IDLE MONDAY MORNING QUARTERBACKING!

IDLE MONDAY MORNING QUARTERBACKING.

COMPLEXITIES OF "OUR" MEDICARE PROGRAMS, (Breitbart.com)

According to recent polls, you remember, "those things that neither G.W. Bush or Dick Cheney paid any attention to, during the last political administration," are saying that 6 in 10 Americans state that either Medicare, or Social Security, or both are necessary for their existence. That's not survival, but existence, a big difference when one is talking about their lives here on this earth.

Most Americans, in addition say that they don't believe Medicare or Social Security has to be cut in order to balance the budget. Americans worry about the "safety net" effect that the two programs have for the retired. The attitude helps explain why Republican plans to privatization Medicare has flopped, and why President Obama's Medicare cuts to help finance his health care law met with devastating losses at the election polls last November.

Medicare is becoming the 1000 pound gorilla on all politicians backs and undoubtedly will be the 3rd. rail of politics. Medicare and Social Security accounts for about a 3rd. of  all   government  spending.

That amount will only grow as Americana's population ages, and experts, and those trustees who  oversee both programs warn the programs are "unsustainable" over the long haul.

Nearly all solutions for Social Security has been deemed "toxic," while the same can be said for whatever fixes have been suggested to heal the country's Medicare problems. Medicare is by far the worst of the two problems that now face the country, what with the raising cost of modern medicine going  up at ever escalating speed. Without much doubt, everybody knows what the problem with Social Security is, longer life span.

Most people, my age or older look at the impending  problems with Medicare through different glasses then I guess I do. Many, many people cite Fraud, waste and padding the bureaucracy connected with the program as the biggest problems. More then half of senior citizens say it's possible to "balance the budget without cutting spending for Medicare, or Social Security." Numbers and the use of math paint a vastly different story.

No new math is necessary for people to figure out that before long, both Medicare and Social Security will have dwindled to a point where getting money to fund both will be impossible to do, there won't be any money left. Social Security was never meant to be a primary account for retirement, rather it was a supplement to retirement, "an enhancer," to the quality of living.

Medicare was established in 1965 for those folks 65 and over, for those under 65 who are permanently physically disabled or who have a congenital physical disability, or those who meet special  criteria. Medicare health care covers 80% of costs while the patient covers the 20% through a medical supplement or out of pocket cash. Medicare also funds residency training programs for the vast majority of physicians in the United States.

Social Security which covers different social programs was established in the United States in 1935 and is referred to as Retirement Insurance Benefits, or R.I.B. or Old-age Insurance Benefits. At the present time, eligibility is reached upon a person's 62 birthday and payments are based on several different factors, how much was paid to social security payroll taxes, the age of retirement, current earned income of an individual and military service.

It's easy to see how both benefit programs could go bust and in fact will. Solutions to fix both programs is neither complex, nor is hard to explain, it's just that the solution will place burdens on people and isn't what people want to hear.

Solutions are simple, direct and to the point.....they are, establish a cut-off age, like 55, all of those people 55 and under will be in a separate program and will no longer be eligible for current Social Security plans that have been paid into, and they won't get their money back. That money will go to supplement those already on Social Security.

Retirement age would be raised, "when a person is eligible for the new Social Security program" to 67 years old. Funding to cover the new plan will come from matching 10% taxes from the employer and the employee, the federal government would maintain the plan and use interest from the funds to pay for administration. The other incidentals will be worked out by the government at a later date, after all, they have to earn their keep.

Medicare, that's easy, by far the easiest part of any overhaul that has been undertaken during the first decade of the 21st. century, cut the military budget by 15% and re-direct that money to the new medicare program. In addition, a 5% tax to help fund the program, would be assessed across the board.

More attention would be given to preventative programs and fraud, abuse and padding the Medicare department would be dealt with harshly, while some treatment would be disapproved, depending on age, physical health and other medical considerations.

It is way past the time when either Medicare or Social Security needs to be batted back and fourth like some kind of volley ball. The American public has decided that something radical needs to be accomplished with regards to these two hot button issues, so the Obama's and the Ryan's need to get together, sit down and GET IT DONE.

COMPLETE WASTE, (Washington Post, Russian Times)

Talk about government waste.....okay lets talk about that. I ran across an item that begs to be talked about, yet is probably unheard of by way more then half the country. It involves spies, terrorists, foreign military and records unearthed from the cold war.

Rusky threat with bigger and better weapons.

Finally in 1990, Communism and the U.S.S.R. collapsed, the country was split into independent countries and the threat was over. Now, more then  20 years later, we find that the old Russia still poses a threat and a problem which requires our expertise, our military help and our money. Now we are pumping money, time and effort into guarding a nuclear test site in Kazakhstan.

"The hell you say," nope, I'm not kidding, standing alongside the Russians and Kazakhstan, we are now protecting this weapons test site. Here is how it is working, Russia is furnishing, reluctantly, information on nuclear tests from it's archives with the United States. The Pentagon is paying for the removal of safe storage of weapons-grade material and Kazakhstan is providing personnel.

The reason for this highly secretive project, curtail any terrorists from getting any of the fissile materials, you know, the material necessary to make some sort of nuclear device to be used by those enemy's of the United States and the free world.

A concrete cap measuring 2 meters, about 80 inches with steel reinforcement was laid over the entire area during the mid 1990's, but it has been found to be inadequate and other measures are being implemented to safeguard the materials.

I am wondering who shares more of the blame, Russia or the United States for the silly race for weapons superiority that was the cold war that lasted some 40 years. And wonder where the United States fissile materials are stored and how many countries are helping to guard it from the terrorists?


SELLING COOKIES, EARNING MERIT BADGES, PROMOTING ABORTION,
(the Daily Beast)
That's right, these innocent young girls, dressed in the green uniforms with the cute little beanie hats and the merit badges or patches on the front of their uniforms just might have an ulterior motive. The neighborhood every spring is inundated with these little girls, going door to door selling their cookies to raise funds for the good work that the organization does the rest of the year.

First they have to be Brownies, or "brown dogs" as I used to call them, anyways, they earn patches, gain age and become Girl Scouts and then the cookie thing starts, the competition to sell the most boxes, to earn more patches, to clip relations or co-workers to buy boxes, to sit in front of the Mall pestering every shopper, all to earn patches, to ascend the ladder of success in Girl Scoutdom. I know Boy Scouts can become Eagle Scouts, do Girls have the equivalent, maybe a Beagle Scout, I don't know.

According to two Texas sisters, former Brown Dogs and Girl Scouts themselves, there is a much more sinister side to the message that the Girl Scouts deliver. The sisters now believe, after years of scouting, that the group, "nationally" has a "pro-abortion-mind-set" and a "radical feminist agenda." The sisters belief was so strong that the abandoned the Scouts in 2010.

The sisters have a website that recognizes the many good things that the Girl Scouts do, but apparently the scout organization does not hold in high esteem, the dignity of life, the sanctity of marriage, modesty and purity. Gees, I didn't know that scouting could be so complicated.

Maybe, just maybe and I'm just "spit-balling" here, things in girl scouting have changed over the past ten or so years since my daughters and wife were involved with scouting. I'm not sure that I would call a radical agenda providing reproductive health and birth control information, or lauding leaders like Margaret Mead and Hillary Clinton, radical.

I'm not sure that the truth and purity of the Girl Scout  platform has been replaced by sex education and  abortion rights. Possibly both could co-exist and be beneficial to the girls, or maybe keep parents out of the entire equation and let kids just be kids. They have a whole lifetime to grow up and such a short time to be kids.