make this a national issue, as important as any...We will also have a spokesman and his wife who are more respected than almost anyone..They will also help make this "the issue". We will see, but we will not be alone in attacking the media..when this happens.

This is literally going to kill the GOP.

Of course the public will have to force Ryan and anybody else with those ideas to back off.

However, I believe there are enough GOPers in the House and the Senate to kill this thing before it EVER gets anywhere.

their determination to screw over the most vulnerable people in the country.

I wish I could be more optimistic, but I have seen enough in just the past week to have shattered my faith that there is any decency in the republican party.

Besides, they will claim that one-third of Medicare beneficiaries now voluntarily sign up for Medicare Advantage -- which are private insurance plans funded by Medicare -- and the vouchers or premium subsidies are not much of change. There is some truth in that, but then they'll start whittling down on the premium subsidies. Plus, there is a lot of dissatisfaction with Medicare among people who either have to pay the 20% coinsurance while risking bankruptcy it they get seriously ill, or insure against it with a supplemental policy and drug coverage. There is plenty of room to fool people into thinking they have something better.

It's just like Obamacare. They'll end up with something that is similar, but they'll remove the association of Obama with it. Of course, they can also point to Democrats who trashed the program as well.

Medicare is a far better deal than Obamacare, which was only a stopgap program.

Medicare Advantage Plans offered by Humana, United, Cigna, BCBS, Kaiser, etc. They'll just push those and give beneficiaries vouchers to purchase them. Short-term, most people won't even know what is happening.

There is a massive shit-storm rolling in and nothing -- *nothing* -- is too extreme for the new gallery of assholes. With majorities in both houses + executive branch (and soon SCOTUS as well) in charge, they are going to be aggressive and come at full gallop to fulfill their regressive destiny.

All we can do is push back. Push back as hard as possible. For four f******g years!

Contrary to what the wingnuts claim about "Illegals unfairly getting Medicare and SS benefits," they never collect --they CAN'T, because they are undocumented. The SSA says that "Without immigrants, the Social Security Board of Trustees projects that the system will no longer be able to pay the full promised benefits by 2037. Undocumented immigrants do not qualify for welfare, food stamps, Medicaid, and most other public benefits.

SSA estimated that unauthorized immigrants and their employers generated $13 billion in payroll taxes in 2010.

by the Repugs/baggers/ayn rand nutters/Trump deplorables. They've poked their noses into once-unthinkable places -- a Russian bromance and hacks; cabinet posts going to the craziest ideologues; violent behaviors; serious talk about deporting millions; serious talk about registering millions; serious talk about depriving millions of their health insurance...on and on it goes.

Social Security and Medicare are like a pair of tumbleweeds facing an oncoming fascistic mega-storm. They'll tell you that vouchers and your own pitiful savings are great, terrific, wonderful, the best. The minute you hear that brand of bullshit, it's time to blow taps for Medicare and Secial Security.

again, voting against their best interests

grandfathering in older people, then making younger people settle for some bullshit voucher program. Retired people now collecting need to be made to understand that. By end it, I mean you cash everybody out. A guy like me that still has ten years to go, gets back what I paid in. If you are retired and have already collected as much or more than you paid in, we're even and you're done!

I'm all in favor of making it work and continuing those programs, and we can. But the older a voter is, in my opinion, the more responsible they are for the mess we are in. You don't get to just stay safely covered and screw the rest of us. Fix it or end it!