yeah, keep telling those old fuckers the hard spin, ryan! angering seniors is a sure path to a Romney defeat.

@1:

Presumably, pretty much the same: "well, those are just old people, they're demented parasites."

"You don't have to take my word for it."

Oh, believe me Ryan, we don't.

What's most entertaining is not the boo'ing. It's the fallacious argument Ryan attempts to make. Man. That is some strained logic and double-speak, right there.

It's so 1984. "We're going to 'raise' your chocolate ration from 16 grams a month to 10 grams a month!"

It's all about protecting the rich ruling classes. Like the Rmoneys. The rest of us are just "victims" and "entitled". And, with Ryan and Rmoney, poor and on the streets.

If Paul Ryan's plan is so wonderful for America, why would it not start on day one for every American? The fact that he wants to give a reprieve for 55 and older shows he knows what a shit show his plain really is. He also seems to be acting on the idea that people 55 and older don't know folks under 55 (like their kids for instance), and might want those people to have the same access to Medicare they will have under a Ryan plan.

"You don't have to take my word for it. Seriously, just ask Limbaugh, he'll tell you I'm right!"

If you've lost the old-person vote, you've lost the election.

You know, if you're telling a crowd news they don't want to hear, you don't wag your finger and stick your nose in the air, lecturing like a prissy little prick. Especially if you look like you're twelve.

Really. Here. Obama scolding a black audience about anit-Semitism and homophobia: Watch and learn.

no ryan, i wouldn't take your word alone on anything.

That still for the video is priceless. He looks like he just got called out trying to sell some bullshit to people who weren't having it. He looks like a 13 year old caught jacking it to his dad's Playboys.

Still medicare will be insolvent in x years, social security in y years. Even the democrats acknowledge that.

@Paul: Louie Ludwig (Crashing Vor) just did this brilliant 30 sec clip/ad on Medicare:

"...Your benefits stay exactly the same
if you're willing to sell out your kids..."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=maM5tTKoG…

It should be prominently featured on Slog.

Damn. That smug rat-fucker is smug, fucks rats.

Setting the switchover age to 55? People are eligible for membership in AARP at age *50*. Ryan's plan may not make them very happy. And what about the AARP membership in general? Gee, Paul, ever think that they might not be as fucking selfish as you and Willard? Maybe they give a damn about the country, their families, their friends, their neighbors...many/most of whom aren't yet 55.

Best thing about Romney winning the Republican nomination is the SarahPalinification of Paul Ryan.

Seniors have been a reliable voting bloc since...forever. As I recall, it was one of the few demographic categories that John McCain handily won. Like several other sloggers, I think that if the Republicans have lost seniors, they might as well make the concession speech now and save us the next six weeks.

@14 And Dems would be as wrong as Republicans. Medicare is not going broke and will not be insolvent. The trust fund that pays part A costs will run out of money in 2024 based on projections, but there will be enough money to cover 87% of costs from payroll taxes.

Jonathan Oberlander, a health policy expert at the University of North Carolina, told CNN that ... “Medicare is not going bankrupt. Medicare would still have most of the necessary funds to pay those expenses and other parts of the program would be unaffected. Medicare won’t go bankrupt in the literal sense in 2016 or 2024 or 2064—or ever.”

http://economistsview.typepad.com/econom…

@14,

Well, then I guess it's a good thing that Obamacare is trying to contain medical costs.

The zombie-eyed granny-starving Ryan is lying outright about the $716B "stolen" from medicare:

Medicare Advantage remains strong

Obamacare Strengthened Medicare Advantag…

and it's really great to see the old peeps are not having any of what that smug POS is trying to peddle.

*sigh*

Rmoney/Lyin' win or lose, they still continue to drag the level of conversation through the muck of emotionalist rhetoric and ridiculousness, and avoid actual discussion on actual options we have in the face of a disintegrating economy.

The big question that nobody is facing: Can positive-interest currency --which is predicated on continual expansion of the economy-- survive when faced by the Age Wave of older populations, Climate change, the pressure of information technology, and the increasing instabilities of globalization?

The first two alone are enough to bankrupt us, wars be damned.

Oh, poor little man, thought that the seniors were too feebleminded to see through his bullshit sales pitch.

That "I just got caught with my dick in the cookie jar" expression is priceless.

Best part is, this time they can't just claim that they were booed because their audience was a bunch of racist black people.

@14 exactly. both systems will end sometime between next year and when the sun explodes.

There's no reason to cut Social Security or Medicare.

If we don't do anything, Social Security will pay 78% of projected benefits starting in the late 2030s. But note that 78% of future benefits is still more, in inflation-adjusted terms, than the benefits people get today. Doing nothing is a valid choice, if we think that those amounts will be enough.

Or, we can raise the payroll tax to make up the difference, either starting now or waiting until then, with the deal for workers who have to pay more being that they will also get more benefits when they retire.

As for Medicare, it controls costs better than private insurance. The problem is the cost that providers charge regardless of what insurance is paying, and that's a problem with the health care system, not Medicare. The best way to fix it is single-payer universal health care--Medicare for All. That's likely where we'll end up when the private insurance market falls apart and the only remaining option is what every other country does. The only way we avoid that is if Obamacare works, so giving that a try in the meantime isn't a bad policy.

All of this intergenerational warfare that Republicans are pushing is bullshit. It's not the old people stealing from us younguns, it's rich douchebags like Paul Ryan and Mitt Romney stealing from the 99% regardless of generation.

How will this be massaged on Bullshit Mountain?

@14, Well, they'll go insolvent eventually unless we do something. Doing something doesn't necessarily mean eliminating it and replacing it with a voucher system that everyone knows will make seniors pay far more for health care, assuming they can get any.

Of course, with one minor change, really just changing 1 sentence in the law, we could make it fully solvent forever. Instead of only having people pay payroll taxes on a portion of their income (up to $100K or so) and instead of only having people pay payroll taxes on certain types of income (i.e. almost none of Romney's income) we could make people pay payroll taxes on all of their income. There you go. Problem solved. Let's get a beer.

What a sweet, sweet Friday present this is...

Yes, I do not want to get complacent, and we must WORK WORK WORK to get the vote out... But I have to confess, I didn't think I'd enjoy the first few weeks of the campaign in the same schadenfreude-y way that I enjoyed the Republican Shitshow Candidate circus of earlier this year...

I bet the SNL writers are in a good mood right about now...

There's something really satisfying about watching that.

@ 14, except that that can be fixed. And not by eliminating the programs.

How many days til the election, again?

@14, unless bold-faced fucking lies are the answer, Ryan and Romney aren't the solution. Ryan has been repeating that same lies about Obama making cuts to Medicare for more than a month. Isn't that engough time @14 for him to learn the truth?

It's nice to see the American public is educated, and Ryan and Romney are getting exactly the response they deserve to their attempt to pull a fast one and steal more money for billionaires from the lower and middle classes.

@26 asks:

> How will this be massaged on Bullshit Mountain?

"Those were just the whiny whines of the 47% who think they're *entitled* to *free* medical care."

"Those were Obama activists who sneaked into the meeting."

Paul Ryan: "Shut up, mom, I'm trying to get elected here."

i'm surprised they didn't beat him to death with their canes and walkers.

One of my favorite news clips ever is when the crook, ex-House member Dan Rostenkowski got chased to his car by a bunch of old folks in walkers. I hope it is on YouTube.

I bet plenty of those seniors can outrun Paul Ryan without walkers or canes.

@14 - In a billion years, the sun's going to blow up. So what?

What's dismaying about talk like yours is that it implies decent health care and a dignified old age are some sort of degenerate luxury. But security of that sort is the whole freaking point of having a society.

@27,

Then it technically won't be a payroll tax, not that I have a problem with that.

@14, @18 is right. Just because the Democrats are spineless crypto-conservatives doesn't make the even-crazier bullshit you guys are selling any better.

@38 Also, again, "entitlements" that are *paid for by Americans* but stolen by Congress are not some hand-out. It is rightfully an entitlement.

Funny how he's still trying to argue against the same budgetary changes he proposed in his budget... Guy's got stones, at least give him that.