I try to be apolitical, I really do despite my conservative nature coming out now and then. But I have to say the Obama budget speech was not only disappointing, but downright insulting. He outlines the scope of the problem but then sugarcoats tough decisions and real solutions.
He does the American people great injustice by again bashing insurance companies, the “wealthy” and by inference Bush. Does it matter that the last Republican President and Democratic Congress started us on this road to ruin? Does it matter that Part D of Medicare was not paid for, but simultaneously criticized as inadequate and then expanded to be even more unaffordable? Does Warren Buffet need a tax break, I guess not when you can donate $40 billion to charity and in the process avoid a few billion in estate tax.
He again pits seniors and those who hope to be against everyone else by insisting Medicare essentially stay as is.
Does anyone think that new tax revenue will be used to lower the deficit and not spent on new programs just as is done with Social Security taxes? He throws around millionaire and billionaire as if they are the same as the two income family earning $250,000 and all are classified as “wealthy.” I need a definition of “fair share” and “affordable.”
His plan for Medicare is no more than the vague experiments contained in the Accountable Care law, Accountable Care Organizations (ACO) and an advisory board to control costs but so limited as to what it can recommend it is a joke.
Worst of all he displays the mindset of the family drowning in debt, not knowing how much it spends each month or on what, but stops by a fast food restrauant four nights a week. Think “Till Debt Do Us Part”.
He outlines a list of desirable programs that should not be cut regardless and then compares us to South American countries-why can they afford all this and we can’t? Is Argentina the new Jonses?
Why indeed?
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