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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Alighieri who wrote (613866)	5/31/2011 11:12:58 AM
From: i-node	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1577453

>> You see the problem with you guys is that you are binary thinkers, Who are the "binary thinkers"? Paul Ryan has come up with at least a proposal to fundamentally change Medicare. Which is what is required to solve the problem. You cannot fix this problem with a patch by adding a little tax here and subtracting a little benefit there. You have to gut it and start over. Meanwhile, the Democrats have nothing. Nada. No ideas whatsoever. What you have is Wasserman and Mediscare. >> the benefit is not going away but neither does it need to in order for the program to become fiscally sound. You were trying to argue that the unfunded liability is not a liability because Congress could simply vote away Medicare. Now, you are apparently on to another subject. The fact is it is called an "unfunded liability" (by the Medicare trustees and actuaries) for a reason. Coincidentally, it is used in the same context as the term is used in relation to private pensions. The unfunded liability is the amount of money you'd have to deposit today, given the projected earnings rates, to have enough money fulfill an established commitment. NOT the amount you need 50 years from now. The amount you need today. The tax increases you have claimed will solve the problem are taxes that will hit the poor the hardest. Because you cannot solve this problem with simple bump in the wage base. You have to increase the rates. It amounts to a several point increase in a flat tax imposed on the first dollar a person makes each year. It is, in a word, untenable -- particularly, given that we're also going to need one for Social Security. Paul Ryan has come up with something. It may not be perfect but it is something, which is far more than your team has offered up (i.e., nothing).