Paul Ryans plan to phase out Medicare is just what Democrats need

[babylonsister]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2016/11/15/paul-ryans-plan-to-phase-out-medicare-is-just-what-democrats-need/


Paul Ryan’s plan to phase out Medicare is just what Democrats need
By Paul Waldman November 15 at 9:03 AM

snip//

Understanding just how much senior citizens love this big-government program of single-payer health insurance, Ryan and other Republicans have always tried to sell privatization by telling seniors that they shouldn’t worry because the changes they’re proposing won’t take effect for a while. You’ll still have the Medicare program you love, they say. It’s those who come after you who will be without it. For whatever combination of reasons this argument has never been persuasive; perhaps seniors just don’t trust it, or perhaps they want to make sure their children and grandchildren enjoy the same health security they do. But whenever Republicans have considered making a privatization push, they’ve quickly changed their minds as they contemplated the almost inevitable backlash.

But now they may have the boldness to give it another shot. For Ryan and other Republicans, phasing out Medicare is a high-risk, high-reward game. Getting rid of it is a beautiful dream, because Medicare is a living rebuke to everything Republicans argue about government programs: It’s a gigantic entitlement that has solved a significant societal problem, works efficiently, and is spectacularly popular. If they could privatize it and then begin to shrink it down little by little, they could then do the same to Medicaid, to CHIP, to anything. As Ryan says on his website, “Medicare is the cornerstone on which all other government health care programs rest.”

Ryan knows the political dangers he faces in trying to phase out Medicare, but he also knows that a chance like the one he has now doesn’t come along very often. So he seems determined to move forward, and that gives Democrats a tremendous opportunity.

An effort to phase out Medicare will unite liberals and give them one specific thing to direct their energies toward. It’ll make the consequences of unified Republican rule vivid and concrete. It will also enable them to apply pressure to every member of Congress in a way that the parade of Trump administration horrors may not. A Republican congressman from Alabama doesn’t care if a few of his constituents are appalled that President Trump will have a white nationalist as his senior adviser. But a threat to their Medicare? Hoo boy. Now that’s trouble.

So as much as the 2016 presidential campaign showed the danger of making predictions in politics, I feel comfortable making this one: Ryan’s effort will fail. If he actually tries to move ahead with a privatization plan, there will be a revolt. Even Republican members of Congress who agree with Ryan’s anti-government goals and who would like to see Medicare die will be terrified of their angry constituents and will quickly abandon him. At some point, President Trump — who has no genuine beliefs about any of this and therefore no ideological commitment to privatizing Medicare — will pull the plug.

And Democrats, having beaten back this effort one more time, might begin to see a glimmer of hope. They’re going to lose a lot in the next four years, perhaps more than they can truly understand at this stage. But they won’t lose everything.

[Liberal In Texas]

1. Hey Trump voters...bet you didn't see this coming.

You should have.

And Social Security will be next.

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

5. I'd bet the V.A. will be on the chopping block.

Trump likes veterans who DON'T need medical care. You know, the STRONG ones.

[uponit7771]

2. This will last one news cycle... Ryan will go slinking away like a hurt dog ... this is a no go from

... the start.

Dems can rally The Resistance around this

[CurtEastPoint]

3. And Soc Sec also. I saw two old geezers with T The President on their goddamn handicap car today

Eh. They could lose theirs and I wouldn't sweat it. They voted for that shit.

[MurrayDelph]

8. I haven't done it yet,

but I've been tempted if I see an elderly person with a Trump sticker to ask them what they're planning on doing once the Republicans destroy Medicare, especially since they are against Obama care.

[geek tragedy]

4. the Republican overreach began within 48 hours of the election.

time for guerrilla warfare, in all 240 or so House district townhalls were the Rep is a GOPer.

[LonePirate]

6. Every old white "Hands off my Medicare" ACA protestor better protest these Medicare changes

Of course we won't see hide nor hair of them; but hopefully the American people and a small number of the less insane Republicans in the Senate will help us defeat these changes.

[Drahthaardogs]

7. For a guy who lived on the government teat

He sure does not anyone else having a turn

[MurrayDelph]

9. That's the typical definition of a libertarian/Randian

I got mine, screw you.