Paying for Katrina

September 9, 2005 2:42 PM

Paying for Katrina: Republican congressman Zach Wamp of Tennessee suggested today that the costs associated with Katrina were 'good reason to at least delay' expanding the Medicare prescription drug benefit. Should the elderly and poor be expected to bear this burden?
posted by wadefranklin (24 comments total)

Sell the ranch.
posted by Rothko at 2:44 PM on September 9, 2005

The elderly poor shouldn't bear this burden. The poor shouldn't bear this burden. The elderly? Eh.
posted by clearlynuts at 2:46 PM on September 9, 2005

His name is Zach Wamp!
posted by freebird at 2:47 PM on September 9, 2005

Well, it's either the poor and elderly, or people in the highest tax bracket. And you know who's going to win there.
posted by RobbieFal at 2:52 PM on September 9, 2005

Come on, people! Tax breaks for the wealthy will create more job opportunites for the elderly.
posted by billysumday at 2:54 PM on September 9, 2005

You have to admit, it's a creative way to punish the AARP for sticking their noses in the social security debate.
posted by Armitage Shanks at 2:59 PM on September 9, 2005

The beneficiaries of the medicare drug benefit weren't the AARP and the oldies, who only grudgingly gave support, it was the pharma companies. So this makes me think that the Colossus astride Washington, Zach Wamp, ol "Zach the Wampus", the Wamp-rat, is merely farting around. I might be missing something though...
posted by fleacircus at 3:12 PM on September 9, 2005

Yes, better to screw over nearly-helpless senior American citizens than to, i dunno, maybe not spend a billion dollars a day on an ill-conceived war and occupation?

BTW, you're talking about maybe killing my mom here, as she's one of those poor senior citizens who needs prescription drugs to not die quickly.
posted by zoogleplex at 3:48 PM on September 9, 2005

People should have considered this possibility before they got old and/or poor. If people don't take responsibility for their choices, what kind of society can we possibly have?
posted by LittleMissCranky at 4:15 PM on September 9, 2005

Didn't I read something about Eskimos sending their elderly and dying out to float off on ice floes? And don't we have an ice floe surplus now that our polar ice caps and other large frozen areas are breaking up due to global wa....er, climate change?

I sense a synergy here...
posted by stenseng at 4:22 PM on September 9, 2005

Zach Wamp doesn't care about old people.
posted by sdrawkcab at 4:35 PM on September 9, 2005

I'm curious. If you lost everything in a catastrophe like Katrina that has been official labeled a disaster by the Federal Gubmint do you have pay income tax for that year? How those people gonna do that? Or what if you have to default on a mortgage on a house that is destroyed? Won't all their cash be completely wiped? Whatta these guys gonna do?
posted by tkchrist at 6:06 PM on September 9, 2005

be let eat cake?
posted by stenseng at 8:09 PM on September 9, 2005

translation - "well, it was noticable when we neglected one group of poor people, so let's find another group of poor people to neglect who won't be so obvious ..."
posted by pyramid termite at 8:34 PM on September 9, 2005

Honestly, I like to think we can put a good light on this whole thing, look at it as sort of an....unintentional Venice!
posted by stenseng at 8:53 PM on September 9, 2005

oh just wait til the next election!
posted by msthinker at 9:23 PM on September 9, 2005

A good reason to delay expanding Medicare?

Why not something reasonable, like delaying getting rid of the estate tax? Oh yeah, we wouldn't want people to pay for this who can actually afford it...
posted by grae at 10:12 PM on September 9, 2005

The outpouring of generosity by the American people to the hurricane victims has been extraordinary-- but other charities are going to suffer. Already I've been reading pleas not to "forget" The American Heart Association or The Foundation for The Blind.
posted by Secret Life of Gravy at 10:27 PM on September 9, 2005

translation - "well, it was noticable when we neglected one group of poor people, so let's find another group of poor people to neglect who won't be so obvious ..."

Nice theory, except the elderly also happen to be the richest segment of the American population, as they've had longer to accumulate wealth.

Medicare is a completely pointless scheme, and it would be far more sensible to drop it entirely for the sake of a plan which targets poor people (and only poor people) of all ages: well-off Florida retirees who spend their time playing croquet already get to collect more in Social Security income than they ever put into it, and they don't need even more largesse at the expense of those who still have to work for a living.
posted by Goedel at 6:21 AM on September 10, 2005

"...the poorest 20 percent of Americans receive nearly all of their retirement income from Social Security, while the wealthiest fifth of Americans receive less than 20 percent of their retirement income from the system." Michael Tanner, Director, Cato Institute Project on Social Security Choice, Testimony before the Committee on Ways and Means, Subcommittee on Social Security -- May 17, 2005
posted by Carol Anne at 7:05 AM on September 10, 2005

"...the poorest 20 percent of Americans receive nearly all of their retirement income from Social Security, while the wealthiest fifth of Americans receive less than 20 percent of their retirement income from the system."

Yeah, when the denominator gets bigger, the fraction gets smaller. Arithmetic is a wonderful thing.
posted by anapestic at 7:23 AM on September 10, 2005

The first place President Bush and Congress should look to fund hurricane relief is this year's pork-laden highway bill.
posted by homunculus at 12:36 PM on September 10, 2005

Zach Wamp, criminal, cokehead, incompetent, Bush loyalist, Republican, stupid, insensitive ... but I repeat myself.
posted by nofundy at 3:39 PM on September 11, 2005

Everyone's missing the point here. It's not the elderly and poor who need to shoulder this burden - it's the sick elderly and poor.

I bet that makes some people take a good long second look before they decide to get sick!
posted by ikkyu2 at 7:43 AM on September 12, 2005