Republicans throughout the country have been catching hell for voting in favor of the Paul Ryan budget which among other things contains a death blow for Medicare and certainly Medicaid. No matter how Republicans try to deny it, the Ryan budget ends Medicare. And Americans know it. And they do not understand why Republicans choose to kill one of their favorite programs in order to pay for tax cuts for the rich and corporate welfare of bailouts and unnecessary and illegal wars.

The poor, middle class and elderly have benefited almost zilch from the supply-side economics that have run up an astronomical debt. Now they are being asked to pay for it by giving up one of the two programs that help them live out their lives with some dignity. The other – Social Security – is also on the chopping block and has been since Bush II won re-election in 2004. The Republicans are trying to be quiet about Social Security.

Medicare and Social Security are self-sustaining programs neither of which have yet to cost taxpayers anything beyond the taxes designated to run them. And both could remain self-sustaining with some minor adjustments. For Social Security, raise the upper limit on income to be taxed for SS. For Medicare, make medications subject to price negotiations, rather than currently paying full price, as the bill that Republicans passed mandates.

Think of this: Paul Ryan wants you to give up Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security in order to pay for the insane policies of supply side economics. All this while Wall Streeters, oil barons, CEOs, and those in the top 1% of earners whine that they are being mistreated and need tax cuts.

Let them know that you will not take this. The Republicans got us into this problem by changing the dynamics of the economy to greatly favor the rich. It is simply time to change it back to a common sense demand side economy where those who benefit the most from the society pay the most to keep that society intact. As I hear my friends on the right always say “freedom ain’t free.”

Here is a chart that gives an idea what damage supply side economics has done and will do in the future:    http://www.cbpp.org/images/5-12-11bud2.jpg
 
What we really need to do first off is to reverse the decisions which have put us in this hole:

1) End the tax cuts for the rich and the corporate welfare. Those who have benefitted most from the rules should pay the most. You, I and most other Americans pay more than general electric, Exxon-Mobile and a long string of others. If they want to move their operations overseas, fine. It is about time we impose some tariffs.

2) End these insane wars. Think of this – how will we know when we have achieved our goals? And who do we negotiate with to end our commitments? It is long past time to go. And let’s downsize our military while closing foreign bases. Maybe then a president will be more reluctant to use the military.

3) End paying full price for drugs used by Medicare patients. That one provision is driving Medicare deeply in the hole. The VA negotiates prices. Medications cost substantially less through the VA than through Medicare.
 
Those 3 would basically be a roll back of Bush II policies. One more major policy fix would save the country as a whole huge, huge dollars. That would be to go to a single payer health care system. We pay almost twice as much per person for about half of the care as any other industrialized country. Are we really that stupid? We used to be the country that did the smart thing long before anyone else did.

That has sure changed.