Social Security and Entitlements: Pres. Debate

Romney – We can care for our poor in our own way. Don’t have the Federal Government tell us how to care for the poor.  Let’s rely on the brilliance of our people, not the Federal Government.

[*My note: I am shocked that the word “poor” came up in this debate between Romeny and Obama at all. Kudos to Romney for that little twist. That being said, it is exactly the opposite of what I would want my president to feel about the poor – “Oh let them figure it out. Don’t let the government tell me to be helpful and all! I’ll be helpful if I want to be helpful!” Instead of, “How can we, as a country, help the most disenfranchised among us? How can we combat the terrible effects of poverty and help us AS A NATION to rise up and diminish suffering among those of us who have been dealt the most difficult hands.?”]

Anderson: We are behind 49 nations when it comes to women dying in pregnancy and childbirth and it is even worse for women who are minorities. We are next to the worst, behind Latvia, on infant mortality rates. We are behind in these healthcare issues, even though we spend enormous amounts of money on healthcare.

[*At this point my live feed went dead. I apologize that this sentiment of Rocky’s, as well as Jill Stein’s entire response, has been lost here.]

Social Security and Entitlements: 

Stein: Romney is usually “selfishness on steroids” so let’s look behind this talk. They both, Romney and Ryan, have the same targets of cutting social security and medicare. So is Obama – on housing, job training, medicare, education. On social security, Obama is calling for cuts now. Really, they are both proposing the same changes – about 700 billion in medicare cuts. We can fix medicare so that is no longer a give-away for Pharmaceutical companies.

Anderson: The solution to medicare is to provide it for everyone and make it a single-payer system. We are paying more than double the average of the rest of the industrialized world per capita for our healthcare costs and that is because of our for-profit system. We need people at the top to pay their fair share as well – like those living off of their investments. We can’t put the burden on the middle and lower classes.

Back to the main debate:

Obama on voucher plan: I disagree with the voucher system that Romney/Ryan proposes. Idea is that we give seniors vouchers to buy their own healthcare. Problem is, it won’t account for inflation, so seniors are going to have to pay out-of-pocket for this, at the mercy of the private insurance system.  If you repeal Obamacare, seniors are going to have to pay much higher for copays and prescriptions.

Romney on voucher plan: Again, no change for current retirees to medicare. For those in the future for medicare, they can choose the current medicare program or a private plan. No additional money. No additional costs. People can choose. I don’t want the government telling me what kind of healthcare to get so I would prefer private.  

[*Don’t tell me what to do with my healthcare! However, please control my rights as a woman to choose and please control whether or not I can marry my same-sex partner!….Just leave my healthcare alone, BIG GOVERNMENT!]