SOCIAL SECURITY & MEDICARE...STRENGTHEN IT !

Americans Willing to Pay More in Taxes if it means Keeping Social Security Benefits

Americans support Social Security and are willing to pay more to preserve and even improve benefits, according to a new survey released on Thursday by the nonpartisan National Academy of Social Insurance (NASI). The study, Strengthening Social Security: What Do Americans Want?, finds a sharp contrast between what Americans say they want and changes being discussed in Washington, such as cutting benefits by using a “chained” Consumer Price Index to determine Social Security’s cost-of-living adjustment (COLA). In fact, large majorities of Americans, both Republicans and Democrats, agree on ways to strengthen Social Security — without cutting benefits. Fully 74% of Republicans and 88% of Democrats agree that “it is critical to preserve Social Security even if it means increasing Social Security taxes paid by working Americans.” To see the full results of the survey, go to http://tinyurl.com/bkrckgy. For a Reuters article about the survey, go to http://tinyurl.com/a4w27b9.

58% of those Surveyed Don’t Want Medicare Cuts, Either
Americans do not want Medicare cuts, either. Fifty-eight percent of those surveyed oppose any spending cuts to Medicare and 46 percent oppose any cuts in Medicaid, according to a poll released by the Kaiser Family Foundation, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Harvard School of Public Health. To see Politico's write-up of the poll, go to http://tinyurl.com/bxstvmz.
Despite that, Rep. Kevin Brady (R-TX), the new Health Subcommittee chairman for the Ways and Means Committee, says he’ll return to some Medicare ideas that Democrats have rejected outright — including the voucher model that Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) has advocated. Politico's story on Rep. Brady is at http://tinyurl.com/acqpzuz.

“We do not need to cut Medicare benefits. Savings can be achieved by allowing Medicare to negotiate lower drug prices with pharmaceutical companies. We could also require drug companies to provide discounts for low-income Medicare beneficiaries, like they do under Medicaid,”

"Democracy...is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch"!
Liberty...is a well-armed lamb contesting the vote.

Fiat Lux