Fear mongering? Kind of like pitching granny over a cliff or seniors having to choose between dog food or medication? It is old news at best and will not win him support.

Archie, no one on the "right" ever answers my questions about what happens to elderly people without money under Paul Ryan's Medicare plan. We are looking at a generation of middle aged people going into retirement with months/years of unemployment, foreclosed homes, bridge and Parent Plus/assumed student loan debt, and/or ravaged/depleted savings due to the recession. They will be relying on Medicare and Social Security as no previous generation has.

I don't know any seniors eating dog food, but friends in the medical field share stories of seniors ending up in the emergency room because they have cut back on insulin due to cost. Also of routine/preventive care and even necessary procedures cancelled due to cost. Medical bills aren't being paid. Seniors are going hungry right now, here in Wisconsin. That's not fearmongering, that's fact.

The right-wing conversation seems to be about making family planning more difficult, making fighting for equal pay more difficult, making healthcare affordable for vulnerable seniors more difficult, etc. Why?

OK Bren, I've never seen you ask the question, but I'll give you an answer.

What happens to elderly people without money under Paul Ryan's Medicare plan?

They would gain the ability to pay for their Medicare coverage.

Medicare isn't free currently--elderly people still have to pay monthly premiums for the benefit. Under Ryan's plan, people (those currently under 55) can still choose to use their 'premium support'/voucher money to pay for Medicare. Poorer seniors would get more premium support, and wealthier seniors would get less premium support. No one would be denied coverage.

If seniors are ending up in the ER because of insulin cost, doesn't that indicate that something needs to change with the current Medicare system?

I have a story to tell you Bren. It's about a guy born in Kenya who manages to get himself elected President of the United States....

The thing with your stories is that they are so far off base they can't be true. We have so many safeguards for seniors in this country that those who do fall through the crack are the ones that don't even try the system. One set of my grandparents ran out of money more than a decade before they passed. They always had a place to live and food. They didn't live in the best area of town, but it wasn't a ghetto. Of course my grandfather had to give up his beloved car, but you liberals like that he had to walk everywhere.

Despite your spin, Paul Ryan and the Republicans are trying to save Social Security and Medicare. We have to make some tough choices, and the sooner the better. Just as Governor Walker had to make the tough choices to get the state budget balanced.

Cow, the "donut hole" is causing a lot of issues for seniors. That's why the Affordable Care Act is intended to reduce or close the gap. Instead of creating tiers of "premium" care why don't we just pass the Affordable Care Act to help those in the donut hole (now and in the future). Better still, end Medicare D. Privitazation of healthcare has not worked well in this country to-date.

Anti, I didn't take you for a "birther." I never suggested the elders in the stories I shared were homeless. There are safeguards for elders and others in poverty; the safeguards for people with moderate and middle income are the ones under threat.

I'm all for making tough choices if they are the right ones. Choices that pander to job-offshoring corporations and Wall Street financiers and squeeze working people are not good choices.

And just to refresh, Scott Walker (R-ALEC) has not balanced the budget. There is a $3,600,000,000 projected GAAP shortfall, and a $143,000,000 projected cash shortfall. Give Scott Walker credit for slashing 9% of 200,000+ workers' income during the worst recession since the Great Depression. Give him credit for sitting 25 feet away from an illegal router and never noticing it. Give him credit for traveling the U.S. fundraising while complaining about "out of state" union money, etc., by all means, but don't give him credit for balancing the budget when it's not, please.

Bren:

It seems that you just ignored the answer that you have supposedly been asking for...

Hasn't the Affordable Care Act already been passed?

How exactly does a governor tell an 'illegal' router from a 'legal' router? Isn't that more an issue for the IT department than for the governor? I didn't realize that governors were supposed to be experts in networking...

Politifact seems to disagree with your claim that Walker didn't balance the budget...

http://www.politifact.com/wisconsin/statements/2012/mar/18/kathleen-falk/kathleen-falk-says-gov-scott-walker-didnt-balance-/

From Politifact:
"First, was the budget balanced when passed in the summer of 2011?

It was, based on the revenue and spending projections at the time. The state constitution requires a balanced budget, and it was measured by the Legislative Fiscal Bureau, the state’s nonpartisan fiscal scorekeeper, and other outside experts who agreed it was balanced.

Indeed, though Democrats argued fiercely about how Walker balanced the budget, no one claimed at the time it was not balanced.

At Marquette, Falk said Walker "didn’t balance the budget, as we know."

That’s clearly wrong in terms of when the budget was passed.

Falk couches her statement as if Walker’s budget never was balanced. It actually had a very small positive balance when passed."

First let me say I am an insulin dependant diabetic...
Seniors are not ending up in the ER because of insulin costs. That would imply they are taking less insulin to save money, this would cause an increase of blood sugar. High blood sugar usually makes the diabetic sleepy and tired- not typically warranting a trip to the ER.
Many people have an insulin reaction when they do not ingest the proper amount of carbs - or if they are more active than usual. In a younger person this results in a reaction that is simple to compensate for. Older people tend to over react, calling 911 and wind up in the ER where everything must be ruled out due to medical liability. A glass of orange juice would have sufficed.
ANYONE WHO DELIBERATELY REDUCES THE AMOUNT OF INSULIN THEY INJECT TO SAVE MONEY IS AN IMBECILE.
Considering insulin is not very expensive, saving money is not related to insulin but perhaps other prescriptions.

No Bren, I am not a Birther. It was being used to illustrate the ridiculousness of your "medicare scare".

And you have yet to answer the question:
"What tax breaks did Governor Walker give corporations?"

Anti, that's actually a good question, one that's difficult for me to answer at this point (and not for lack of trying). The ALEC corporate tax breaks were passed unfunded and are intended for new jobs as I understood it. However, based on current numbers that's not much. Hearsay evidence suggests that Georgia Pacific has received state money; one may assume that the few other companies that have come in have also benefited. Basically the tax breaks reward companies for doing what they were probably going to do anyway.

Cow, it was passed and is now being reviewed by the U.S. Supreme Court. If that body declares the Republican's "individual mandate" unconstitutional it could derail the entire ACA as I understand it.

Craig, I don't disagree with you. But just because an individual is "mature" doesn't mean they don't have pride. Quite a few elders become isolated and depressed because they don't want family, etc. to know they are struggling. They are afraid of losing their independence and/or burdening family.

The group I'm especially worried about are the ones (as I've written) in their 50s and 40s. They have paid into Medicare and Social Security for decades and have reasonable expectation of receiving the benefits they have been paying into all that time. The recession has taken a toll on savings, etc. They will need every penny of Social Security and Medicare.

Bren:

Where are you getting this idea that those in their 40s and 50s are suddenly going to find themselves without Medicare or Social Security benefits?

No pending approval for Eric's articles.... interesting who they protect

Re-Confirmation Steve test approval mod

immediate posting.....hhmmm....

@Bob McBride -- Meanwhile, my comment posts immediately with no fuss or fanfare. Go figure!

There have been no comments posted since the early Am on that article. And none on the "breaking news" article about the candidates for Gov.

Posting/commenting @ "What's Cooking at Sofia's'' requires approval too.

"Posting/commenting @ "What's Cooking at Sofia's'' requires approval too."

Someone please explain the rationale behind that. Afraid someone will suggest putting hot sauce in the meringue?

@Randy.... Probably my salty language...

I've been getting e-mails for everything I post and for every comment made on articles that I posted on. The 'unsubscribe to all e-mails' link that they give me in the e-mail gives me a 'page not found' error.

Lots of weird stuff going on around here lately...

I wonder if they are going to ever change the 'shout stream' crap back to the old format...

Hey everyone, we are working on some of the problems from an IT level. Hopefully things will be back to normal soon. Sorry that you are experiencing frustrations with the comments.

After almost a year of subscribing to comment threads, I finally got my first alert yesterday. I'm still getting used to the new volume of email.