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Our neighbors at Think Progress published a beautiful pie chart this afternoon, breaking down the sources of Medicare savings in President Obama’s recently announced deficit reduction package. While the plan spreads the pain among all groups, it finds its greatest savings in drug rebates and modernizing provider payments to achieve greater efficiency. It can be tricky though to figure out exactly where all of the savings are coming from and what impact they may have on Medicare. That’s where TNR’s Jonathan Cohn steps in and dissects the chart in a blog post today, here. The plan does call for wealthier seniors to pay higher premiums for Part B, which is the portion of Medicare that covers physician services. That means that 25 percent of all Medicare beneficiaries would eventually be paying higher premiums than the rest. That 25 percent would include some seniors who are more middle class than wealthy. The new Obama plan would also take $3.5 billion away from the Prevention and Public Health Care Fund, which will fund everything from campaigns to promote vaccination to modernization of public health departments. Expect this breakdown to be talked about a lot more frequently in the coming days, as the details of President Obama’s deficit reduction package continue to roll out. Courtesy of Think Progress
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Our neighbors at Think Progress published a beautiful pie chart this afternoon, breaking down the sources of Medicare savings in President Obama’s recently announced deficit reduction package.

While the plan spreads the pain among all groups, it finds its greatest savings in drug rebates and modernizing provider payments to achieve greater efficiency.

It can be tricky though to figure out exactly where all of the savings are coming from and what impact they may have on Medicare. That’s where TNR’s Jonathan Cohn steps in and dissects the chart in a blog post today, here.

The plan does call for wealthier seniors to pay higher premiums for Part B, which is the portion of Medicare that covers physician services. That means that 25 percent of all Medicare beneficiaries would eventually be paying higher premiums than the rest. That 25 percent would include some seniors who are more middle class than wealthy.

The new Obama plan would also take $3.5 billion away from the Prevention and Public Health Care Fund, which will fund everything from campaigns to promote vaccination to modernization of public health departments.

Expect this breakdown to be talked about a lot more frequently in the coming days, as the details of President Obama’s deficit reduction package continue to roll out.

Courtesy of Think Progress

A new poll by Bloomberg shows four out of every ten people in the U.S. are doubtful of elected officials’ ability to get them out of our nation’s current economic slump, and most unhappy Americans blame Republicans for problems in Washington. Full poll results are here. Registered Republican Nicole Olin, 31, a bank supervisor: “I do put the majority of blame on the Republicans, because they seem to be the least willing to give up anything”. While neither party seems to be basking in high approval ratings, find out why TNR’s Timothy Noah thinks Obama is still unbeatable. Courtesy of Bloomberg
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A new poll by Bloomberg shows four out of every ten people in the U.S. are doubtful of elected officials’ ability to get them out of our nation’s current economic slump, and most unhappy Americans blame Republicans for problems in Washington. Full poll results are here.

Registered Republican Nicole Olin, 31, a bank supervisor:

“I do put the majority of blame on the Republicans, because they seem to be the least willing to give up anything”.

While neither party seems to be basking in high approval ratings, find out why TNR’s Timothy Noah thinks Obama is still unbeatable.

Courtesy of Bloomberg

A few weeks ago, Warren Buffet caught some flack from conservatives for an OpEd in the New York Times in which he argued that the rich are undertaxed.   The Wall Street Journal editorial page: “If he’s worried about being undertaxed, we’d suggest he simply write a big check to Uncle Sam and go back to his day job of picking investments”. Jonathan Chait’s blog suggests that such criticism is misguided- wealthy people who favor higher taxes on the rich don’t just believe they should pay more taxes. They believe the government needs more revenue. So are the recent rumors true? Will one of the wealthiest figures in modern America step down as the Berkshire CEO to focus full time on philanthropy? Courtesy of mint.com
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A few weeks ago, Warren Buffet caught some flack from conservatives for an OpEd in the New York Times in which he argued that the rich are undertaxed.  

The Wall Street Journal editorial page:

“If he’s worried about being undertaxed, we’d suggest he simply write a big check to Uncle Sam and go back to his day job of picking investments”.

Jonathan Chait’s blog suggests that such criticism is misguided- wealthy people who favor higher taxes on the rich don’t just believe they should pay more taxes. They believe the government needs more revenue.

So are the recent rumors true? Will one of the wealthiest figures in modern America step down as the Berkshire CEO to focus full time on philanthropy?

Courtesy of mint.com