R i g h t a r d i a: WIN: Republican plans for Medicare "a disaster"

Monday, May 16, 2011

WIN: Republican plans for Medicare "a disaster"

5/15/2011

By Doug Cunningham

AFSCME President Gerald McEntee say the Republican budget plan cutting $6 trillion over ten years by gutting Medicare and Medicaid is a disaster for working people.

The Service Employees International Unions Preesident Mary Kay Henry says it’s an all out assault on children, seniors and the disabled.

The Center for American Progress’ Pat Garofalo says Rep. Paul Ryan’s GOP budget plan destroys Medicare and Medicaid as we know them and repeals the Affordable Health Care Act, Garofalo says if budgets are moral documents this is the Republican morality writ large.

Garafolo: “This says morally that the government does not have an obligation to care for the poor, the old. It doesn’t have an obligation to educate and create a 21st century workforce because it cuts Pell grants to the bone.

It basically says that those who are well off will continue to be well-off and not have to pay to support the society that helped them get well-off. They don’t think we have a responsibility to take care of seniors. They don’t think we have a responsibility to take care of the poor.

They’re willing to raise taxes on the middle class in order to cut them for the rich. And when they want to implement budget cuts the only items they look at are the ones that help people in the middle class and on the lower end of the income scale.

It’s gutting the social safety net, throwing tax breaks to the rich and corporations and hoping that everything shakes out in the end.