The 50-Year Old Medicare Program is Showing Its Age

The 50-Year Old Medicare Program is Showing Its Age

from the National Center for Policy Analysis:

When President Johnson signed Medicare into law on July 30, 1965, nobody realized the program would grow to its current size.

Last year alone, Medicare spent $613 billion on nearly 54 million beneficiaries.
Seniors qualify for Medicare when they turn age 65. Back in 1965 when Medicare was created, many Americans died before reaching that age.
Only Americans born in 1900 and before would have been eligible Medicare benefits in 1965. The life expectancy for men and women born in 1900 was under 50 years of age.
In 1970 — five years after the program began — annual per capita Medicare spending was only $385. Today it is $12,430; and it is projected to reach nearly $19,000 a decade from now.
In 2014 Medicare spending on drugs was .48 percent of GDP. This proportion will rise as specialty drugs supplant spending on cheap generics.
Devon Herrick, a senior fellow with the National Center for Policy Analysis continues on to discuss why the Medicare trustees report is not reassuring:

Medicare spending as a percentage of GDP has been rising sharply. It was 1.3 percent in 1980, 2.2 percent in 2000 and about 3.5 percent of GDP today.
The “good” news is that Medicare spending is projected to stabilize between five and six percent of GDP for a period of about 60 years — from 2029 until 2089.
This projection assumes conditions under “current law”. For instance, current law assumes the Independent Payment Advisory Board will retain the power to arbitrarily cut Medicare spending if a growth rate threshold is surpassed.
In the coming decades the amount of general revenue necessary to fund Medicare will rise substantially.

Source: Devon Herrick, “The 50-year Old Medicare program is Showing its Age,” Townhall, July 30, 2015

– See more at: http://www.ncpa.org/sub/dpd/index.php?Article_ID=25906&utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=DPD#sthash.VdYw7zzF.dpuf

G. K. CHESTERTON OF THE ROARING TWENTIES

“I have seen versions of eugenics that come very near to infanticide.”….G.K. Chesterton, 1922

(NOTE: Without learning knowledge, the human is reduced, returned to the primitive….the primate. According to tenets of America’s new State Religion, MARXISM, now taught, funded, and dictated by the American educational establishment, the human being is, at last, being reduced to be made equal, man to female, female to man, according to the ‘religious’ tenets of the Marxist state, from Lenin to Obama.

Today, in practice, no American under age 50 is familiar with the name, G.K. Chesterton, a thinking Christian of his day. Such thinkers are not on the university-government’s published reading lists for American consumption.

Conservative, Prager fan Mark Waldeland, sent the following list of “quips” Chesterton made famous during his tenure on Earth a century ago.

Warning: Reading things Chesterton may be a threat to your health and welfare. Read ahead at your own risk. Barack Hussein Obama’s IRS may be overseeing this communication:

G.K. Chesterton ‏@GKCDaily
We are not so very far off even the sacrifice of babies—if not to a crocodile, at least to a creed.

G.K. Chesterton ‏@GKCDaily Jul 29
This triangle of truisms, of father, mother and child, cannot be destroyed; it can only destroy those civilizations which disregard it.

G.K. Chesterton ‏@GKCDaily Jul 29
People have no business even to think of destroying the family until they have seen the use of it.

G.K. Chesterton ‏@GKCDaily Jul 29
The truth is that nobody has any business to destroy a social institution until he has really seen it as an historical institution.

G.K. Chesterton ‏@GKCDaily Jul 29
The genealogical tree is really a most common or garden sort of tree. It is only the tree of life; a mere trifle.

G.K. Chesterton ‏@GKCDaily Jul 29
We shall never return to social sanity till we begin at the beginning. We must start where all history starts—with a man & a woman & a child.

G.K. Chesterton ‏@GKCDaily Jul 29
Most human experience goes to show that the more a family is really a family—that is, father, mother, and children—the better it is.

G.K. Chesterton ‏@GKCDaily Jul 29
If it be true that Socialism attacks the family in theory, it is far more certain that Capitalism attacks it in practice.

G.K. Chesterton ‏@GKCDaily Jul 29
A man that leaves his family life leaves it because he is fleeing from the baffling knowledge of humanity & from the impossible art of life.

Please read further listings: https://twitter.com/gkcdaily?refsrc=email&s=11

Hillary Spews More Lies about Her Email Scandal

HILLARY’S “CLASSIFIED” EXCUSE DOESN’T WASH by Paul Mirengoff at PowerLine:

“Scott has called today’s McClatchy story about Hillary Clinton’s emails “must read.” I agree.

McClatchy reports that the classified emails known to have been stored on the former Secretary of State’s private server contained information from five intelligence agencies, and included material related to the fatal 2012 Benghazi attacks. And this, if I understand correctly, is just from a sample of 40 emails.

Clinton’s defense continues to be that she “did not send nor received anything that was classified at the time.” (emphasis added) But even if this turns out to be true, it is not a satisfactory response for several reasons.

First, Clinton knew or should have known that some of the material she sent and/or received might well eventually be deemed classified. That’s the nature of the beast. It’s also one of the reasons why officials like Clinton are not supposed to use private email servers. As Bradley Moss, an attorney who specializes in national security matters, told McClatchy:

[T]he fact that classified information was identified within the emails is exactly why use of private emails . . . is not supposed to be allowed. Both she and her team made a serious management mistake that no one should ever repeat.

A mistake from the perspective of national security? Yes. A mistake from the perspective of protecting and advancing Hillary Clinton’s personal interests? We’ll see.

The second problem with Clinton’s defense is that, as a friend points out, even if the material in question was not classified when initially sent or received, it very likely was classified by the time she turned it over to her attorney David Kendall for review. And keep in mind that Clinton had an alternative to giving the material to Kendall. She could have given it to the State Department for review. In fact, she was obligated to do so……” Read on for the third problem:

http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2015/07/hillarys-classified-excuse-doesnt-wash.php

Who Was Best Man at John Kerry’s Daughter’s Wedding?

YOU WILL NOT BELIEVE WHO WAS BEST MAN AT JOHN KERRY’S DAUGHTER’S WEDDING

Article written by Michele Hickford at allenbwest.com and sent by Prager fan, California Cole:

“You not might be aware that in 2009, the daughter of Secretary of State John Kerry, Dr. Vanessa Bradford Kerry, John Kerry’s younger daughter by his first wife, married an Iranian-American physician named Dr. Brian (Behrooz) Vala Nahed, an Iranian-American physician.

Of course you’re not aware of it.

Brian (Behrooz) Nahed is son of Nooshin and Reza Vala Nahid of Los Angeles. Brian’s Persian birth name is “Behrooz Vala Nahid” but it is now shortened and Americanized in the media to “Brian Nahed.” At the time his engagement to Bradford Kerry, there was rarely any mention of Nahed’s Persian/Iranian ancestry, and even the official wedding announcement in the October 2009 issue of New York Times carefully avoids any reference to Dr. Nahed (Nahid)’s birthplace (which is uncommon in wedding announcements) and starts his biography from his college years.

Gosh, I wonder why??”

http://allenbwest.com/2015/07/you-will-not-believe-who-was-best-man-at-john-kerrys-daughters-wedding/

With BlackLivesMatter, Dems, America, Have a Serious Black Savage Problem

Profound crimefulness, fatherlessness, knowledgelessness, careerlessness, civillessness, careerlessness, traditional familylessness, selfpityfulness, jealousy and other leftwing Democrat Party manipulations have sent the urban black community into its present culture of professional savagery.

Blacklivesmatter is only a newer of the many Marxist organized crime chapters now fanning black racist political gatherings and celebrations in America today.

The following article was written by Thomas Lifson at the American Thinker:

“The Democratic Party has painted itself into a corner with its heavy reliance on the black vote and its pandering to the extreme left. The problem is that the reservoir of hatred and violence on the black left is deep, and by pandering to it, the Dems expose themselves to a significant liability, and have been losing the ability to rein in their allies’ worst instincts. It is no secret that for Hillary Clinton to win the presidency, she will have to inspire black turnout rates similar to those enjoyed by the Historic First Black President, Barack Obama, while remaining a wealthy and arrogant white woman.

But first, she will have to deal with the #blacklivesmatter crowd, who demonstrated to Martin O’Malley last week their power to compel a Democrat to recant something as innocent as the contention that all lives matter. The venue where that confrontation took place was the netroots conference, a hive of left wing activists. Newly released video from that conference shows the extent of the madness that has seized that significant, powerful faction of the Democrats. Lee Strannahan of Breitbart writes:

In rarely seen angle on the Black Lives Matter mob takeover of a NetRoots Nation Presidential Town Hall last weekend in Phoenix, Arizona, activists from the group scream explicit calls for violence and chaos, using an Occupy Wall Street style call-and-response technique to advocate “burn everything down,” “shut this shit down,” and “rise the fuck up.” ……Do read on, there’s more:

http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2015/07/hillary_and_the_dems_have_a_blacklivesmatter_problem.html

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Obama Attacks Huckabee Comment about the Future of Israel with Obama’s Nuclear Powered Iran

Obama Slams Huckabee’s Holocaust Hyperbole: “Ridiculous,” “So Sad”

from realclearpolitics:

“President Obama denounced Mike Huckabee’s comparison of the Iran nuclear deal to the Holocaust at a press conference in Ethiopia on Sunday. Huckabee said in doing the deal, Obama would “take the Israelis and march them to the door of the oven.”

Obama also called out Sen. Tom Cotton for comparing Secretary John Kerry to Pontius Pilate and Sen. Cruz’s suggestion that Obama is “endorsing” the leading state sponsor of terorrism.

“The comments of Mr. Huckabee are just part of a general pattern that would be considered ridiculous if it weren’t so sad,” said the president. “These are leaders in the Republican Party.”

OBAMA: And, if part of what historically has made America great, particularly when it comes to foreign policy, is there has been a recognition that these issues are too serious. Issues of war and peace are of such grave concern and consequence, we don’t play fast and loose this way. We have robust debates, we look at the facts and agreements, but we just don’t fling out ad hominem attacks like that, becuase it doesn’t help inform the American people…

And so when you get rhetoric like this, maybe it gets attention, maybe this is just an effort to push Mr. Trump out of the headlines, but it is not the kind of leadership that is needed for America right now…”

There’s more:

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2015/07/27/obama_fires_back_at_gop_iran_hyperbole_would_be_considered_ridiculous_if_it_werent_so_sad.html

Camille Paglia: “Bill Cosby Just Like Bill Clinton”

by Ashe Schow a the Washington Examiner:

“Culture critic Camille Paglia had some tough words for feminists, “rape culture” activists and especially former President Bill Clinton in her recent interview with Salon.

Paglia first compared the accusations against comedian Bill Cosby with those made against Clinton, claiming that the latter will eventually hurt Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign.

“Right from the start, when the Bill Cosby scandal surfaced, I knew it was not going to bode well for Hillary’s campaign, because young women today have a much lower threshold for tolerance of these matters,” Paglia said.

She said that in the 90s, Clinton got away with being accused by multiple women “because he was a Democrat” and “supported abortion rights.” But young women today don’t remember Clinton’s time in office, so as the accusations come back into the mix as Hillary makes her presidential bid, it will be more difficult for him to retain support.

The way Hillary acted toward Bill Clinton’s accusers would be unacceptable by today’s standards, Paglia said.

“Hillary has a lot to answer for, because she took an antagonistic and demeaning position toward her husband’s accusers,” she said. “So it’s hard for me to understand how the generation of Lena Dunham would or could tolerate the actual facts of Hillary’s history.”

Though Paglia – and many on the Right – believe there are similarities between Bill Clinton and Bill Cosby, at least one of Cosby’s accusers sees “no parallel.”

On feminism, Paglia excoriated the modern-day practice of believing “men are at fault for everything and women are utterly blameless.” She specifically called out Emma Sulkowicz – the woman who carried around a mattress at Columbia University for wallowing in victimhood……” (Do read on:)

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/camille-paglia-bill-cosby-just-like-bill-clinton/article/2569096

Daily Beast Tops Trump with Smear that He raped his wife 30 years ago

Article by Paul Mirengoff at PowerLine:

AN ANTI-TRUMP SMEAR AND ITS AFTERMATH

Yesterday, the Daily Beast smeared Donald Trump by suggesting that he raped his ex-wife Ivana. It justified digging up this ancient story on the theory that “Donald Trump introduced his presidential campaign to the world with a slur against Mexican immigrants, accusing them of being ‘rapists.’”

If Donald Trump committed rape, however long ago, there is no need to justify writing about it. The problem is that, from all that appears, Trump did not rape Ivana. For one thing, even during their acrimonious divorce, she said that she was not raped “in the criminal sense.” Since rape is always a crime, this was an admission that she wasn’t raped.

Moreover, these days the former Mrs. Trump rejects any suggestion that Donald rape her in any sense. She told CNN:

I have recently read some comments attributed to me from nearly 30 years ago at a time of very high tension during my divorce from Donald. The story is totally without merit. Please read on:

http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2015/07/an-anti-trump-smear-and-its-aftermath.php

Pragertopia: TREES ARE THE ANSWER

In the following five-minute lecture from Pragertopia, TREES ARE THE ANSWER, the instructor divides the current environmental war between the urban left’s landless political huggers of trees at all costs and the unending commercial-cultural human reliance upon trees for our population’s present and future.

“Trees supply ninety per-cent of living mass on Earth”, the lecturer stresses. He doesn’t stress trees also are THE major source of our planet’s available oxygen, if I remember my Earth statistics shared sixty-five years ago in classrooms of one kind or another…..and that the greatest supply of oxygen comes not from the tangles of the Amazon basin, but from the cold taiga of the good old Soviet Union….. as Putin’s Russia of yesteryear was called.

But voting Americans are ignorant of such and most other knowable knowledge these days. They go to urban schools, a huge desert far from trees where leftist politics have become an atheistic, fascistic religion.

Trees are where mankind spent nearly all of his developing life allowing him and off-spring protection, home, food, shade, agility and a brain, to go hither and thither always building on and expanding his, NOT HER world of curiosity always sending him, NOT HER further around the corners to explore for the sake of exploring, defending, warring, protecting from yesterday to today.

The Pragertopia speaker failed to mention much about that religious bond man has developed with trees from his eternal past to this, our contentious present. Today’s powerful, ubiquitous atheistic Left has learned nothing to worship besides TREES.

Please read this important five-minute lecture from Pragertopia:

http://prageruniversity.com/Environmental-Science/Trees-Are-the-Answer.html#.VbeXk_lVhBc

Why Bother Electing Republicans if they Won’t Be Republican?

WHY DOES THE REPUBLICAN PARTY EXIST? Who is it for? What principle does it serve? It’s hard to say.

The following article was written by Ben Domenech at the Federalist:

“Why does the Republican Party exist? What is its purpose as a political entity – to what end do its members work to elect their fellow Republicans? What are its priorities? Whose interests does it serve? Why is this political party still around so long after its primary motivations for creation – the defense of the Union and the end of slavery – were achieved? The Democratic Party exists to serve its clients – but the Republican Party’s justification is more ethereal. Is it just an arbitrary entity seeking a universal negative, designed to push back against Democratic policies and demand they be more something (efficient) or less something else (expensive)? Or does it have actual principles and priorities it seeks to make a reality?

The Republican Party’s voters and supporters certainly seem to have such beliefs. But they rarely seem to make it through the process of synthesis that turns such beliefs into actual policy priorities. Being a negative force is not nothing, and blocking bad policy is worthwhile. But when given the opportunity to put good policy into place, or to take steps to make such policy more feasible in the future, where is the Republican Party to be found?”……Do read on: http://thefederalist.com/2015/07/27/why-does-the-republican-party-exist/