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Politics : View from the Center and Left

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To: Bearcatbob who wrote (60437)4/21/2008 8:50:38 AM
From: Lane3  Read Replies (1) of 541836
 
Means testing is one to start.

Means testing what? Aerospace contracts? Debt instruments? Welfare?

I assume you mean SS and Medicare? Maybe agricultural subsidies?

Re Medicare, since they first started testing it I've made a few posts on the topic. If you can judge from the response to my posts, there's not much interest in the topic. As for the amount of money, there doesn't seem to be much in the way of savings there. Means testing seems to be more political than fiscal. Means testing of Part B will save under two billion. Not that we shouldn't bother for that, only that it's not a lot of money.

My posting on the subject to date has mostly been about the abuse of the word, "wealthy," to describe the 1.6 million old souls who are means tested. I have a hard time accepting an $80K income as the determinant of "wealthy," particularly given that a nursing home would eat up the whole income after taxes. Ergo anyone in a nursing home but not on Medicaid is, by definition, wealthy. Boggles my mind. If they made nursing homes tax deductible, I'd have less problem with the labeling.

Of course, if they raised the threshold to something actually approximating wealth, they would save even less money.
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