I'll be 65 in May.  Last week I received two come-ons from Medicare providers seeking to enroll me and serve as a link to my own money, money held in trust in the Medicare system.  For the service of providing me with some of my own money, these companies and individuals will take a nice cut off the top.  

The amount of waste and fraud in our Medicare system has been estimated at 30%.  That is, 30% of the money, our money, in that system is spent without providing any value to the citizen.  Thirty percent is skimmed off as pure profits by someone; in effect, 30% is simply stolen by those with an inside link.  

President Obama has proposed cutting waste and fraud in Medicare by $700,000,000,000.00; that's $700 Billion.  The owners of the funds in Medicare, and the end users of those funds, would not take a hit or suffer or get less money from President Obama's program.  The Medicare providers would be denied all those $Billions of pure profit, pure waste, and pure fraud, however.  To this proposal Republicans reacted strongly.  

Republicans defend the Medicare providers.  They do not want our own government to attack the vast waste and fraud in this system.  What they do want, what they insist upon, is paying the owner of those funds - us-  less, of denying them healthcare when we're sick.  This is their focus, this is their platform, folks: take from the citizen, the sick citizen in need of healthcare, and give to the providers, the crooked and fraudulent providers.  

I would much prefer that my own money not be spent to make wasteful and fraudulent Medicare providers even more profitable.  I'd much prefer having my own money spent on me, especially when I'm sick and vulnerable.  I'm not a profit center for the Republicans and their partners in waste and fraud.  Are you?