Bill Clinton to Paul Ryan on Medicare Election: ‘Give me a Call’

If Republicans were honest about improving medicare they would not have demagogue the healthcare bill that extended the life of medicare and improved it and rode it to take over congress in 2010. Now they complain that democrats are telling the truth on them. It is definitely true that they voted to privatize medicare like they wanted to privatize social security in 2004 or 2006. Yep.

DEMOCRATS only care about power and not what is in the best interest of America. They owe their souls to the unions and I hope that all independents like myself come to see them for what they are. America deserves solutions to our problems and not Democratic, progressive nonsense when is designed to simple satisfy the unions and keep power at the very expense of our childrens future.

Paul Ryan is a hero! We cannot support retiring boomers in the style to which they think themaselves entitled.

If Paul Ryan wanted to just get the dialog going, he is smart enough to have written a bill that did that without including so much ideology. Apparently the ideology is more important to him, so he has no one to blame but himself.

Paul Ryan is a Koch Brothers pawn.

Republicans didn’t have to demagogue the Obamacare nightmare. Poll after poll showed conclusively that Americans weren’t behind the proposal (especially after they could read the Bill to find out what was in it).

Yep use the poor , old to pay for the Rich. If they really care about debt then they shold roll back Bush Tax cuts as we all know it’s not working. And Plain should just zip it as she decided to cut and run and now some how she is telling people how to fight back, this from a loser

These posts show that this country is sinking fast. Class warfare and the weakness of the governing class will destroy us all. You welfare liberal bums stay off my property.

The Democratic fearmongering is pathetic!! — They tell lies and generalize! — Why don’t they come up with a counter-plan and start negotiations? Because they really don’t care about the fianancial future of our country… they just want votes!! —- Besides, it was the “fake tea party” candidate that created the outcome… The Dem candidate only won by 6% and the “fake” took 8%!

Its all very simple… the Democrats WANT the entitlement plans to fail… the more they fail… the more the sheeple will bleat for “help”… then the more the government can take over!! —- Medicare is just a matter of simple arithmetic!!!! — Health care costs, and therefore government spending, on health care is rising so much faster than the economy is growing… so you can’t solve this with tax increases! Our capacity in the US to pay for Medicare’s current growth trend is simply unsustainable!! — So where are the “math capable” Democrats who will tell the truth??

Surely Clinton is smart enough to know that Ryan has zero interest in helping preserve Medicare.

Low taxes for the rich, LOL. The top 1% pays 40% of all taxes and the bottom half pays 0. What backs of the poor are we talking about? Oh, and taking $500 billion out of Medicare (per Obamacare) will not take anything from the old in terms of quality, right?

I paid $13,000 in Medicare taxes over 25 years,yet I can’t use it:It’s only good for hospitals,not doctors.

Sorta sounds like the party of “NO” for many years doesn’t like the fact that what’s good for the Goose is good for the Gander. Suck it up! It’s politics at it’s finest.

Paul Ryan can run circles around Obama and the DemocRATS, including the elite Republicans. It was NOT about Medicare, it was about ill-informed voters! Meanwhile, clueless Obama has been making a jackass out of himself in Europe…
Paul Ryan is presidential material!!!

Ok, Clinton wife was responsible for health care when he was President… what makes him know what to do now, he didn’t then!!!
Again… Koch twins are in his back pockets.

NY 26 election results are meaningless. You had a Democrat mole posing as a tea party candidate who skimmed votes off the top.
The Democrat who won also is against what Obama has put forth, meaning, she stood for nothing.
When the Democrats wake up from their collective swooning, they will see that Americans of all stripes will pound the daylights out of them for supporting the status quo.
Democrats will kill Medicare. Ryan will save it.

In some ways Atlas Shrugged is here, just look how the media reacts and words their stories, with no regard to the masses. Sometimes I wish we would be living in Atlas Shru….who are the John Galts of our time…I know who the Bertram Scudder’s are….

The truth of the matter is that Obama has turned this country around after 8 years off republican deficits and destruction. And now republicans are whining and crying (see bonehead boener) because things are improving while the republicans have done everything within their means to stop the recovery. republicans want our president to fail! republicans want America to fail!!! Now how unpatriotic is thaT??? What was it they use to do to traitors???

We need to go to a single payer system. We have a phony baloney market here in the US that eats up 1 of every 3 dollars spent on health care and provides no service to the patient.
The big government mandated 15 thousand dollar voucher to your favorite insurance company would be worse than the problems we have now. That would have been the starting point at which seniors would then discuss how much their going to pay.
A robust public option would have began to turn things around quick. The democrats should have stood their ground on that one. Maybe democrats will start growing a spine. It’s time to get rid of the phony baloney health care insurance market.

The Seniors know that the Ryan plan will include them in the near future. We know this by the way the Republican have worked their magic tricks and lied after lie. We also know that the Republicans are FOR the RICH, are the RICH and will always take care of the RICH!!!
When will the Republicans/Teas get it, we may be over 55, but our minds still remember how they always say it’s only for a few and than we are told it was BUT in order for it to work as planned we will have to INCLUDE everyone in changes to MEDICARE!!!

How about we let only people under the age of 50 decide how their money will be spent?
Think that would help get some reform started? Baby-boomers are a selfish generation and they don’t care if they leave nothing behind when they are done.

John | May 25, 2011 5:51:09 PM
…Do you have any sources to site or back up your allegations?

The ‘rich’ pay almost all the taxes. The ‘poor’ none. They live off others taxes. The ‘rich’ create jobs. The ‘Poor’ don’t try to get enough education to get a job.
This class warfare is like the muslims instead of making the ‘rich’ the enemy to hate, they made Jews the enemy to hate. Demos and muslims, same liars. Just Class warfare.

DeanBob,
No I just try to use common sense.
Give us something we can work with.
What good did his plan do. Voters just have their backs against the wall now, and for good reason IMO.

Being under the age of 55 with an AGI below 200K, what exactly does Ryan’s budget get me?
I continue to pay the same medicare tax that I always have and then when I retire, I get a “voucher” to go out and try to buy insurance on the open market. Furthermore, this voucher is means tested, so if I do a good job of saving for retirement, I get penalized by recieving a smaller voucher, regardless of what I paid into the system.
Health Care costs are highly elastic. People are willing to continue to fork out more and more money to pay for their health and well being.
You can argue till you’re blue in the face that privatizing the system will lower costs but we aren’t talking about bread. A consumer can and will switch to tortillas if wonder-bread keeps jacking the cost of their product 20% a year. There are little if any alternatives to giving the medical industry the cold shoulder.
You’re a fool if you think that market forces will drive down your out of pocket costs.

No person under 56 would be affected by the Ryan plan. Enough of the Democrats lies.

Dear clarkohrepub -
You have it bassackwards buddy,
EVERYONE UNDER 55 WILL BE AFFECTED BY THE PLAN. It will be status quo for those 55 and older.
Anyone younger will recieve a means-tested voucher.
How about you google Ryan’s budget and actually read it before you go around calling people liars.

Yeah – nothing for retirees and soon to be retirees.
However it tells people under 55 to bend over and take it for all those over 55.
The system needs to be reformed but I refuse to bear the brunt of the reformation cost, particularly when the massive amounts of soon to retire baby boomers are the reason why costs are projected to skyrocket.
So in-order to continue the status quo for them, us younger folks get sold out. Yet we still pay the same medicare tax.
Yeah, great deal! Screw the younger generations. Thanks guys!!

Ryan followed what the lobbbyist wrote for him and his worse nightmare was being mentored by Rep. Cantor. Ryan made a deal with the devil for power and just learned the price he will pay. Bill is always looking to help someone because the American people forgave so he’s paying it forward

There is NO Democratic plan for Medicare. If no changes are made, those who are now retired and on medicare WILL be affected. Under the Republican plan those who are retired and on Medicare will see NO CHANGE. So the Democrats adds targeting the elderly are intentionally wrong and misleading. Supise Sprise.

Nothing stunning about the upset in District 26, the Dems ran two candidates, one masquerading as a Tea party candidate and a conservative in this highly Republican District. The Dem Candidate was Kathy Hochul. A perennial candidate in Western NY. She ran against a conservative state assembly woman, Jane Corwin. Hochul was also a carpet bagger as she did not even reside in this district or the adjacent one. This area is lost to reality as it has a very high real unemployment rate, a near 25% union worker population (a huge number of state and local government workers!), and a large population dependent on entitlements. Without the spoiler tho, the Dems would have lost. He stole almost 10% of the vote. The Dems are crooked liars…but whats new?

Ryan made an effort to deal with the deficit. Seeing the fallout I guess we can rest assured no politician will try to fix the ridiculous budget deficit again. Goody for us.

Shame, Shame on the back stabbing Clintons! They claim to be friends of this administration, all the while conspiring behind the backs of fellow Democrats and thei President. Bill Clinton is still seething because his wife did not win the election to become president and he is out to bring down this administration. The nerve, telling Paul Ryan to call him for help on destroying the American people and Medicare. I should not be surprising though because Clinton single handedly destroyed Welfare for poor, abandoned women with children, and gave billions in tax breaks to wealthy corporations to save his own neck, so his career would not be destroyed by lying about an extra marital affair with Monica Lewinsky, one of many, I might add!

This is why Dems are terrible politicians. They get a major victory with the NY election, and the most famous Democrat other than Obama starts criticizing his own party. Newt criticizes a fellow Republican, and he is voted off the island by every Republican. Dems criticize each other non-stop with no repercussions, which make themselves look week.

I smell a rat and a traitor.

______”These posts show that this country is sinking fast. Class warfare and the weakness of the governing class will destroy us all. You welfare liberal bums stay off my property.” POSTED BY: GEORGE LIVERMORE | MAY 25, 2011 4:39:22 PM______What do you have to say about corporate welfare bums?

It’s a stunning comment on our world and the state of our politics when I (strong conservative) find myself missing Bill Clinton. Perhaps the world really IS ending.

What the hell is Bill opening his mouth for. YOU’RE NOT PRESIDENT ANYMORE BILL. You sure as hell did your best to wreck the U.S. while you were in office, now do us all a favor and keep your mouth shut now that you’re out. We don’t care about you opinion. You’re a nobody. We’ve got enough to worry about with our current politicians, so do us a favor and lay off.

That is IT, I am so sick and tired of you people demagoguing issues!
I decided three years ago to go galt. I decided to just close down my business and to just retire. Yes, I was one of those EVIL rich folks. Well guess what, I have HAD it. As soon as I can, I am going to liquidate all my assets and move to another country.
I am going to open another company and undercut the US. How does that sound to you?
You frelling idiots believe the capital that people like me have accumulated is SOMEHOW YOURS!? What the hell is the matter with you. Why do you think companies are leaving? Tell me, what the hell is sooooo great about Cuba? North Korea? Venezuela? Socialism does NOT work!
Did you NOT read the article. The US is going broke. Even the idiot Clinton is attempting to change the narrative.
If you took EVERY dime from everyone that earns over $100k/year, that includes their accumulated assets, that would maybe cover the deficit for one year. What are you going to do next year?
We cannot continue to spend 40% more than we take in. Hell, you can continue to give foreign countries, give foreign protection to your foreign corporations OR, you can take care of THIS darn SOVEREIGN country. Enough is enough. Enough diversity. Enough multiculturalism. Enough open borders. Enough redistribution of wealth to other countries like Brazil, aka Petrobas (soros), enough crony capitalism, enough centralized economy.
Einstein said that continuing to do the same thing over and over again is the definition of insanity.
Will you SOCIALISTS EVER look at the math!?

One more thing – that 1.75% you have deducted from your paycheck every payday is going to pay the monster that is called the Medicare system. This has a payroll of $2.2 Billion a year plus all the other realted costs. If Medicare was eliminated 1.75% would be returned to your paycheck and no American would no longer be forced to support the largest boondoggle in our History. This is a mess. We do not need this system in America. Let us get our own insurance (the premium can still be deducted from the ponzi that is called social security) and it would free up expenses from hospitals and doctors and fees would go down, hospitals would not have to build into the cost of being there the losses from medicare. There are so many benefits from ridding America of this most horrible law. Then we should free ourselves from the shackles of Obamacare too. This is a debt that is unnecessary and Paul Ryan is trying to HELP America not hurt anyone that is an American. So go ahead, let the liberal hype turn your brain to mush. You will be living in a state of a boot on your throat the rest of your life. What you do earn will go straight to the liberal government (and they will be living like kings) and you will have nothing.

After all these years wondering which party is the best for this country, I have come to realize that the democrats and republicans are virtually the same.
Both have agendas that parallel each other, they just use different ideas to acheive the same results. To serve only themselves, politicians only care about their place in a seat of power and popularity. The sad thing is most Americans cannot see this fact.
I bring this up during discussions with folks I either know or not, many roll their eyes and say I am wrong. Look ar your own ballots this next election and compare it to the prior election and count how many repeat politicians are running again, or are new but the offspring of a politician.
There may be preaching of differences, but in the end it is all about them and not the people they say they work for. It is all about money, power, and popularuty for them. They could care less about anyone else. Heck, just look at how rampant infidelity is, thye do not even have enough room in their feble little hearts to care about their own spouses.

I don’t get it. If you want government run health care, why would you live in a country that doesn’t have it? Why not simply move to a country that has government run health care and leave us who are happy with our current health care behind? I don’t understand this at all. You could have it your way in another country, but instead, you stay here and fight like H*LL to force your way down my throat. Why not just let me be and move to a place that has what you want?

LIBERALS… put up or shut up!! — YOU come up with a solution, then!!!…. because we NEED a solution!!! — It’s a matter of simple arithmetic… health care costs and therefore government spending on health care is rising so much faster than the economy is growing… so you can’t solve this with tax increases… we MUST alter the Medicare system! — Our capacity in the US to pay for Medicare’s current growth trend is simply unsustainable!!

The GOP has continually moved to suck the life out of the poor. They cried uncle when the rich might lose their tax breaks. Yet they want to mess with the money we have paid into Medicare with every paycheck. We never asked for it, but it is there, always taking the money, so we expect it to be there when we are old. Our govenment spends so much money on every other country out there’s problems, but our own suffer. This is not the U.S. government, it is Obamas global fund. He spends it for every bleeding heart out there. Come home Obama, your country is crumbling while you hob nob with the snobs of other countries and promise our hard earned dollars to those in other countries, even those who hate us, which, most of them do. We should not have to band roll rebels in other countries period. Nor should we be promising foriegn aid to any country just so we can exploit them. Keep our money in our country for a time of healing.

I hope these Senators and Congressmen, including Paul Ryan himself, will give up their own government run medical care for private for-profit health insurance before they talk about turning Medicare into one.

Ulysses —- I’ll bet if you put that to a vote today… 90% of the “tea party” republicans would vote “yes” to your proposal…. and 90% of the Dems would vote “no”!!! Wanna bet?!?!?!?!

JIM….you have the figures right. Add to it the fact that of the 47% who pay nothing, they are 65% democrats. No wonder they keep crying to increase taxes on us that work…they need someone to pay their way, and their childrens, and their grandchildrens, etc

The left is just fine when Obama wants to cut $500 billion from Medicare. He said we will just make grandma comfortable instead of curing her. But they will buck Ryan’s plan that doesn’t affect anyone over 55 years old. The progressive’s problem is that they still think that the government can outperform the private sector in everything. In fact, the government cannot run anything well. Just look at schools since they took over. And who is running a successful business, Fed-Ex or the Post Office?

WHAT SAY WE HELP OUT BIG OIL ETC..
OH YEA THEY HAVE BEEN DOING THAT ..LOL

Bill Clinton did work with the Republicans sometimes against his party’s wishes so maybe talking to him is not a bad idea. The two sides need to come up with a plan to save the future for those that come after we are gone. All of you here it seems are either all on way or all the other but that is not how it can work, like it or not people, this has to be agreed upon by both parties.

There is clearly nothing wrong with Medicare. Absolutely NOTHING should be done with Medicare. Democrats don’t want it touched, so let’s don’t touch it. Not one penny increase in taxes for it, not one change. NOTHING.
Then we’ll see who was right.

Medicare should be revamped…..
however, medicaid and welfare should
be discontinued….

Paul Ryan is right. It is math. It is not politics. But the Democrats are doing what they always do when they are in the minority. They take pot shots in order to help themselves politically at the expense of what needs to be done.

19.5%
thats the REAL number if you folks want to balance a federal budget year after year.
19.5% of GDP for federal spending (currently at 25.3%)
19.5% of GDP for fedral taxation (currently at 14.3%)
anything else is just a shell game by the politico’s from BOTH partys who spend their days sucking on the teets of the wealthy/corporate elite.
wake up middle/working claa.

You liberal fools keep following the pied piper over the cliff. Don’t you see that the class warfare game that these losers play is a trap to round up the herd? You are being deceived. What makes you think that the rich get rich off the poor and middle class? Do you not want to work for your wages? Is it better for the government to seize the money from others to give it to you? If you say yes to this, you are hopeless and doomed to live out your miserable existence on food stamps. Stop demonizing the rich as there is plenty of money to go around once they are allowed to do what they do best without the shackles of government weighing them down.

It is shameful that the Democrats are doing so much lying about the Ryan plan while not only offering up nothing of their own…but ignoring the cutting their own Obamacare law did to the program. Funny how they fail to mention that Obamacare makes huge cuts to Medicare Advantage, including lowering reimbursements to doctors and hospitals which will just make more drop out of the program. They also established a panel of appointees who will decide on best treatments, etc. the American voters better wise-up: you can’t have it all…we can’t afford it. If you want to have a safety net of coverage you are going to have to make some hard choices…not hide your heads in the sand an hope the government can keep borrowing from the Chinese.

You don’t understand, the democrat party wants the US to be Greece. To them the US is not exceptional, just another European type country.

Couple of analogies for the liberal bashers here.
Taxes- If 90 people come into the store and buy $10 worth of stuff and pay 5% tax, then ten guys come in and buy $100 each, 10% of the people are paying over 50% of the tax revenue. Is this fair? Sure, the rich pay more dollars in taxes than the poor…this is because they are taxed on more dollars. Even those who pay zero income tax still pay 13% in payroll taxes on 100% of their income…you know, those taxes that go to pay for our insurance in our old age that Ryan’s budget wants to cut. Would you suggest we take the total budget and just divide it equally among everyone, so if it is 10,000 per citizen we all owe $10,000, even if our income is only $15000? That is the only way the top 10% would ever not “pay more in taxes” than the bottom 10%. If we all go out to eat, and I order lobster and 5 courses, and you have a small salad and water, would it be fair for us to split the check down the middle? The rich have (usually) a much larger footprint in society. They should pay more-they have much more to lose if society breaks down.
My second analogy deals with rising healthcare costs- BTW, the democrats did propose an alternative to Ryans plan which dealt with Medicare and SS- it was voted down. It also paid off the debt and deficit much faster without killing IIRC an estimated 700,000 jobs. It was voted down. Let us say you have a strict budget for food, living on a trust with a yearly payout. Food costs start rising rapidly. How do you deal with this? Under Ryan’s type of plan, you take money out of your food budget and donate it to someone who does not need it,and just go hungry when you run out of money.
Normal people would first look for cheaper ways to eat (different stores, different brands, more home cooking from scratch), then, if it still left you hungry, look at raising some revenue with a part time job. The democrats proposed raising revenue and some cost containment measures that would pay for Medicare as we know it, and even improve it, for decades to come. Like I said, ideology trumped real math and common sense and it did not pass. The plan that is guaranteed to leave me without insurance in 17 years while busting the budget and killing jobs is what passed. Forgive me if I am bitter.

Ol Bill is still and will always be a Republican in Democrat’s clothing.

Republicans only care about power and not what is in the best interest of America. They owe their souls to the corporations and I hope that all independents like myself come to see them for what they are. America deserves solutions to our problems and not Republican, conservative nonsense when it is designed to simply to satisfy the corporations and keep power at the very expense of our children’s future.

You Republicans mistakenly think you will be better off when all the safety net programs are removed, but the truth is you will wake up and realize what you so cherished as freedom is closer to the serfs of the middle ages and the NWO crowd will steal your freedom also and make you bow down to them and worship their new Autocratic standing.

Democrats stand for power at any cost. Republicans stand for good government at a cost we can afford

I would take Ryan’s plan seriously if he also proposed increasing taxes for the Rich. The Rich are taxed just as low as they have been for the last 15 years. If you analyze all Republican plans, they are meant to ultimately help the Rich!

Norman Ravitch should stick to supporting the Jewish homeland and go there to live, so we hsve more money to give to Medicre