Nathan Newman explains why the Republicans are so eager to raise Medicare costs for upper middle class elderly folk:
Their goal is have more and more of the wealthy, and then the middle class, paying the full freight, so eventually they’ll vote to kill all universal benefits— everyone will just get the health care they can pay for, with marginal Medicaid-style welfare aid for the very poor.
And with massive tax cuts for the wealthy starving the federal government of funds, the money available for the poor elderly will just continue to shrink.
Sound too cynical? I’ve linked to this talk before by Bob Greenstein of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities before, but it’s worth reading thoroughly to understand how the whole GOP tax cut/block grant/means testing combo of proposals is part of a long term assault on social services. I really recommend you read it.