By Greg Sargent
So it’s come to this: Now Republicans are accusing
Democrats of wanting to “shred the social safety net.”
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Here is the most amazing example of this yet — a
remarkable new ad from the NRCC that accuses Dem Rep. Jerry Costello of Illinois of supporting a “Democrat plan” that would “decimate” Medicare, “shred the social safety net,” and “leave seniors at risk”:
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We’ll be hearing more of this accusation against Dems, so it’s worth a look. The ad claims (emphasis mine) that Costello “backs a Democrat plan
the media says would decimate Medicare.” But the source for the claim is an
editorial in Investors Business Daily. The ad also says the Democratic plan would “shred the safety net.” But the USA Today
cited as the source makes a less direct claim: “Democrats know that the simple math of health care will eventually shred the social safety net they seek to protect.”
The GOP claim that Dems would destroy Medicare is based on the argument that Dems would do nothing at all on Medicare, and that the trustees for Medicare and Social Security have said the programs will become insolvent sooner than expected. Dems counter that they have already passed a slew of Medicare reforms in the Affordable Care Act (even if you argue that they are insufficient, Dems want them to be the basis for further reforms), and that they’re currently involved in the Biden-led deficit reduction talks, which are expected to deal with Medicare.
More broadly, the fact that Republicans are now attacking Democrats from the left on Medicare amounts to an acknowledgment that Dems have won the debate over Ryancare. Democrats have successfully cast the battle over Medicare as one between those who would save the program and those who would destroy it — or at least transform it so fundamentally that it would cease to exist. The GOP response is to muddy the waters by claiming that both sides agree Medicare needs to be cut and that the only difference is over the details. Indeed, Republicans have now taken to claiming that unlike the Dem plan, Ryancare wouldn’t cut Medicare at all; it would merely reform it. In short: Cutting Medicare is now bad; defending it from cuts is good.
more Sargent is right, USA Today "makes a less direct claim" than the wingnut rag Investors Business Daily, but it's still defending Ryan's scam and implying that Democrats are doing nothing.
From the USA Today editorial:
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Ryan plan or not, America can't prosper if spending on Medicare and health care generally continues to grow like a cancer. The Department of Health and Human Services projects that Medicare's cost to taxpayers will rise from an already sky-high $544 billion this year to $978 billion in 2019. That additional $434 billion equals about two-thirds of the national defense budget, and it is an 80% increase in less than a decade.
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One can see why Democrats would be pining for such a fight. Republicans killed them in the debate over health care reform, deploying every half-truth and fear-mongering trick in the book to score political points. This even included a campaign to scare seniors over some rather modest cuts to Medicare. But sooner or later the destructive, self-serving tit for tat has to stop. Washington's rising tab for health care is its single biggest fiscal problem.
The Ryan plan would try to restrain costs by giving future Medicare beneficiaries (people currently younger than 55) a fixed payment to help them buy private insurance. It has a number of flaws, most notably that it would surrender the natural bargaining power that taxpayers have when they band together to buy health care services, leaving individuals instead to fend for themselves.
For all its problems, however, it would unquestionably do something important by putting Medicare on a diet. In some form or fashion this will be necessary. The question — ducked in the New York race — is how.
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Ah, the clever GOP friendly media: Ryan's plan sucks, but it's the only plan on table to preserve Medicare.
Hogwash!
Krugman:
Vouchercare Is Not MedicareAs for gullibility, Krugman
said it best in April:
Oh, and for all those older Americans who voted GOP last year because those nasty Democrats were going to cut Medicare, I have just one word: suckers!
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