From the office of Congressman Andy Harris:
Medicare Trustees Report Projects Medicare Bankruptcy in 2024
Rep. Harris criticizes the Obama Administration for calling fiscal health “stable”
Today, the Medicare Trustees released a comprehensive report outlining the fiscal problems of the Medicare system. The report found that Medicare will go bankrupt in 2024. After the release of the report, the acting CMS Administration claimed the Medicare system is “stable.”
Congressman Andy Harris, M.D., a physician representing Maryland’s First District, released the following statement:
“The current Medicare system is not “stable” as the Administration claims; this report shows Medicare is going bankrupt. Unless action is taken to save Medicare, beneficiaries will see dramatic cuts in benefits. Instead of the Obama Administration’s plan to impose draconian cost-cutting measures which will lead to rationing of care for beneficiaries, we need comprehensive reform to the system to ensure the federal government keeps its promise of Medicare to current beneficiaries and to future generations. I am ready to work across the aisle to preserve the Medicare program through physician-patient centered reforms.”
Facts citizens should know about Medicare:
Medicare expenditures total $571 billion, of which, $211 billion comes from the general fund. Medicare premiums and taxes do not cover the costs of the system.
On average, a two earner household pays $119,000 in Medicare taxes in their lifetime, but gets $357,000 in benefits out of the system.
Each year it becomes more difficult for new Medicare patients to find healthcare providers.
saw some democratic signs for congress in the 1st district. Gonna think about voting democratic. Andy Harris has done nothing for his district except make news releases that don’t make any sense and I am tired of his repulican way or the highway. Life is too short to be closed minded.
Mr Harris. We all know Washington is broke. What have you done to fix it besides poking it with a sharp stick? Get back to work, or whatever you call that thing you do.
He would rather poke a stick at it, instead of be part of the solution. How many people can go to work and not work together to get things done? Im sure Dr Harris has forgotten to work together.
Looks like his healthcare plan is pretty stable though.
Don’t be too hard on him. It’s really tough for first-term Congressmen because they get stuck in the basement, with no windows, near the tram and the loading dock, where they barely have enough room to have a meeting, put a computer on a desk, and they have to run around begging for extra phones. The working conditions are deplorable, and not many people could be expected to be very productive. File: Sarcasm.
But after he wins a second term, he’ll get a few more committee assignments, maybe a window somewhere, and then he can really starting raking in the pork dollars, and become a permanant fixture, like Milkulski.
Love the haters, Andy.
Andy never met a camera he didn’t like to spout that republican hard line stuff. I think Mikulski is doing a better job and has a staff that gets answers. I am a combat veteran and would not even think of asking andy to get off his soap box to help. I did, however, contact Mikulski and she got the job done. There are two different approaches to being in congress. The one that plays to your hatred of the other side and the one where things get done. Guess we will have to elect another person to get the later in the first congressional district.
This is certainly not partisan. First-termers are too busy running around the Hill kissing butt and raising campaign money– that’s how you become a second-termer.
One of the reasons Milkulski can get things done better is because she’s one of the ones having her butt kissed because she’s been there so long and is on the right committees.
In general, most people in Congress will drop what they are doing to help an individual or business local to their district/State, because that word of mouth back home is very powerful.
I agree with ya on word of mouth, but I would like to think she is helping out someone who needs help.
funny how a post about the inevitable insolvency of MediCare immediately turned into a comment thread about Andy Harris sucks.
MediCare needs MAJOR reform, along with MedicAid and SS. They will bankrupt our country without major reform, regardless of who is in Congress or the White House.
$15.6 TRILLION in debt. That’s trillion; with a TR.
$5 TRILLION of that is new debt under Obama, whose ACA bill actually DECREASED funding to MediCare/Aid.
It was never an article about the insolvency of Medicare. In was an article about what Andy Harris thinks about President Obama ignoring the insolvency of Medicare. In other words… he simply pointing fingers at anyone other than himself – because of his non-involvement, he can not be held accountable for anything that does happen.
Porter, isn’t that what Obama, Pelosi and the rest of the liberals do? How do you compromise with spenders when you have been sent to stop the spending?
Stop the spending or stop the spending you don’t agree with? There’s a major difference. Given the opportunity to do an across the board 10% cut in the budget would you agree to that? Can we get Congress to agree to that or is that even enough? If we are borrowing 40 cents out of every dollar we spend should the actual cut across the board be 40%? And would you sign up for a Defense Authorization Bill that cuts 40% – can we do without 11 aircraft carriers? Maybe get by with 6? And if you cannot stomach a 40% cut across the board where exactly do you expect the money to come from for your programs that you are not willing to sacrifice?
it’s not just about cutting spending. it’s about FIXING the automatic unfunded spending programs that increase each and every year regardless of revenue. that’s ok, tax-cheat Geithner can just print us some more money! then we’ll have more money to spend, err, umm, i mean, invest.
STEP 1: reform the “entitlements”. that word is in quotes because the only entitlements I have are “Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.” Medicare and Medicaid and SS are unsustainable, but all the Dems can say is that the gop wants to ‘end them as we know it.’ You wanna know what else will destroy Medicare as we know it? Medicare as we know it.
STEP 2: Reform the tax code. or rather, scrap it and start over. a national sales tax IN PLACE OF our current income-based tax code would be a good thing. those who spend the most (the rich, the 1%, whatever) would pay the most taxes. you know, their “fair share”.
just a few ideas. obviously, thers is much more that needs to be done to save America’s solvency.
Exactly. Mr. Harris figured out real quick that the best thing to do is to be a good boy and perfectly mirror the party leadership, repeating on a local level all the same lines. Well done Andy. Welcome to the machine.
It’s dangerous to have an original thought. Every action taken by this Congressmen has been geared toward one thing– getting elected.
And my guess is, this pattern has played itself out all across the country. The Tea Party is being chewed up and spit out by the machinery of Washington, just like virtually every other political movement before it in the modern era.
Sounds like our President don’t you think. I can still remember Obama’s acceptance speech when he stated that he wouldn’t be able to do the job in just four years. The day he got the job he started campaining for another four years. Before Obama was President he didn’t accomplish anything in Congress because he was already working on his platform for President. Every politician worries about their next term first and then the issues second.
All too true.
One thing I will give the President credit for is making plenty of people on both sides unhappy for different reasons in 4 years.
Yes, you heard me. Sometimes we need politicians to take us up by the collar and tell us how it is, because as America’s voting record demonstrates over at least the last 20-30 years, we have clearly have no idea what’s good for us.
The Presidency requires a bit of leadership and taking risks. Wrong or right, you have to admit Obama has done a little bit of that.
That said, he’s very much part of the machinery and far too much of his actions are programmed gears and levers.
At least that’s more than I can say for the Harris Robopublican 3000.
George Bush is the problem with our Nation! He is directly responsible for each and every one of President Obama’s failures! If we could just get that no good lousy Bush out of Washington everything would be all peachy. I believe we could all be living on mead and honey if we could just send him back to Texas. When the Bush excuse doesn’t carry any more water we can blame those damnable Republicans for doing what their constituents sent them to Washington to do. The nerve of those damnable Republicans. They should all take a swim in Boston Harbor.
If can’t argue with your opponent’s facts, attack his person.
Here are the facts, from cms.gov, “A federal government website managed by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services”
https://www.cms.gov/ReportsTrustFunds/downloads/tr2011.pdf
See page 4: “[Hospital Insurance (HI), or Medicare Part A] expenditures have exceeded income annually since 2008 and are projected to continue doing so through the short-range period until the fund becomes exhausted in 2024.”
In other words, Medicare will go away unless we fix it. Fact is, Medicare is ‘not “stable” as the Administration claims’.
You can, of course, ignore the facts and blindly press home your prejudiced attack against the messenger, but we are on an unsustainable course. And the Administration is not doing anything to fix it because any legitimate proposal would cost them the votes of the ignorant in 2012 and would expose them to the kind of infantile attacks we see here.
Put another way, it would require the courage to put principle above politics.
Which is what Mr. Harris is doing.
Here are the facts, from cms.gov, “A federal government website managed by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services”
https://www.cms.gov/ReportsTrustFunds/downloads/tr2011.pdf
See page 4: “[Hospital Insurance (HI), or Medicare Part A] expenditures have exceeded income annually since 2008 and are projected to continue doing so through the short-range period until the fund becomes exhausted in 2024.”
In other words, Medicare will go away unless we fix it. Fact is, Medicare is ‘not “stable” as the Administration claims’.
You can, of course, ignore the facts and blindly press home your prejudiced attack against the messenger, but we are on an unsustainable course. And the Administration is not doing anything to fix it because any legitimate proposal would cost them the votes of the ignorant in 2012 and would expose them to the kind of infantile attacks we see here.
Put another way, it would require the courage to put principle above politics.
Which is what Mr. Harris is doing.
obama took $5billion out of medicare. Guess he wants it to go broke soon. Those old nasty seniors should just give up..