Finance gets Bailed Out: Bye Bye Social Security,Medicaid, and Medicare

  The conservatives have been wanting to do away with those programs, especially since Reagan was in office. As an anti-government group, the conservatives are almost where they want to be. Are you and I on our way to a corporate dictatorship? That is what we will have if the conservatives, along with some sorry Democrats, manage to bankrupt the government.

Original Article

by TheOrchid  Sun Sep 21, 2008

Paulson's plan is as bad we've been saying it is--a power grab with no upside for the taxpayer and no hint of regulatory reform to solve the underlying market problems.

But there's more, and I haven't seen this addressed yet.

If Paulson's plan is actually implemented in anything like it's current form, and $700 billion--or more--vanishes into the black hole that is now our financial "services" industry, the incoming President in 2009 will be confronted with a stark choice:  either continue to uphold the financial markets, or uphold the core of liberal government:  Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.

If the bailout commences, economists will start to come out of the woodwork to explain why the country must first avoid bankruptcy, and to avoid bankruptcy, these social programs must go.  Foreign investors, looking at the state of the United States' finances, will be unwilling to loan the U.S. any money to shore these programs up while simultaneously protecting financial markets.  Congress will take a look at the numbers, as well, and either (1) decide to slash these programs; or (2) do nothing, allowing the country to slide into bankruptcy, in which case the programs die anyway.

In any event, if the bailout goes forward, Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid go the way of the dinosaur.

This is really what we're fighting for now.

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