Speak Up Memo

The Voice of Young Conservatives

THE WEEK OF FEB. 15, 2010

The Outrage
Used and forgotten. In 2008, young people gave Democrats their vote and in 2009
Democrats showed young people the door. Well it’s time to tell the Democrats to stop
and listen up. From health care to student loan reform, Democratic policies have
consistently ignored the needs of our generation.  If we want change, 2010 must be
different.
 
What You Can Do About It
Speak up! As a conservative we must begin to win hearts and minds before we can win
elections. The process starts by educating people about what we truly believe. It starts
with you in the classroom.
 
When your friend tells you they voted for Obama, speak up. When you hear someone
saying that Republicans don’t have the answers, speak up. If a professor lectures you on
the need for government health care, speak up.
 
We’ll arm you with the facts you need to win the argument. It’s your job to carry the
message on to your campus. It’s your job to speak up! By engaging ourselves in the
debate, we’ll spread the message of conservatism – the message of small government,
fiscal responsibility, and individual rights – to one campus, one classroom, and one
student at a time.

Over the next five weeks the CRNC will be looking into the growing entitlements that
left unreformed will doom this country’s fiscal future. We must realize that government is
not the solution to the problem…it IS the problem.

This Week’s Theme: Medicaid

The Promise: "What we have done is kicked this can down the road. We are now at the
end of the road and are not in a position to kick it any further," he said. "We have to signal
seriousness in this by making sure some of the hard decisions are made under my watch,
not someone else's.”

A weekly publication by the College Republican National Committee. Copyright 2010.

The Reality: We’re kicking the can down the road. Obama’s budget does nothing to
reform a Medicare entitlement that will create huge deficits for the foreseeable future.
Rather than seek fundamental reforms the White House budget proposal actually
proposes major increases in Medicare spending.

Fact 1: Medicare Entitlement Spending Threatens to Bankrupt Our Generation

Currently the federal government spends 21.7% of the national budget on two major
health entitlements, Medicare and Medicaid, which represents 15.2% of the nation’s
GDP. If the status quo continues unaltered, these two programs will consume 20% of
GDP by 2016.

When President Lyndon Johnson signed Medicare into law has said,

“No longer will young families see their own incomes, and their own
hopes, eaten away simply because they are carrying out deep moral
obligations to their parents.”

But as Congressman Paul Ryan wrote,

“Absent reform, the program will end up delivering exactly what it was
created to avoid: it will consume the prosperity of today’s younger
generation to finance an unsustainable path of spending”

Read More: http://www.roadmap.republicans.budget.house.gov/plan/

challenges.htm Fact 2: What’s Worse? Insolvency Looms

The Medicare program is simply going bankrupt. Trustees for Social Security and
Medicare, the government’s two biggest benefit programs, have issued a new report
saying that the Medicare will pay out more benefits than it collects and will be insolvent
by 2017. That’s only 7 years from now. The reason (in addition to waste and fraud) has
been Medicare’s inability to control costs. A 2007 report by the Congressional Budget
Office found that total spending per Medicare enrollee grew at 10.6% annually while the
privately insured grew at 7.7%. Moreover the report predicts,

“In the absence of an unprecedented change in the long term trends,

national spending on health care will grow substantially over the coming
decades.”

Democrats so far have proposed nothing resembling fundamental change. Rather than
focus on the spending side of the equation, to reign in bloated government programs.
they have emphasized the tax side of the formula by letting the Bush tax cuts expire.
Eventually we will come to a point where increasing taxes simply is not an option. What
then Mr. President?

A weekly publication by the College Republican National Committee. Copyright 2010.

Fact 3: Our Generation is Resigned to Failure
A recent Zogby poll which asked whether people believe Medicare will be there for you
or your children found that:
Overall 18-­‐29 30-­‐49 50-­‐64 65+
You Your   You Your   You Your   You Your   You Your  
Children Children Children Children Childre
n
Yes 50 18 39 20 33 15 60 17 89 24
No 23 45 31 47 34 55 13 41 2 25
Not   26 37 30 33 32 31 27 43 9 51
Sure

Unsurprisingly, a minority of young adults believe that Medicare will survive long enough
for them to receive benefits.  The minority grows even smaller, a mere 20%, who believe
that their children will ever be able to receive Medicare’s assistance. Young adults have
lost faith in one of government’s key programs and one of the closest analogues we have to
what government health care will look like. How, given the government’s track record,
could we expect different results!

Bottom Line: The federal government is simply not equipped to handle huge entitlement
programs without unacceptable levels of waste, fraud, and inefficiency. Reforms are
necessary. But more important is a fundamental change in the role of government. These
entitlements must return to their initial mission - safety nets meant to catch those who fall,
not anyone who chooses to jump.

A weekly publication by the College Republican National Committee. Copyright 2010.