Seniors

At last week's "hearing" held by Ed Martin's campaign for him to spread his bad information and bad ideas about health care, Crazy Eddie gave the audience a taste of what he'd like to work on in the U.S. Senate.  Specifically, whether or not to use the federal budget debate as a pretext for ending Medicare as we know it. 

It's wonderful to hear good stories about Medicare, but as someone said, we're all paying for it, and, uh, we really have to have a conversation about whether we can afford it in America.

This is a pretty shaky video, but you can hear Martin's words in this clip:

Really?  There are certainly questions about how we'll afford to pay for Medicare in the coming decades?  But whether we can afford Medicare?  Yikes.

Peter Kinder and his staff were called out for their factually-challenged fearmongering about the federal health care bill in at least two newspapers today, the News-Leader and Southeast Missourian.  Kinder continues to claim that the new law will "wreck Missouri's budget at $500 million a year," which isn't even close to true.  From the News-Leader:

Kinder has his facts wrong, according to an analysis of the health care bill from Nixon's Department of Social Services.

At most, the Medicaid expansion will cost state taxpayers $258.4 million by 2023, according to DSS memo distributed after the health care bill became law in March.

Sen. Dan Clemens (R-Marshfield) and Sen. Jason Crowell (R-Cape Girardeau) aren't sure they can support legislation proposed by their colleague, Sen. Norma Champion (R-Springfield).  She wants to prohibit insurance companies from selling Medicare products by cold-calling seniors, and adopt guidelines established by the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

Are Clemens and Crowell concerned about the legislation because they think seniors can be better protected with another plan?  Or that seniors ought to hear more from telemarketers?  Nope. Are they concerned that the insurance companies don't like the proposal?  Nope -- insurance companies like the idea of consistent rules from the state and federal governments.

Clemens and Crowell concerned are just not sure they can support a bill that would create rules that happen to have been recommended by federal agencies.  As quoted in the News-Leader:

• Clemens: "It makes me nervous because I don't want to get aligned with the feds whatsoever."
• Crowell: "Just as a philosophy, I have a problem with basically incorporating what the federal government does."

Yesterday, the AARP applauded the Senate for moving health care reform with the following statement:

Davis shares her economic and family values expertise with Kit Bond, October '08

Hoping to capitalize on her national infamy as an advocate for hungry (but motivated!) children, Rep. Cynthia Davis  has turned her attention to the Senior Community Service Employment Program, which is expected to create about 300 new jobs for Missourians age 55 and older. The program pays participants’ salaries while they are gaining work experience and on-the-job training, and is for individuals 55 or older with incomes up to 125% of the federal poverty level.

In her latest newsletter, Davis explains why programs like this are bad, bad news. If God wanted these seniors living in poverty to have jobs, she argues, they "would have appeared spontaneously."