GOP Controlled House Delivers Lumps of Coal for Christmas to the Nation’s Elderly
I don’t like saying this, and I was really hoping that I would not have to say this, but here it comes…
Told you so.
http://journals.democraticunderground.com/McCamy%20Taylor/649
http://journals.democraticunderground.com/McCamy%20Taylor/653
http://journals.democraticunderground.com/McCamy%20Taylor/663
http://journals.democraticunderground.com/McCamy%20Taylor/668
For months, I have been trying to alert DUers to the very real possibility that Congress would fail to act to avert the looming 27% fee cut to Medicare providers. And today, that is just what the GOP controlled House did. By rejecting the bipartisan Senate bill that would have extended unemployment benefits and kept middle income America’s taxes from rising, House Republican leaders have also missed their chance to protect our nation’s seniors. From the NYT:
"The bill that the Senate passed on Saturday, in an 89-to-10 vote, would also prevent a sharp cut in the fees paid to doctors who accept Medicare. Some Republican senators, including Senator Scott P. Brown of Massachusetts and Senator Richard G. Lugar of Indiana, have called on their counterparts in the House to support that vote."
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/21/us/politics/house-republicans-move-closer-to-rejecting-payroll-tax-cut-deal.html?_r=1&hp
Boehner and Company will attempt to portray their vote today as something other than what it was----a great big “Fuck You” Christmas card to America’s seniors. They will say that they objected to some nuance of the Senate bill. They will say that the Senate bill did not go far enough---and therefore, the House had to cut off the unemployed, cut off hard working Americans who are struggling to make ends meet, cut off seniors who depend upon Medicare in order to live. They will attempt to portray this as an ideological battle. Well, I have something to say to the House Republicans.
We can not eat your ideology.
Ideology will not pay the mortgage.
Your ideology will not keep Grandma’s heart beating.
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has announced their disaster plan. By law, all providers face a 27% fee cut starting January 1, 2012. Given high office overhead, this will force many doctors to start seeing Medicare patients at a loss. Many doctors have said that they will stop accepting Medicare patients if the fee cuts go through. Since the House did not act, the cuts are going through. All CMS can do now is delay payments to providers for ten days in hopes that Republican members of the House get back from their Christmas break in a slightly more Christian frame of mind.
http://www.aota.org/News/AdvocacyNews/CMS-Medicare.aspx
I am not holding my breath. Recall that the Republican controlled House voted along party lines last spring to abolish Medicare. When the Senate refused to go along, they backtracked. But they never really gave up. As long as Medicare exists, it can be used as a template to create a single payer insurance program for the nation. Therefore, Medicare had to go.
Boehner claims that he really, truly wants to keep taxes for the working class low, and he really truly wants to give the unemployed a helping hand. That's why he voted to raise middle class taxes and end unemployment benefits....
Yes, I know that makes no sense. It isn't supposed to make sense. Boehner and his fellow Republicans did not vote to raise our taxes or cut off our unemployment. Those would be stupid things to do in an election year. No, they voted the way they did, because their corporate masters alerted them to this opportunity to hammer another nail in the coffin of Medicare. The panic that ensues----elderly folks told to reschedule their elective surgery, elderly told to find new doctors, elderly confused and alarmed---will taint Medicare---and the single payer option---for years to come.
Never mind if a few old folks die as a result.
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