Cynical Negro - 07/12/2012 - 10:11
They booed Romney after he said he would repeal ObamaRomneyCare, but clapped when he said he would "means test" i.e. cut peoples Social Security and Medicare:
The fascist governors are already "Means testing for eligibility" i.e. cutting peoples welfare, food stamps, and SSI disability. They're also discontinuing federal student loans.
Wikipedia:
"In 1992, third-party Presidential candidate Ross Perot proposed that future Social Security benefits be subjected to a means test; though this was hailed by some as a potential solution to an impending crisis in funding the program, few other political candidates since Perot have publicly made the same suggestion, which would require costly investigations and might associate accepting those benefits with social stigma."
Means-testing has been criticized on a number of grounds, the most fundamental of which is the distinction between a social program, which helps all equally or in proportion to their taxation, and a poverty program, which disproportionately helps the poor. Issues of a poverty program versus a social program include the following:
Stigma
A program benefiting only the poor may carry a stigma on its use and be demeaning; compare poverty food.
Political support
A program benefiting only the poor may lack broad-based political support, in contrast to programs that all share in. This can make it easier to reduce the benefits later.[9]
Redistribution
Poverty programs transfer money from the rich to the poor, as they benefit the poor only but are paid for by the tax payers.
Further objections to means-testing include the following:
Further objections to means-testing include the following:
Poverty trap
Means tests, particularly sharp cut-offs, create high effective marginal tax rates and can serve to keep people in poverty, both by removing social support as the person tries to escape poverty, and by discouraging such attempts by high costs. For example, asset-based limits, such as requiring an individual to have little or no savings to qualify, not only discourage saving (because of the cost of being disqualified from such savings) but also require a person to become completely destitute to qualify, thus meaning that they do not have any much-needed savings when attempting to escape poverty.
Access
Means tests, particularly complicated ones and ones that differ between programs and between different levels of government, complicate access to programs: individuals cannot easily know if they qualify and may also qualify for some programs but not others. In the absence of centralized outreach, the added complication of means tests means that some, perhaps many people who qualify for programs do not benefit from them.
Administrative costs
Means tests increase administrative costs (overhead), due to the work of verifying that the tests are satisfied. Some argue that these costs can offset or more than offset the savings by reduced payouts under means-testing.
Entitlement/promises
If means-testing is implemented in an existing program, particularly for which people have paid taxes but not benefited, as in pensions or medical insurance, the reduction in benefits can be seen as a breach of promise and entitlement of the program.
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RAISE THE PRICE ON THE PRIVATE PLANS; "MEANS TEST" PUBLIC PLAN
Cynical Negro - 07/12/2012 - 11:08
Need Food Stamps [Medicare/Medicaid/SocialSecurity/WIC]? What’s Your Collateral?
The war against the poor rages on as Pennsylvania [Fascist Corrbett] announced plans to make the amount of food stamps people receive contingent on the assets they possess.
As of May 1, 2012, people under 60 with more than $2000 in savings or other assets would no longer be eligible for food stamps.
For those over 60 the limit is a slightly less-draconian $3250. Houses and retirement benefits are exempt from counting as an asset, as is one car. But any additional vehicle worth more than $4650 would be considered a countable asset.
A spokeswoman for the Department of Welfare said the move was designed to combat welfare fraud, though advocates for the poor note that Pennsylvania has one of the lowest food stamp fraud rates in the nation: one-tenth of 1 percent. Furthermore, at least 30 percent of the people who are eligible for food stamps in Pennsylvania and throughout the nation don’t access them, making the benefit program under-subscribed.
The move is really nothing short of punitive and counter-productive to conservatives’ stated goal of making people less dependent on government. The plan punishes elderly people who are trying to save for their burials, poor people desperately trying to save enough money to move to a better location, and working-and middle-class people who have lost their jobs during the recession and are now forced to liquidate assets to feed their families.
Then again, we all know that for most conservatives in office it's not really about making people less dependent on government as it is punishing the poor and casting a moral judgment because they exist in poverty.
[End]
HARRISBURG, Pa. (CBS) – The Corbett administration’s controversial new asset-test policy for food stamp recipients takes effect this week.
Anne Bayle, spokeswoman for the state Department of Welfare, says in order to qualify for food stamps, recipients under the age of 60 will have to have less than $5,500 in certain assets, while the limit is $9,000 for those 60 and over or disabled. She says new recipients will be evaluated when they apply the first time.
Otherwise, “When someone comes in for their benefit renewal process – which is something that’s already happening, something that you must do when you receive welfare benefits – that’s when we will go over their assets. So, we won’t be checking people all at once, right away.”
Critics say the asset test will unnecessarily hurt poor people, while the administration says it wants to make sure people turn to their own resources before seeking assistance. The Welfare Department estimates fewer than 1 percent of food stamp recipients will be affected.
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OBAMAROMNEYCARE: MY CRYSTAL BALL
Cynical Negro - 07/12/2012 - 10:04
A model for Obama’s health care plan
Massachusetts proposes rationing of health care for workers
The Massachusetts model
The New York Times and Obama’s health care counterrevolution
Duval Patrick leads attack on health care for public and private workers
Massachusetts: Democrats attack municipal workers’ health care
Massachusetts legislation promotes health care rationing
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