Reply #3: "Reforming" Entitlements is a mixed comment

[TayTay]

We absolutely do need to reform Medicare. That system, as well as Medicaid, is in very dangerous condition. I would wholeheartedly agree with Sen. Kerry that these entitlements need reform, immediately, if not yesterday.

I liked the Senator's speech. I think he is right. Clearly, Kerry was talking about preserving programs that aid in job creation will seriously looking at how other programs, including defense, use their funds. I don't have a problem with that. I do have a problem with the ideological way the Repubs slashed programs they don't like.

EDIT: Sorry, I have limited computer time this day and made this comment too short. There are many ways to look at Medicare spending with an eye to saving money. Not all of these ways involve cutting benefits to recipients, per se. Medicare is a massive, massive program that employs thousands of vendors to administer services, equipment, etc. There are sweetheart deals, many of them with big Repub cos that desperately need to be reformed. I am completely for that. Completely.

EDIT edit, redux: This is what I mean as refers to defense spending and this goes on all the time in Medicare:

The deficit isn't the only threat to contractors. Late last year, the Pentagon's chief weapons buyer, Ashton Carter, announced that his office would seek fixed-price contracts to replace so-called cost-plus deals, which cover all expenses and pay an extra incentive fee, even for troubled programs. Under the new arrangement, the Pentagon and contractors would share cost overruns. Companies would have an incentive to deliver weapons below the agreed cost, though such deals can also "wipe out the profit" or cause a loss, says Todd Harrison, an analyst with the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments. That's a novel concept for many weapons contractors.

http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/11_10/b4218028646985.htm

Medicare is an absolutely necessary GOVERNMENT program. But, there are a lot of pols with "blood on their hands" as regards money in that program. We have to insist on REGULATION to make sure the money is spent wisely. There are a huge number of sweetheart deals in the program and many of those sweetheart deals have angels in Congress with donors who own the deals. If Sen. Kerry means to go after these arrangements, bless him for doing so. It can preserve benefits.

More research to come after I help my son dye more clothing for his upcoming convention appearances. (Oy, the life of being an artists' Mom.)