Is Trump lying about protecting Social Security and Medicare? Ask him!
By Anna Daniels
Time to rip off the mantle of economic populism that Trump has wrapped himself in and expose what’s beneath it. It doesn’t bode well for those who thought pulling the lever for Trump meant that their Social Security and Medicare are safe.
While Donald Trump is busy Making America Great Again, Speaker of the House Paul Ryan is more than willing to take care of the policy making, starting with privatizing Medicare.
Let that sink in for a moment. Paul Ryan will propose legislation to privatize Medicare. Starting March of 2017.
What does the gobbledygook on his site say?
- If you are receiving Medicare right now, you will (somehow) escape the changes he has outlined for future recipients.
- If you are not receiving Medicare right now, you will get a “premium-support payment” – i.e., a check, tax credit or voucher, that will allow you to buy insurance from private insurers.
Medicare is a universal, single payer health care system for qualifying individuals.
Ryan’s plan will throw everyone into the private insurance market.
Is Trump Paul Ryan’s Sock Puppet?
Ryan has couched the privatization of Medicare as a needed component in the GOP unraveling of Obamacare, citing unsustainable costs for the former. This is a flat out lie. “The Affordable Care Act actually extended Medicare’s solvency by more than a decade.”
Jeet Heer at New Republic details the importance of fighting back against Ryan’s plan.
Privatizing Medicare would be a hugely unpopular move that could tear Trump’s political coalition apart. Launching a pre-emptive attack on the Ryan Plan, especially if done with maximum political theater, offers Democrats a chance to win an early victory against the Republicans. More crucially, it could mark the beginning of a long campaign of divide-and-conquer.
Resistance needs to take many forms.
Put pressure on the GOP coalition
Send a postcard or letter to Donald Trump today. Ask him what he is going to do about Paul Ryan’s attempt to undermine Trump’s promise to keep Medicare the same. Let him know “No changes to Medicare. Say NO to Paul Ryan.”
Contact Donald Trump by postal mail through the Trump Organization. Mail all correspondence to Attention Donald Trump, C/O The Trump Organization, 725 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10022. He does not accept emails, phone calls or faxes, according to Trump.com
Take pre-emptive action
Call Paul Ryan’s office (or send a letter) and say “Keep your hands off Medicare. No privatization.”
Contact Speaker of the House Paul Ryan Washington, DC office. 1233 Longworth HOB. Washington, D.C. 20515. Phone: (202) 225-3031 or Capitol Switchboard (202) 224-3121.
Democratic Representatives Juan Vargas, Susan Davis and Scott Peters were all on the record before the election saying they will not change Medicare and Social Security. Get them on the record NOW before the next legislative session begins. Democrats must go on the offense. Right now.
Representative Duncan Hunter has voted yes on Paul Ryan’s proposed legislation. Hunter is also a Trump sycophant so ask him whom he intends to support, Ryan or Trump on this issue. He can’t do both.
Reinforce the message
If you are a member of AARP, let them know that you expect them to reject Ryan’s proposal and provide total support of Medicare for not only present, but future recipients.
Contact AARP: 601 E Street, NW, Washington DC 20049 1-888-687-2277
This is what resistance looks like.
Anna Daniels
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Of course this is the Republican plan – to privatize both Medicare and social security. Their tax cuts for the wealthy is the first step in that plan. That will underfund government spending so much that they will argue that there’s no money for Medicare or social security or any other socialized program except the military. There will always be money for that! They will argue so vehemently for privatization as will all their media outlets that all those red state white working class voters who voted for Trump will go along with their logic. Republicans have been trying to get rid of Medicare and social security ever since they were enacted. Now is their big chance. Of course Trump will go along with it.
We are not powerless. This may be their big chance but we need to call and write and fight. That’s what Republicans do. We must not roll over or get rolled.
The conservative, red state, white working class voters have been conditioned for years by hate talk radio and Fox news that Obamacare was no good and a disaster. They will enthusiastically vote against their own interests again to “repeal and replace” Obamacare with privatized health care.
53.8 million people receive Medicare. Don’t write them all off as being stupid or unmotivated to preserve Medicare.
Almost 62 million people including a third of Latinos and a majority of white women voted for Trump. STUPID!
Privatization will likely throw the country into a deep depression, making exodus more appealing and essentially destroying the social contract that has kept promises to working Americans for over 80 years since the Social Security Act was passed. If trailer-trash nation is Trump’s idea of modernization, we are all screwed while the corporate interests empty the treasury and the safety nets come down for hundreds of millions of Americans. And so America’s Dark Ages begins…
Rep. Scott Peters issued a statement today “I ran for Congress in 2012 on the promise that I would fight the privatization of Medicare, which is a lifeline for millions of seniors who have paid into it over a lifetime of hard work. My position has not changed, and I oppose Speaker Ryan’s plan to privatize Medicare.”
When I asked Rep. Vargas office if they have been receiving calls on this issue they said “no”. Call Rep. Vargas 619-422-5963 (San Diego); 760-312-9900 (Imperial County) Ask him to come out with a statement against Medicare privatization now.
Thanks, Anna. I will do everything you suggest. Again and again and again.
I just tried the number Anna listed for Speaker Ryan. I couldn’t get it to work. You can reach him by going thru the Capitol Switchboard: 202 224-3121.
I called Susan Davis’s office to ask her position on Ryan’s plan. I was told she has not made a public statement on the issue, and it wasn’t known when she would. Typical Davis wishy-washiness.
Then we should all call Davis and put pressure on her.
Thank you, Anna. I have shared your article across the country. Can’t you get U/T to reprint this as a worthy editorial. Please don’t throw the computer at me. I am very serious. You pick cogent topics and then embellish them with your gifts at writing. Keep on keeping on.”How far that little candle throws his beams!/ So shines a good deed in a naughty world.” Shakespeare, Merchant of Venice, V, 1