The left wasted no time in going on the attack against Paul Ryan's plan to reform Medicare. The "scare the elderly" tactic was to be expected; nevermind that Obamacare takes $500 million from Medicare to fund a new entitlement; nevermind that 50% of seniors will lose their Medicare Advantage Plan under said Obamacare.
Paul Ryan's plan does not gut Medicare and does not affect seniors over the age of 55. LET ME REPEAT FOR ELDERLY VOTERS: PAUL RYAN'S PLAN DOES NOT TAKE AWAY YOUR PRESENT MEDICARE. His plan simply gives younger Americans a choice; a choice I wish I had been given.
I am again reminded of Ronald Reagan's words against socialized medicine, "You and I can do a great deal. We can write to our congressmen, to our senators. We can say right now that we want no further encroachment on these individual liberties and freedoms, and at the moment, the key issue is we do not want socialized medicine. Write those letters now; call your friends and tell them to write them. If you don't, this program, I promise you, will pass just as surely as the sun will come up tomorrow, and behind it will come other federal programs that will invade every area of freedom as we have known it in this country until one day, as Norman Thomas said, we will awake to find that we have socialism. And if you don't do this and if I don't do it, one of these days you and I are going to spend our sunset years telling our children and our children's children what it once was like in America when men were free."
Unfortunately Lyndon Johnson was able to get Medicare passed and signed into law a few years later. Americans accepted the idea of socialized medicine and seniors have become addicted to it.
My generation was given no choice on whether or not we wanted to be forced to become wards of the government in our later years. If my grandchildren are also to be forced to contribute to this system, I want them to have a say in just who controls their medical care. That is what Paul Ryan's plan does.
The battle over Medicare is being waged over "Paul Ryan Wants To Take Away Your Medicare; however, the real bogeyman in Medicare is The Independent Payment Advisory Board. This board will be made up of Obama appointees, or unelected bureaucrats, that will have the final say on what treatments and care seniors will receive. They will decide what Medicare will pay for, whether your age warrants your receiving needed care or whether, as Obama so eloquently stated, "you might be better off just taking a pain pill".
The elderly in America need to awaken to the fact their medical care will no longer be determined by themselves and their doctors, but by Obama's "death panel". Sarah Palin was ridiculed for using that term, but it is exactly what the Independent Advisory Board is.
Recent examples in the news of stroke patients being allowed to die due to lack of care and hospital patients dying of thirst under the U.K.'s socialized healthcare plan are examples of where we are headed.
The Romney/Ryan campaign, as well as other Republicans running for office, need to inform the public constantly about the Independent Advisory Board. To not do so is a disservice to the elderly of our country.
