Republicans are Cutting Medicare, not Just Medicaid!

[Granny Blue]

David Dayen at The American Prospect brings the Fourth of July spirit to all us Boomers and almost Boomers:

Republicans Are Cutting Medicare. Not Only Medicaid, Medicare.
Passage of the Big Beautiful Bill will force mandatory sequestration that will mean half a trillion dollars in Medicare cuts.

(TL:dr) “…..Big Beautiful Bill would require automatic sequestration cuts across the board…..Medicare is one of the programs that will face the axe, and the damage sums to $490 billion over the next ten years, starting in the next fiscal year that begins in October. While many of the safety-net cuts in the bill are delayed to help Republicans with their re-election campaigns, the Medicare cuts must begin next year…..Republicans could have waived the inclusion of the Big Beautiful Bill on the PAYGO scorecard, averting the sequestration cuts, but they did not do so...Therefore, OMB would be required to issue an order reducing spending by $330 billion by January 2026. Many accounts are exempted from sequestration, including Social Security and several programs affecting low-income Americans. But Medicare is not…
the bill changes the enrollment process for the Medicare Savings Program, which helps poor seniors (who also qualify for Medicaid) afford their prescriptions…..”
https://prospect.org/politics/2025-07-03-republicans-cutting-medicare-not-only-medicaid/

I couldn't think of a better way to summarize, so I apologize for the long excerpt. Mr. Blue and I both spent time on the streets in our wildly misspent youths, and last year bought a van we could live out of with a fair degree of comfort. We will be forced to choose between rent/mortgage or food/medicine, and we will choose food/medicine, as long as we can find a shade tree to camp under. We haven’t struggled all our lives for a happy, healthy retirement to let these bastards kill us early!

We will save every penny, simplify our lives and pack a go bag. When the time comes, we will do what we gotta do without hesitation or regret. Walk into the rest of our without illusion, and make the bastards work hard to kill us!.

How will you cope?
.
Happy MAGA Independence Day!

[Wicked Blue]

1. But he prooooooomised not to touch it

And the MAGAts actually believed him.

[no_hypocrisy]

2. Even if you can continue to afford your doctor with reduced Medicare,

there's no guaranty that your doctor can afford to stay in practice.

In the 60s and 70s, my father built his medical practice on Medicare patients. Because he was a cardiologist and an internist, there was a steady parade of geriatric patients. If there were no Medicare back then, he might have gone bankrupt.

And being 65+ myself, you find that stuff changes and you NEED a cardiologist, an endocrinologist, perhaps a dermatologist, etc. just to get by, even if you're not on the fast track to dying. And you need Medicare to pay for it.