Quoted from joebxr

I inhabited the body of another within hours of landing.

Quoted from Box A Rox

A new Pew Research survey finds 72% have heard a lot or a little about Rep. Paul Ryan's proposal to
change Medicare into a program that would give future participants a credit toward purchasing private
health insurance coverage. And among those who are aware, the idea remains unpopular; by a 49%
to 34% margin more oppose than favor the idea.

Quoted Text

The Delusions in Ryan's Medicare Vision
Paul Ryan has bold economic ideas. Or maybe he doesn't. It's really hard to know what Mitt Romney's VP pick thinks, since his budget plan includes Obamacare's $716 billion in Medicare savings over 10 years, but his election plan has him saying he would restore those spending cuts. Romney is accusing president Obama of "robbing" that money from today's beneficiaries.

Let's set the confusion aside for a moment and look at where the projected cuts would be made.

First off, none of the savings comes from changing eligibility or benefits. The president's health care reforms actually add benefits to Medicare. The savings come from reducing payments to hospitals, home-health services and other providers, though not doctors. And all the provider groups (except for insurers) have gone along with it because by covering 32 million currently uninsured Americans, the law brings them more paying customers.

The Ryan plan would affect only Americans now under age 55. It would replace guaranteed benefits with vouchers, whereby folks would be given a set number of dollars with which to buy private coverage or pay their Medicare premium. It would save money by increasing that number of dollars over the years by less than expected rises in medical costs.

In the real world, private insurers will skim off the young, healthy and profitable. What's left of traditional Medicare will attract the sickest patients, and down it goes.

But even accepting Ryan's sunnier vision requires swallowing several delusions:

Delusion 1: Offering vouchers to buy a private plan opens a wonderful world of choice to future beneficiaries. Exactly what would that choice be? It would be a choice of private insurers. In many cases, that means less choice of doctors and hospitals, as the for-profits force enrollees into their networks of approved providers.

Private insurers are in the business of making money for their executives and stockholders. UnitedHealth Group CEO Stephen Hemsley alone hauled in $42 million last year. As implied above, an old person with asthma, a heart problem and two other worsening conditions is very, very bad for the bottom line. The idea that these profit-oriented companies would compete to attract sick and expensive elderly patients is not only a fantasy, it's an insane fantasy.

Delusion 2: Old-fashioned Medicare as we know it would be preserved for Americans 55 and older. This will not happen.

The scheme to radically degrade Medicare benefits for those born after 1957 would blow up well before the year of change, 2023, arrives. The Ryan plan has gotten as far as it has because younger Americans have not been focusing on their retirements. Republicans think they can drop this voucher system on them unawares.

But the likelihood that Americans born in 1957 or after are going to accept a two-class deal in which they have to pay for older peoples' generous benefits while expecting far less for themselves is about zero. As time goes on, there will be progressively more voters born after 1957 and fewer born before. Thus, the politically numerous would either demand that older Americans' Medicare benefits be dragged down to their promised levels or that the whole voucher business be dropped. And who could blame them?

Delusion 3: Only private insurers can curb Medicare spending. Not true. The evidence comes in the Republicans' own political ads complaining that ObamaCare cuts Medicare spending. Furthermore, spending on the Medicare program has been growing more slowly than that on private coverage because of lower administrative costs.

There's so much waste in Medicare that you could probably cut $1 trillion out and patients would not notice a difference. That's actually good news -- or should be.

Quoted Text

Romney could have done better politically with pick

    It appears to me that [GOP presidential candidate] Mitt Romney’s selection of Rep. Paul Ryan as his running mate may have pre-signaled the re-election of Barack Obama.
    I say this because the goal of a presidential candidate is to win. It follows that a vice presidential candidate should be one who most helps the standard bearer achieve this end.
    I believe there is someone else who would have helped Romney more than Ryan will. I can think of three areas where Romney is going to need a lot of help. First and most important, he is going to have to split the all-important Hispanic vote. Next he will have to capture as many women’s votes as he can. Third, being a Mormon, he must woo as many Catholic votes as possible. Paul Ryan can only help him here. But the one person who could have helped him in all three categories is the governor of New Mexico, Suzanne Martinez.
You’ll notice I haven’t gotten into the merits of the known vice presidential candidates. After all, this is about winning an election, not judging one’s credentials.

HUGH CARVELLE
Johnstown

Quoted from CICERO

Box, our government invaded Iraq on what you claim was manipulated intelligence.  Hundreds of thousands of people died.  Officials from both parties voted for the use of force.  We have been in Afghanistan for 11 years with tens if not hundreds of thousands of additional deaths and no defined objective.  How do you find honesty in that?  

Quoted from Box A Rox

The US Congress and the rest of America was lied to by a FEW officials of the Bush Administration.  

Quoted from CICERO

Box, there are Senate and House Intelligence Committees.  They all were given the same intelligence.  If you truly believe they were lied to, they you should REALLY be outraged that during the first two years the Obama's Justice Department and the Democrats that controlled the Senate and House didn't prosecute GWB for intentionally deceiving Americans, and costing trillions of dollars and thousands of American lives.

Like you said…You blame Bush for the actions, but blame Obama for the response.  If you really believe your precious Democrats were deceived by the evil Bush and your brothers in the Marine Corps died in an illegal war, then the Democrats that represent you should have demanded justice.  But…They didn’t.  Is that a conspiracy or reality?

Quoted from joebxr

Reality is that our intelligence was wrong, flat out wrong, and actions were taken with that wrong intelligence. Do not loose site that the intelligence was not US exclusive...intelligence is a gathering of information from many sources and collaborative countries and agencies...they were wrong, period. I don't think there is anyone that will disagree that it was stupid, orong intelligence. And I feel personally that we should not have gone there based on intelligence alone.
BUT, reality is, GWB chose to invade Iraq BECUASE "HE TRIED TO KILL MY DADDY", and used the WMD as an excuse instead of focusing on the Bin Laden/Afghan front, which in-turn impacted what we were trying to do and should have done...go after OSAMA and AL QUIDA. I think Bush and Cheny both are at fault and there should have been at minimum sanctions against them. And do not ever think that BUSH was the decision maker...he was Cheney's puppet in many ways.

Quoted from Box A Rox

Obama could have spent his first 3 years in office perusing the Bush Administration criminals...  an almost
impossible political task... or he could have spent that energy enacting Obamacare.  I wish he could
have done both, but he barely got Obama care passed... I'm glad he did.

Quoted from Box A Rox

Joe,
Much like with Richard Nixon, prosecuting the guilty parties would have taken years and wasn't worth the
political battles that would be necessary.  I do wish that beyond prosecution, that the truth be known.  
As it is, there are some who still today swear that the WMD's were real and the war justified.