Medicare for all, for free — Say it ain’t so, Joe

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I can’t help myself. I keep looking at the news coverage of the Democrats running for the chance to oppose Donald J. Trump next year. I guess some of them actually believe they might prevail and become the next president and certainly the news people want to push that idea as far as they can.

Elizabeth Warren, who is a Senator from Massachusetts and a former Harvard professor, is promoting Medicare for all. Medicare for those fact checkers out there is a program like Social Security which means if you pay into it during your working years, you can get some of those funds or benefits back in your retirement years.

Senator Warren (who some call Pocahontas or Lieawatha because of her cultural misappropriation) has received much attention because of her Free Medicare For All idea. Naturally she’s not talking about the current pay in, get payouts later Medicare that we have had in place for 60 years. No way.

She’s talking about giving Medicare type benefits to everyone — non-payers into the system which include chronically unemployed, folks working under the economic radar, legal and illegal immigrants and maybe some others I have not considered. In other words, people who have not paid into the system will be allowed to take out of it. Who pays into the system and how much seem to be the obvious questions, but so far they remain unanswered.

Enter Joe Namath. This is not really his fault and I love Joe Namath as a football hero. Anyhow he made a wonderful Medicare TV commercial which successfully promotes Medicare and its many benefits. Benefits designed for those of us that paid into the system. Benefits that come with free enrollment into a Medicare Advantage Plan. Many benefits including free health care, free dental, free eye care, free rehab and best of all free meals delivered at home.

Since these ads are seen by many more people than just the paid into Medicare group, those who have not now or ever started having Medicare deductions from their paycheck (assuming they have a paycheck) may infer from Mr. Namath’s excellent presentation that what he describes is what Ms. Warren is promising everyone — FOR FREE! Of course nothing is actually free, but no one seems up to the task of explaining that.

The timing might be coincidental or it may be complete genius by a Warren staffer promoting free Medicare during the Medicare flurry of ads (like Joe’s) during the Medicare option to change period.

Either way she is getting a serious boost by talking about free Medicare for everyone at the same time as Medicare is talking about free Medicare (for payers-in) and sending out that annoying junk mail and those even more annoying robo calls.

Low-information independent casual voters, reliable Democrat voters and contributors are her real target with all this, and it may even work. Of course if she actually gets a boost from this and overcomes the old white men and the younger black candidates and Mayor Pete, all she will get is the chance to stand on a debate stage with Donald Trump. He may ask her about the actual taxpayer cost for her free Medicare dream.

And if Mr. Trump felt the need to emphasize her “pretend to be a Native American to get a job as a Harvard professor” stunt, he could find out who the rejected real minority applicant for that same job was and invite him or her to his State of the Union address in January. Be a great visual for TV.

Be careful what you wish for, Princess.

Rick Schlosser

Peachtree City, Ga.

9 COMMENTS

  1. Ricky – Turn the channel from Fox News before your head explodes!

    The cable news channels and the late night comedians enjoy record viewership since the orange buffoon has been in office. What better impetus to encourage viewers to share disgust every night with the mainstream news outlets than a person who couldn’t find the U.S. on globe making consequential international decisions? What better set up for laughs could one imagine than an uninformed reality show actor being in the White House? This is TV gold.

    Perhaps the newscasters act disgusted to please their audiences, but they are laughing all the way to the bank. Why would they ever want this guy to leave office?

    • Good point STF. Why would anyone with more than room temperature IQ want Trump to leave office.

      Speaking for myself, I went from paying private health insurance premiums of $1000 per month during Obama’s last year to $0 per month (because of my paid into Medicare).

      Better than that my retirement/investment account increases dramatically. Last month alone I earned more in one month than I ever did in one year of salary during my working years. I sure don’t want to change that. Do you?

      Tax cuts stimulate the economy as JFK discovered and some others behind him learned and promoted. JFK was a saint. A pure and religious husband, father and son dedicated to family values and completely free of any controversy or hint of personal human faults. Like I said – a saint.

      One of those who learned that tax cuts promote economic growth was Donald J. Trump, who is most certainly not a saint like JFK, but he is without doubt the current President. He campaigned on JFK’s same issue of tax cuts, got it done and now we have some pretty good numbers to look at – unemployment (low) growth, (high), stock market (high) and my retirement account (really high).

      I don’t want to change that. Do you? Does anyone? Why?

      Also, when something bad happens overseas (as it always does) I observe what President Trump does and the I think WWHD?, which means What Would Hillary Do? if she were President. Chilling and it reinforces my belief that Trump was the best choice in 2016. Not the best choice to date my sister, but the best choice to lead the country out of the “Obama-transformed” malaise years.

      I did the same thing after 2001 playing the WWGD? game. That is What Would Gore Do? Again, for sure I prefer Bush and what he did instead of Gore and what he might have done or not done.

      You can play the same What Would (whoever) Do with the Dems currently on the national stage. I tried to do it with Sanders and Warren, but before I moved along to Booker and Harris, I got serious stomach distress.

      Nevertheless, you all feel free to vote for the pervert, commie or racist of your choice. It’s a free country after all.

      • Robert I pretty much agree with everything you said but believe you were in error in one of your statements.
        “Speaking for myself, I went from paying private health insurance premiums of $1000 per month during Obama’s last year to $0 per month (because of my paid into Medicare).” I’m sure you are still paying the $135.50 for part “B”. Just wanted clarify because a lot of people out there think that after you hit 65 Medicare is free, which it isn’t.

        • Yep you right, train dude. They take the $135 out of social security and I never think about that. Nevertheless, $135 vs. $1000 per month is still a good deal. Especially since I also get many more thousand $ from social security (my money being paid back) and a well deserved pension (also self-funded).

          Nevertheless, the free Medicare for all scam is a non-starter for anyone who has even a tiny bit of knowledge. Sadly the Warren and Sanders supporters supplemented by the silly little kids George Soros hires to protest and get on TV may actually believe free medicare for all is actually possible. The danger there is that they get to vote before reality proves them wrong.

          Fortunately it won’t be an issue. Trump wins big next year. That is the big takeaway from the impeachment nonsense today. Makes me happy. Makes me even richer because of the tax cuts and the stock market. Thanks Dems, keep it up.

  2. Anyone with any sense at all (very few) realize that Senator Warren will not be the nominee and all of this energy devoted to putting down her ideas is really just a waste of time. The majority of Democrats realize that what she wants to do is unreasonable and would be extremely rare for her even to get passed in Congress. Let it go already. Put aside her ideas for a moment and realize that she’s just not a likable candidate – period.

    Rick appears to emphasize the “uniformed” voter, as does Jesse Watters (see Robert’s post) in his little segment

    • I wasn’t finished before it mysteriously posted on its own – weird.

      Anyhow, I’ve never been a fan of “man on the street” segments. Those segments are made for entertainment purposes to expose the stupidity of people and the continued demonization of the opposite party. It’s all rather juvenile and ridiculous, but apparently good for ratings.

      Back to Rick’s emphasis of the uninformed voter. Modern day political campaigning is really nothing more than manipulating the gullible and that’s rather sad. Campaigners and their supporters spend so much time lying and little time “doing”. I haven’t researched, but wonder what percentage of the country are “uniformed” voters. I used to scoff at Neal Boortz when he said that most people shouldn’t vote because they don’t know what the hell they are voting for. Unfortunately, he was dead-on. Honestly, do we really know what a person is going to be able to do once they get into office? No, not really. Why anyone would aspire to be a politician is beyond me. Sure, if you’re successful, you can make a wonderful living but, is it really worth it? I mean, manipulation and lying isn’t really an honorable trait and the bi-polar relationship with constituents has got to be exhausting.

  3. Jesse Watters did a hilarious set of interviews on Fox News on the street asking people if they knew where the “free” Medicare for all money came from. Only one came close to the idea that we all pay into the plan – making it our own money we take out later on. Another guessed “the stock market.”

    Of course these same people were also asked about impeaching Trump and they were all in favor but none actually knew who would be President if Trump were removed from office. 2 of them guessed Hillary Clinton. Oh well.

    That all seems pretty funny until you realize these people might actually vote. They are the real danger to America.