Imaginary Medicare "Cuts"

squashed:

sds quotes James Taranto:

People on both ideological sides may be vexed by Ryan’s defense of Medicare. But those on the right should take comfort that it shows the limits of the entitlement state. In the political world the left dreams of, ObamaCare would have raised taxes on everyone with the assent of conservative deficit hawks. Instead, the Republican Party re-embraced small-government conservatism, and the Democrats had to cannibalize a popular existing entitlement to pay for an unpopular new one. It’s hard to see how this ends well for the left, whether or not it ends this November.

I’m a bit perplexed by intelligent people echoing some really flimsy arguments. The “Medicare cut” in the Affordable Care Act was essentially a decrease in certain over-payments to providers and insurers. In other words, some of the high cost payments that are driving increases in healthcare spending are reduced. This is generally the sort of waste reduction Republicans like. No benefits are cut. This isn’t the sort of thing that would be controversial …

… if the Republicans hadn’t chosen a VP nominee who was clearly on the record as wanting the kind of radical changes to Medicare that would drastically shift costs to seniors. (Yes, I know, it wouldn’t do it for the current seniors because they’re all the greatest generation that votes all the time. But it would functionally eliminate Medicare as we know it for the rest of us. We’d essentially get a voucher to cover part of the cost of buying insurance and a “Good luck, grandpa.”)

So now the Republicans are suddenly in favor of wasteful spending in Medicare because it helps them try to draw a false equivalency between Obama’s waste elimination and Ryan’s proposed gutting. We all know that’s what’s going on, right? Even if you don’t like Obama, you’ve got to know that this whole Medicare thing is disingenuous. Why repeat it. If you like Ryan’s Medicare plan—and a lot of people do—why not defend it rather than peddling this sort of distraction? Are we so angry with the Obama administration that we want to trick old people to get their votes?

Uncool.