Poll: 58% oppose Medicare cuts
Fifty-eight percent of people oppose any spending cuts to Medicare and 46 percent oppose any cuts in Medicaid, according to the poll, released by the Kaiser Family Foundation, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Harvard School of Public Health. Medicare received the strongest support, after protecting public education.
Robert Blendon, a professor of health policy and political analysis at the Harvard School of Public Health, says the public supports Medicare even more than the numbers let on. People feel very strongly about Medicare and consider it an important part of their lives, he says, calling it one of the biggest disconnects between the public and “official” Washington that he’s ever seen.
“The people we’re surveying think you should close maybe eight to 10 of the major Cabinet offices before you get to cutting this program,” Blendon said Thursday. In Washington, “Every meeting I go to is ‘let’s get it on the table, let’s start working.’”
Blowback
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Greed
blatantblue on January 25, 2013 at 3:24 PM
Hey, I’m all for cutting 8-10 cabinets from the federal government, but much like foreign aid, that ain’t gonna close the deficit or deal with the tens of trillions in unfunded liabilities coming down the pike.
At this point, it’s becoming pretty clear that Let It Burn is our only option. There’s just too much resistance to basic arithmetic. Forced austerity measures will ultimately be required to deal with this mess.
Doughboy on January 25, 2013 at 3:25 PM
Nation of takers
MoreLiberty on January 25, 2013 at 3:25 PM
Let. It. Burn.
CPT. Charles on January 25, 2013 at 3:27 PM
Fix the deficit!
Fix the debt!
Just don’t cut anything!
thirteen28 on January 25, 2013 at 3:29 PM
Who the heck are they surveying? I doubt many under 30 would even know what it is.
Rocks on January 25, 2013 at 3:34 PM
I don’t doubt 58% want to just pretend nothing is wrong. Barky and Co will encourage this by saying ‘Hey, we need those rich folks (people earning over $10k a year) to start paying their fair share.
CorporatePiggy on January 25, 2013 at 3:38 PM
Of course, they don’t point out the 15-20% lost to fraud and outright waste.
michaelo on January 25, 2013 at 3:38 PM
I’m so sick of these people. Who the hell do they think they are to keep demanding more and more from tax payers and younger generations? I saw an 80 year old woman on oxygen with Obama stickers all over her car. Nothing irks me more than grannies who rob from me and my kids so they can get their free sh!t. Rey should know better. My grandfather did may he rest in peace.
jawkneemusic on January 25, 2013 at 3:41 PM
When you make people dependent on something they think they’ve paid for, it’s hard to take it away, especially when there’s an overlay of “fairness” and “equity” for all.
That’s why the Brits cling to the NHS and the Canadians to their single-payer medicare.
Just wait until Obamacare kicks in.
Drained Brain on January 25, 2013 at 3:42 PM
The people have discovered they can vote themselves bread and circuses. The barbarians will be here shortly (or have already started their attack — see la Raza).
RoadRunner on January 25, 2013 at 3:52 PM
Cannot believe it is that low.
astonerii on January 25, 2013 at 3:55 PM
Well I’m 50 and been paying into both programs since I was old enough to work.
Let;s raise the retirement age to 70 and medicare too. It’s not like if I lost my job at 62 I couldn’t afford medical insurance. It’s not like if I were in the workforce at 63 employers might not want to hire me assuming I will retire in less than 10 years.
Here’s a thought, the govt can pay me back everything I put in with annually adjusted inflation and we call it even.
I’m VERY Conservative but some of this stuff being floated that penalizes me, someone who has been gainfully employed and paying into the system since 1979 is BS.
Here’s a thought….
Weed out the takers claiming to be disabled who can easily drive a car or play video poker for hours. Cut off foreign aid to any country that doesn’t reciprocate back with an equal amount of power, goods or influence in our best interest.
Tighten down on Welfare, housing and the crap like Obamaphones…
Don’t tell me after well over 30 years of paying into a system with at least 12 more – the only thing you can do is raise my benefits to 70 and if I don’t like it I can become some ward of the state living in a ghetto.
This is Bullshit and one of the reasons I didn’t like Ryan with his “55 years or older” idea for reform.
I did vote for Romney as I have for every conservative since Reagan, but if this rhetoric keeps up with me being screwed after all this time as the only way to fix problems I’ll wait the next ones out.
celt on January 25, 2013 at 4:32 PM