TEA Party Hypocrisy or...

One of the big liberal attacks on the TEA Party Movement (TPM) is rooted in the TPM's desire of reduced Federal Government. They quote the sign, "Keep your hands of Medicare" and similar signs. That is hypocritical as Medicare - as well as Social Security and the Federal Government's support to Medicaid - is a Government program.

All the liberals reading this can now laugh it up.

Okay, now stop.

The problem isn't that it's hypocritical. It's in not having a great plan, or an easy to detail plan to end Medicare, Social Security or the Federal Government's support of Medicaid. That doesn't mean we don't want it to end ever.

How do you go about and pull the rug out from underneath people who are relying on these programs? You can't. While you can in a literal sense, you can't in an ethical or moral sense.

Here is what can be done. First we come up with a cutoff date. I've read articles making 10 years from now being the cutoff date. That is, if you're under 55 when this plan takes effect, you won't have Medicare benefits available. Step 2 would be to roll back coverages in a methodical and slow manner so that costs aren't absolutely through the roof.

While this presents a big change, it would be a good change in the long run. Those that won't make the cut off will have to plan for their retirement health needs instead of relying on Medicare. There would also have some sort of "means testing" to roll back coverages or increase co-pays for those that can afford it.

Medicare would effectively end when the last person that qualifies passes away. Ten years from the bill passage date, the Medicare enrollment would be as large as it will ever be. Slowly the number of people on Medicare would be reduced until there was no one left. While this could very well take 30-40 years from passage date, it would still be significant progress.

The very same could be done for social security.

Medicaid is a different animal as it is a program of the individual states that has significant funding from the Federal Government. Slowly rolling back the amount of money from the Feds to the States for this program would probably be the best attack. Determine a definite final date (ie. 15th year after bill passage) where funding from the Federal Government ends. To assist the States, there should be changes to Medicaid to slash costs and reduce bills.

Of course, these things need to be paid for and it needs to be "fair" and equitable. As I am not close to 55, I would have no Medicare available to me. Should I still be taxed for it? The same question applies to Social Security. If they decided to continue to tax everyone, but give an IOU for the same dollar amount in a Health Savings Account (HSA) at some determined age (65 like for Medicare or perhaps 72 similar to Social Security's age levels) and a private savings account for the same dollar amount for SS taxes. That way, the Government gets the money now and has to pay a smaller sum later (as Medicare program costs drop due to decreasing enrollment, the HSA's could be started, taxes could be reduced, or both).

There needs to be a sunset on the entitlement programs. Plain and simple. While TEA Party sign makers may or may not see the hypocrisy in telling the Federal Government to keep out of their Medicare, the plain truth is that Medicare is bankrupting the US and that needs to be addressed before we have economy destroying taxation.

Onward and upward.