For those of you following the Republican Medicare/Voucher debate, there's not much for me to do but link to today's column in The New York Times by Paul Krugman.
Some highlights:
Republicans are indeed seeking to dismantle Medicare as we know it, replacing it with a much worse program.
I’ll just quote the blogger Duncan Black, who summarizes this as saying that “when we replace the Marines with a pizza, we’ll call the pizza the Marines.”
Based on the [Congressional] budget office estimates, the typical senior would end up paying around $6,000 more out of pocket in the plan’s first year of operation.
Medicare as we know it is unsustainable? Nonsense. With...[reasonable] changes it should be entirely possible to maintain a system that provides all older Americans with guaranteed essential health care.
So in voting for the House budget plan, Republicans voted to end Medicare. Saying that isn’t demagoguery, it’s just pointing out the truth.
What to me is completely befuddling is why Republicans want to drop such a drastic and destructive bomb on the backs of seniors instead of offering suggestions to improve Medicare and make is sustainable? They're not stupid...well, most of them aren't stupid...or there are some who are smart. I don't think they're evil...well, Michele Bachman has this really mean look in her eyes, and Eric Cantor reminds me of a dangerous snake lying in wait to paralyze you with a bite on the foot and then eat you slowly as you're still alive and it's hard to take John Boehner seriously when he's orange and Ron Paul is a sincere libertarian which is the wrong philosophy for a country of greedy, me-firsters...but I digress.
So if the GOP isn't evil or stupid, what's going on? Ignorant? Uninformed? Anti-seniors? Anti-poor people? How can Paul Ryan propose this kind of moronic plan with a straight face?
That's a lot of questions. But I have to tell you, the Republicans are just confusing the hell out of me.
However, it remains...
In Jameson Veritas
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