The voice of the ruling class: To resolve the budget deficit, people will have to die sooner.

[Karmadillo]

Medicare has been too successful.

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2011/jul2011/pers-j18.shtml

NY Times’ David Brooks on “Death and Budgets”
The voice of the ruling class
18 July 2011

In an op-ed piece published Friday, New York Times columnist David Brooks reveals the real thinking of America’s financial aristocrats in relation to health care spending. In chilling terms he gives vent to their bitterness over the “squandering” of resources to extend the lives of commoners and their determination to put an end to it.

The column made its appearance in the midst of discussions between the White House and congressional Democrats and Republicans on a bipartisan plan to slash trillions of dollars from health and retirement programs for the elderly and the poor, including Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security. The Obama administration has taken the lead in this unprecedented attack on basic social reforms dating back to the 1930s, insisting that any move to raise the debt ceiling must be tied to massive cuts.

The essence of Brooks’ column is summed up in the headline, “Death and Budgets.” In order to resolve the budget deficit, he argues, people will have to die sooner.

“This fiscal crisis is about many things,” he writes, “but one of them is our inability to face death—our willingness to spend our nation into bankruptcy to extend life for a few more sickly months.” It is the American people’s selfish and ignorant desire to live longer, not the mindless greed and extravagant wealth of the ruling elite or the trillions spent on war and bank bailouts, that is bankrupting the country, he argues.

more...

[BOHICA12]

1. The most patriotic American dies at 61.9 year of age ....

.... no SS, no Medicare, and only a few years of the senior discounts. If there is an IRA or 401K - family gets it and nearly immediately has to pay the taxes on the amount (there are way around this).

:evilgrin:

Live Long and Prosper - is only for Mr. Spock!

[woo me with science]

2. What is happening is evil.

It is a betrayal of every American, built on lies. This whole process stinks to high heaven. We have a manufactured crisis so that the wealthy can hide behind closed doors and then shove through "emergency" legislation to thieve from the poor.

It is a fucking travesty.

[nolabels]

3. Many times in human history the..........

comeuppance comes sooner rather later when a larger majority of people realize they have been had. I pity the wealthy when that day comes

[Mendocino]

4. They don't live in

gated communities for a view of the wall. :)

[Brigid]

10. Even the Bastille came down --

When the French peasantry finally got pissed enough to tear it down. Those walls you speak of? Piece of caken once people have finally had enough.

[Jack Sprat]

5. So very true

There are people who have had to avoid things like occasional checkups because they can't afford coverage or afford the cost of a doctor visit that so many take for granted. Those checkups might have prevented that one fatal stroke or heart attack. It might have detected terminal cancer at the treatable stage. People need to think about these things. Is this really the kind of wretched society we have become that we only want health services for those who can afford it? Definitely, the teabaggers don't mind us being delegated to the most uncivilized of civilization.

[in_cog_ni_to]

6. Or a food source...Soylent Green. Instead of cat food

the non-dead senior ingrates, who so rudely live, can eat Soylent Green.

[ashling]

7. "If they are going to die

then they need to do it and decrease the surplus population!" - E. Scrooge

[Hardrada]

8. Such arrogance!

He risks bad karma.

[indurancevile]

9. so true. does anyone even read brooks? he's SO awful.

[Karmadillo]

11. Kick

nt

[KamaAina]

12. You can almost hear Rove whispering "useless eaters" in his smug, self-satisfied ear.

Note carefully that the example he uses is not an elderly person, but one with a disabling medical condition. People living with significant disabilties cringe when they read bilge like “a conscious but motionless, mute, withered, incontinent mummy of my former self.” :puke: And rightly so, since it gives the soulless, like Brooks, a rationale to pull the plug on them. :scared:

[Karmadillo]

13. And the ruling class has to get another tax cut, too.

nt

[Manifestor_of_Light]

14. What about the ones who worked and paid taxes, and died?

Like the people who worked and paid into their Social security and taxes, and died too soon to collect?

My sister worked over 20 years and died of brain cancer at age 42.

And all the people who died too young of many other causes, like fighting in wars? Murder, suicide, accidents, just dropping dead of a random medical problem?

Fifty eight thousand young american men and women who died in Vietnam, far too young to collect SS or medicare?



They never talked about those people.