its an organization that supports Democrats, of course he will get booed when he speaks the truth
jw and fmsn:
Bernard Moore once received some excellent advice from Thomas Jefferson, you would be wise to ponder it:
“…the faculties of the mind, like the members of the body, are strengthened and improved by exercise.”
The two of you grow flabby and unethically divisive in your faculties. The faculties of your minds need much strengthening.
jwayne:
What is news but that which is accurately informative? What might be lacking here is mention of the contingent that walked out on Ryan. They walked out because they are informed and recognize unabashed lying when they see it. They walked out because they are savvy enough to realize that Ryan and the GOP do not operate in their best interests. The GOP agenda doesn’t strengthen medicare or social security; it not only weakens social security and medicare, but destroys them, leaving some of our most vulnerable and deserving MORE vulnerable. In pushing through this ungodly agenda, the GOP has deployed the sinful divide and conquer propaganda that has you sniping at seniors. You should be ashamed of yourself. Might your limited faculties apprehend the rational position – IF AARP member support leans more heavily Democratic, it might be because the GOP agenda works against their interests? Could it be that your atrophied faculties fail to perceive that the AARP exists in order to prevent opportunistic scammers like Romney and Ryan from absconding with benefits seniors have paid into their entire working lives? You should be ashamed of yourself.
Maybe if you’d exercise your faculties you’d realize the absurdity of your words. Try informing yourself with AARP’s own words:
“AARP does not endorse candidates for public office or make contributions to either political campaigns or candidates.”
Your reviling of seniors is patently disgraceful. You’d strengthen the faculties of your mind were you to inform yourself of the AARP sages who define themselves thusly,
“AARP believes strongly in the principles of collective purpose, collective voice and the collective power of the 50 and over population to change the market based on their needs. These principles guide our efforts.”
Perhaps to those of reduced faculties those principles amount to socialism?
AARP aspires to what the GOP and apparently you as well, jwayne, will not:
“AARP’s commitment to the highest standards of ethical behavior means that we never compromise our integrity for personal gain or to achieve a goal. It means that all of our business decisions and actions take into account the risk to the enterprise. It means we raise our voice if we think something is not right…”
Everything Ryan articulated in this speech stands in opposition to these laudable principles. It’s not that the AARP supports Democrats that prompted their members to boo Ryan, it is because their members maintain standards of decency lacking in Ryan’s agenda. They have enough sense within their faculties to recognize that the GOP agenda is detrimental to both them and their grandchildren.
The government does not have the fortitude to tell us they took the money we invested into our social security and spent it. If they were a private investment firm, many of these politicians would be facing felony charges both democrats and repubs alike. If we don’t stop all the fighting amongst each other like they want us to to keep us from learning about the corruption and keeping us dependant we will all lose.
Now there is a portion of us that will be fine regardless because we know survival and can sustain regardless. The people on welfare now are most at risk because its all they know. Sad, because when the gov. Spends ALL the money anf the wealthy become expats they will be left to suffer the effects of dependancy.
FMSN:
You are delusional and your disdainful untruths about seniors wishing the worst for their own grandchildren is despicable.
The social security trust is not defunded by the payroll tax holiday because the provisions of the bill stipulated that the trust be replenished by the treasury’s general fund.
Those treasury funds needn’t have been utilized, however, but your selective memory probably doesn’t recall the many ways in which that tax cut could have been offset. Among those ideas were levying fees on Fannie and Freddie borrowers and levying a slight increase on millionaires and billionaires. But you probably don’t recall that the GOP has consciously and deliberately ceased governing and has resorted instead to obstructionism in economic matters and Medievalism on social matters.
How does this idea strike you: Extend the payroll tax holiday and offset the cost by reducing the number of the federal employees while enacting a wage freeze on the remaining work force? Reduce the number of entitlement payments going toward food stamps and unemployment benefits for high wage earners and impose higher medicare premiums on the wealthy?
Did the payroll tax cut create jobs by reducing employment costs for “job creators” as intended?
So your position is that the payroll tax holiday underfunds social security and medicare thereby depleting it for future generations? Hmm. Let’s see what the AARP has to say about that. They’ve made their position quite plain:
“AARP made clear that the Social Security payroll tax holiday should have no negative impact on Social Security or its beneficiaries in the short and long-term. To prevent harm in the short term, AARP urged that any loss to the Social Security Trust Funds be fully repaid. The 2012 Social Security Trustees report once again confirms that this condition has been met, with general funds transfers from the U.S. Treasury to the Social Security Trust Funds effectively holding them harmless from the loss of revenue due to the temporary payroll tax holiday.
“To avoid undermining Social Security’s long term funding stream, AARP also held that the payroll tax holiday would have to be temporary. In order to meet this condition, Congress should not extend the payroll tax holiday beyond the current year. Further extension of the payroll tax holiday would undermine confidence in the program and put at risk Social Security’s dedicated funding stream and the hard-earned benefits of millions of Americans and their families.
“As we look for ways to strengthen and grow the economy, we must remember the critical importance of Social Security for current and future generations.”
AARP thinks payroll tax system shouldn’t be abused in times of economic crises. Instead, the AARP position suggests managing the economy wisely so the trust fund isn’t compromised. FMSN, isn’t that what you just said, but in a way that twisted it around to make it seem like seniors are generational grifters?
But you know, there is a way to work within the payroll tax system to safeguard social security for future generations – eliminate the cap on income subject to the social security tax. The maximum taxable earnings amount currently stands at $110,000. Why is that? Why do some incomes become subject to social security and medicare tax and some do not? Why are only middle class incomes subject to these taxes?
Unlike you, FMSN, these savvy seniors pay attention. Therefore, they are aware that next year the PPACA begins to strengthen medicare through the payroll tax system with its 0.9 percent increase Medicare tax on wages above $200,000.
These AARP members also have enough sense to recognize that this tax increase isn’t even comparable in size to some of Reagan’s increases or any tax increase prior to Reagan. It’s moderate and prudent by any reasonable contemporary standard. AARP members also realize that the excise tax on high value insurance plans – that is, unusually expensive plans – means that gouging with excessive premiums will result in taxation of that profiteering surplus. They are also aware that medicare cuts through Obamacare aren’t cuts to beneficiaries. Those are spending reductions to providers.
AARP members aren’t selling out their grandchildren. That’s a disgusting proposition but and one that, unfortunately, applies to Ryan and the GOP. Ryan and the GOP are permanently selling out our grandchildren, our great grandchildren, our great-great grandchildren… because their agenda is a permanent shift in wealth consolidation from bottom to top. The GOP agenda threatens medicare and social security for current recipients, and it eliminates these two programs for future generations, and the AARP knows it.
Your antagonism toward seniors coupled with your antagonism for reason and ethics are attitudes that serve to keep this nation under a very unsavory thumb which profits from the suffering and deprivation of others. You should be ashamed of yourself. If you are damning the selfish, direct your damnation where it belongs: to Ryan and the GOP agenda which obliterates all value for the notions of society and posterity in favor of expedient avarice.
I have no antagonism toward seniors — only the AARP crowd that purports to represent seniors as a non-partisan organization, which it is not.
“The social security trust is not defunded by the payroll tax holiday because the provisions of the bill stipulated that the trust be replenished by the treasury’s general fund.” — That makes me feel so much better. All of social security is already based on general fund IOUS, so what’s a little more? A trillion here, a trillion there… and Obama in his campaign ads talks about balancing the budget by making “the rich” pay a little bit more. What a joke.
Here’s what Ryan is thinking as he addresses AARP.
pj I cancelled by AARP because of the very reason they are a strong supporter of Democrats,of course they don’t come right out an endorse a candidate or a party directly but if you were a member you would read the AARP magazine, the website and mailings and clearly see who it is they support. So PJ until you are educated on AARP spare me the lecture.
Well, that AARP crowd is made up of seniors. Quite a few in fact. And that point about selfishness is ludicrous. Of course they know they’re protected … and still they boo. They seem unselfish to me.
Of course they know?! How can you assume that they know they are protected when their organization and Democrats lie about that fact?
FMSN:
“I am amazed by a bunch of selfish folks who are willing to sell out their grandchildren.” What you’ve expressed there is antagonism toward seniors. And it’s pretty disgusting propagandist antagonism that pits younger generations against retirees. Yours is the ugliest of attitudes and it is YOUR attitude that is partisan – toxically partisan to say the least. How bitterly galling it must be to you that AARP members can think for themselves and choose on their own accord to reject Radical Conservative Extremism.
These are not selfish folks. They don’t want their grandchildren to be at the mercy of the private sector when it comes to medicare and social security. They want for their grandchildren the guarantee that they now have because they recognize this simple fact: A civilized, moral society honors and cares for the aged. If these were selfish folks, they’d offer up posterity to the private sector, but they don’t. They don’t because they are not selfish, they do value quality of life more than profit. Ryan’s position is quite the opposite and that is why he and not they represent the genuinely selfish folk.
You claimed that the payroll tax holiday underfunded social security and medicare. It did not. The solution isn’t sustainable, I agree. So do Democrats on capitol hill. The payroll tax holiday was a temporary measure and it was intended to be a temporary measure. You can try to weasel out of your red herring, but facts are facts. Your claim about the tax holiday is false. Your flippancy reveals that you are the true partisan here. Perhaps when you arm yourselves with facts you will be able to comment rationally rather than as a sharply partisan, insidious snipe.
You are the last one to be casting stones about partisan motivations given your recent disparagement of the AARP combined with your viciously partisan position on medicare and social security. It will be attitudes like yours that keep this nation from addressing any issue of import. Disagreement is one thing. You are not expressing that. You are deliberately promoting denial. You and your propagandist ilk are the greatest danger this nation faces because what you effect is subversion, obstruction, and discord. None of these facilitate profound discourse or good governance.
You are either lying or you are misinformed about Democrats wishing to simply allow Medicare and Social Security to stand as is. I tend to think you are simply lying because there is no reasonable way in this Age of Information for you to not recognize how ridiculous a suggestion that is. You are attempting to cast a patently false impression of the debates over these two issues.
Now, I’m not a huge fan of the PPACA because it locks the health care system squarely in the pockets of the private sector, and it is a Conservative market-based approach to health care, which I oppose. But, it is the approach that was embraced by Democrats. If you look at the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) you will find that it does address the issue of sustaining Medicare by improving its solvency.
The Medicare trustees confirm this. The Congressional Budget Office confirms this. Ryan is lying when he says that Obamacare robs medicare. If you echo this sentiment, FMSN, you are a liar too. CBO analysis of Obamacare projects $716 billion in Medicare spending reductions between 2013 and 2023. None of these cuts are to beneficiaries. Every last dime of savings from those spending cuts comes from the provider end – from home health providers, hospitals, insurance companies etc. etc. These are cost saving measures that strengthen medicare’s solvency over the course of the next decade. Medicare trustees reiterate the CBO analyses and have repeatedly confirmed that the trust has improved not marginally, but substantially due to the additional revenue stream and the lower expenditures enacted in Obamacare.
Try reading the trustee’s own reports rather than relying on partisan talking points. The Medicare trustees annual report indicates that the shortfall between medicare insurance and taxable payroll has been reduced from nearly 4% to under 1.5% (the precise figures are a reduction from 3.88% to 1.35%). The trust fund is now completely solvent through 2024.
If Conservatives repeal Obamacare, the trustees indicate that the trust will be insolvent by 2016.
As to Social Security – I’ll throw you this gnarly bone – Democrats have been too defensive, but I surmise, only because the level of offense to privatize Social Security has been so irresponsibly and unconscionably relentless on the part of Conservatives. That’s more of a tactical error and speaks to a poor ability to effectively wage political warfare on the part of the Democratic establishment. The Democratic establishment’s other weakness is to fall too in line with Conservatives with respect to chained CPI, raising the eligibility age etc. Those are cuts, not an alternative to privatization, and not a structural solution.
Yet, the more Progressive side of the Democratic Party does offer cogent alternatives. Chief among those ideas are readjusting the taxable limit: lifting the current cap so incomes above $250,000 are subject to the medicare tax. Currently, incomes about $250,000 are not. According to Social Security’s chief actuary this measure alone solves the solvency issue for the next 75 years – until 2086. DeFazio and others have also debated ideas like limiting or eliminating Social Security benefits to extremely high wage earners. I haven’t paid as much attention to this argument, admittedly, so I’m unfamiliar with any specific proposals that may have been put forth and independently analyzed.
To say Democrats have no plan is just wrong, and it is just flat out lying. They may be divided between adopting the more Conservative measures favored by the GOP and the more liberal measures adopted by the Progressive wing, but to say there are no plans or no discussion among Democrats is just propagandism. You may think privatization is better, but you are outright lying if you claim that Democrats are just dropping the issue and leaving Social Security and Medicare up to chance.
Democrats recognize that the system isn’t broken. Social Security doesn’t need an overhaul nor does it need to be replaced. It has worked perfectly for the last 75 years, and if nothing is done Social Security remains solvent for the next quarter century – until 2036, but the Progressive plan will keep it solvent for the next 75 years. There’s no denial that Social Security needs attention. Democrats simply disagree on how to tweak it.
Now, I’ll grant you another bone, FMSN: Democrats haven’t spent enough time considering these matters from the other end of the issue – and that is population control. But, again, largely because they’ve allowed themselves to be bullied in the national discourse by the Conservative agenda which, since 1980, has politicized that topic to the point of resignation. That is a grave strategical error on the part of the Democratic establishment. The flip side is that Conservatives have abandoned entirely any responsible discussion within their quite limited and authoritarian world view.
Your comments, including the ones here, reflect those of a political warrior, not a genuine or serious thinker. Therefore, your comments should be summarily disregarded by anyone who is truly concerned about the issues of our day. Your slanted disambiguation reveals a provocateur. Anyone who is truly concerned about the quality of American lives now and the quality of lives for America’s posterity will dismiss your distasteful yawping for what it is – petty caviling devoid of substance.
“What you’ve expressed there is antagonism toward seniors.” Not at all! I am only critical of the seniors who are in that AARP room. To extrapolate that to all seniors is like me saying your criticism of John McCain was antagonism toward all seniors, veterans, and POWs.
Who really deserves to be booed is President Obama, Democrats, and anyone who defends the status quo and lies to the public by saying that we can continue down the unsustainable path we are on. So the people who booed sold out their grandchildren, whether they know it or not.
You’ve entered into the territory of the senseless. Democrats haven’t denied that the sustainability of Medicare and Social Security needs to be addressed. You are denying that Democrats address it, perhaps because you don’t care for their solutions, but whatever your reason you are making false claims about “status quo” and Democratic approaches to these two programs. Again, you are shamelessly lying.
You haven’t made any cogent analogy with your John McCain straw man ploy for a criticism I never made. Yes, you are expressing antagonism toward seniors. Attempting to parse out those selectively chosen seniors you choose to denigrate doesn’t alter the the plain truth that those AARP members are seniors and retirees and people who obviously care deeply about the well being of the elderly and who are not doing what you suggest they are doing. They are not selling out their grandchildren.
The GOP agenda sells out our grandchildren in every sphere of their lives, not simply their retirement years. It is an agenda that eschews all American principles, values, and ideals, and it abandons our grandchildren to a military state with no conscience and no sense of mutual responsibility, affection, or ambition. And the GOP is selling that sell out with the worst brand of lying deception this nation has ever experienced. Your seething hate of Democrats is no defense for the GOP agenda. It is evidence of seething hate bred by divide and conquer propagandism. It is you, by adopting the GOP and its propagandist memes, who are selling out our grandchildren. We all should be booing you, FMSN.
If you are so concerned about our posterity (and you should be) you need also be concerned about our proximate condition and how we got where we are today. It is a bipartisan tragedy that the GOP seeks to amplify. If you are worried about our grandchildren then what you should consider is how dramatically Romney’s plan will catapult this nation’s economy into cyclical depression on par with THE GREAT DEPRESSION. If you are concerned about sustainability try researching the concept. You’ll find privatization, deregulation, over-reliance on the private sector, investor-class globalization, obscene inequality, and diminishing individual liberty are all unsustainable. If you have any concern for our grandchildren, take a step out of the magical ideology of the GOP and into the real world where data, evidence, and history exist.
I heard one news comment today that suggested a casting call for someone to play the role of Paul Ryan in a forthcoming movie, “GAME CHANGE 2.”
Frankly, the only major difference between Ryan and Palin is one of gender and the election year.
History repeats itself? LOL
Well, well, well, jwayne, ain’t it just a kick in the head when reality has a liberal bias? So you believe the AARP supports Democrats therefore you want nothing to do with them? How very interesting. Would that be because your impression is their “support of Democrats” is partisan and therefore their advocacy for seniors untrustworthy? Or simply that they don’t reject Democrats out of hand to embrace only Conservatives instead?
As it happens, I am familiar with AARP’s magazine and their website. Your mischaracterization is inaccurate. That you would forego the benefits of membership because you believe a nonpartisan organization “supports Democrats” indicates you will cut off your nose to spite your own face. It indicates you will intentionally do more harm than good because you yourself are so tilted in a hate-wise Right Wing direction. Your opinion, therefore, is without value and is a hazard to the common weal.
Opposing the AARP is one of the features of Right Wing Extremism that I do find vile and objectionable. It’s on par with voting against a Veteran’s Jobs bill to deny the President any hint of success. Both are hateful and despicable attitudes motivated by sheer ugliness in will.
I’ve been perusing AARP’s website in the wake of your vitriol just to test your assertion, and I haven’t come across a thing suggestive of “supporting Democrats.” They take quite the non-partisan approach. Their perspectives on reforming medicare include ideas from Conservative think tanks as do their perspectives on reforming Social Security. Even their Politics section doesn’t feature Obama alone – Romney is there too. Their blog reported on this very video in a remarkably balanced manner given that Ryan’s agenda clearly threatens the well being of every retiree in this country. The outrage Ryan induced wasn’t mentioned in the follow-up report. Only summaries of the answers Obama and Ryan gave to the questions asked. I kinda think if there was some sort of Pro-Democrat agenda going on they might have chosen a more inflammatory spin.
You dishonor yourself and you dishonor this nation with your malice toward an organization which advocates for the concerns that pertain to seniors and retirees. Disgraceful.