GOP Poverty Plan Would Hurt Some of Most Vulnerable Children

The House GOP poverty plan would eliminate Supplemental Security Income (SSI) benefits for 1.3 million severely disabled children in poor families, vaguely proposing to re-orient SSI to provide services instead. Eliminating these modest but critical benefits, however, would hurt some of America’s most vulnerable children and damage their prospects for future success. While vital, the services are a supplement, not a substitute, for cash assistance. What’s more, many SSI children already receive these services through existing special education, early intervention, and health care programs.
via Center for Budget and Policy Priorities.

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But I feel from all the budgets that I’ve passed, normalizing entitlement reform, pushing the cause of entitlement reform and the house passing entitlement reform, I’m very proud of that fact. But yeah, of course more work needs to be done, and it really is entitlements. That’s where the work needs to be done, and I’m going to keep fighting for that.

Speaker Paul Ryan via Politico.

Related Reading:

Seniors Relieved as America’s Privatizer-In-Chief Heads for the Exits.

House Speaker Paul Ryan’s retirement from Congress lifts a very dark cloud that has hung over older Americans for nearly two decades. During that time, Speaker Ryan has been the Privatizer-in-Chief on Capitol Hill – advocating to turn Medicare into a voucher program and to gamble retirees’ Social Security benefits on the whims of Wall Street.

Source: bit.ly politics entitlements paul ryan speaker ryan earned benefits entitlement reform older americans elderly retirement retirees retirement crisis social insurance social security medicare medicaid healthcare health care p2

“House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) on Wednesday said House Republicans will aim to cut spending on Medicare, Medicaid and welfare programs next year as a way to trim the federal deficit.
“We’re going to have to get back next year at entitlement... — House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) on Wednesday said House Republicans will aim to cut spending on Medicare, Medicaid and welfare programs next year as a way to trim the federal deficit.
“We’re going to have to get back next year at entitlement reform, which is how you tackle the debt and the deficit,” Ryan said during an interview on Ross Kaminsky’s talk radio show.
Health-care entitlements such as Medicare and Medicaid “are the big drivers of debt,” Ryan said, “so we spend more time on the health-care entitlements, because that’s really where the problem lies, fiscally speaking.“
via The Hill.
**Related Reading:**
After Passing Senate Tax Bill, GOP to Target Seniors’ Earned Benefits.
As if to confirm the warnings of seniors’ advocates, Republicans have signaled that their next targets after the tax bill are Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid.
Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) admitted as much in an interview with Politico last week, declaring that spending cuts in earned benefits programs will be necessary to pay for tax cuts for the wealthy and multinational corporations.
National Committee President, House Dems Decry GOP Tax Plan’s "Dire” Impact on Seniors.
The tax bill will trigger an immediate $25 billion cut to Medicare unless Congress quickly waives the PAYGO provision of federal budget law.
Both Medicare and Medicaid – which helps seniors afford long-term care – are targeted for deep cuts in the GOP budget plan.

Source: bit.ly politics social security medicare medicaid earned benefits GOP republicans congress social insurance p2 older americans health care healthcare seniors paul ryan marco rubio entitlements entitlement reform

bit.ly

Overnight Health Care: Paul Ryan to exit without entitlement reform

Nathaniel Weixel, Peter Sullivan, Jessie Hellman

Medicare advocates celebrated Ryan’s announcement, noting that he will leave Congress without accomplishing his lifelong goal of reforming Medicare.
“House Speaker Paul Ryan’s retirement from Congress lifts a very dark cloud that has hung over older Americans for nearly two decades,” Max Richtman, president and CEO of the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare said in a statement.
“During that time, Speaker Ryan has been the Privatizer-in-Chief on Capitol Hill – advocating to turn Medicare into a voucher program and to gamble retirees’ Social Security benefits on the whims of Wall Street.”
via The Hill.

Related Reading:

Farewell to Paul Ryan and His Insidious
“Entitlement Reforms.”

As America’s Privatizer-in-Chief, he spearheaded attempts to turn Medicare into a voucher program and to gamble retirees’ Social Security benefits on the whims of Wall Street.
He passed legislation in the House to cut more than $1 trillion from Medicaid by imposing per capita caps and turning it into a block grant program.

Source: bit.ly politics social security medicare paul ryan speaker ryan GOP republicans congress entitlements entitlement reform retirement retirees retirement crisis seniors elderly older americans healthcare health care earned benefits social insurance p2

bit.ly

Older Americans Month — slashing funds for our seniors is the wrong thing to do

OPINION | If the administration wanted to honor older Americans, would it have presented a “skinny budget” that needlessly hurts seniors?

Max Richtman, opinion contributor

May is Older Americans Month, but the Trump administration and Congressional Republicans are putting a serious damper on the celebration. Yes, candidate Trump promised not to touch Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid.

But his administration has been actively undermining those pledges. Budget Director Mick Mulvaney — who once called Social Security a Ponzi scheme — questioned the legitimacy of Social Security Disability Insurance — and wouldn’t promise a Presidential veto of legislation to privatize Medicare (a pet project of House Speaker Paul Ryan).

President Trump champions the GOP’s American Health Care Act, which guts Medicaid, undermines the solvency of Medicare, and allows insurers to charge older Americans up to five times as much as people in their 20s.

More on this issue here via The Hill.

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huff.to

What the GOP's Sleight of Hand Budgeting and Deflection Politics Means for Social Security & Medicare

The American people must not be distracted by the ongoing political show to the point that they miss the real action occurring behind the scenes.

However, some conservatives in Congress insist that relief for programs like the Older Americans Act be paid for by cutting Medicare and Medicaid. This budgetary sleight-of-hand could trade partial relief for some seniors’ programs by cutting other essential health security programs like Medicare and Medicaid, thus further eroding the tenuous economic situation many older Americans face.

Max Richtman via Huffington Post.

Source: huff.to social security medicare Medicaid entitlements politics seniors retirement retirees retirement crisis p2 sequester budget congress GOP older americans entitlement reform

This week Speaker Ryan released his “new” poverty plan which doesn’t mention ‎Social Security‬ once.

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kff.org

Poverty Among Seniors: An Updated Analysis of National and State Level Poverty Rates Under the Official and Supplemental Poverty Measures

Payments from Social Security and Supplemental Security Income have played a critical role in enhancing economic security and reducing poverty rates among people ages 65 and older. Yet many older adults live on limited incomes, and have modest savings. In 2013, half of all people on Medicare had incomes less than $23,500, which is equivalent to 200 percent of poverty in 2015.
via Kaiser Health News.

“But at the end of the day…we’ve got to have entitlement reform and that is why we keep pushing for our health care reform and that’s why we keep pushing for entitlement reform.” - Speaker Paul Ryan

This is no surprise to us. Speaker Ryan has been trying for years to cut earned benefit programs.

We have been keeping track of Congress’ actions on earned benefits and health care.

Click here to view our Congressional timeline.

paul ryan politics social security medicare medicaid health care healthcare seniors older americans elderly retirement retirees retirement crisis entitlements entitlement reform earned benefits social insurance speaker ryan congress GOP republicans p2

President Roosevelt’s vision has most certainly endured. Today, Social Security provides some 61 million Americans and their families with basic financial security upon retirement or disability. For older Americans, Social Security can mean the... — President Roosevelt’s vision has most certainly endured. Today, Social Security provides some 61 million Americans and their families with basic financial security upon retirement or disability. For older Americans, Social Security can mean the difference between financial well-being and poverty. Two out of three seniors rely on Social Security for most of their income, and one-third of seniors depend on it for at least 90% of their income. Public polling consistently shows that Social Security enjoys overwhelming support from majorities of Americans across party lines.
Over the years, Social Security has been modified (with bipartisan support) to expand benefits and keep the system financially sound. This year, Social Security has come under new threat from budget hawks in the Trump administration and on Capitol Hill. But as generations of Roosevelts have
shown us, Social Security is worth fighting for. On this, Social Security’s 82^nd anniversary, we at the National Committee recommit ourselves to preserving this landmark program for current and future generations of Americans.
**Read more from our blog post here marking this anniversary by clicking here.**

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NCPSSM — GOP Poverty Plan Would Hurt Some of Most...

See, that’s what the app is perfect for.