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In an astonishing observation, Rep. Paul Ryan recently declared: “Washington has not been honest with you.”
Gosh, Paul, that possibility never occurred to us! What makes Ryan’s observation astonishing is the fact that he is Washington – a seven-term Republican insider, House budget chairman, and author of the GOP’s ideologically-contrived, budget-whacking plan that kills America’s enormously popular Medicare program.
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But Ryan didn’t mean to point his finger at himself. No, no – he meant those dastardly Democrats who’ve dared to tell the public about his proposal to replace Medicare with a privatized voucher scheme. Understandably, the public is now angry at Ryan and his Republican cohorts. Hence, he is scurrying around in a shamefully-dishonest PR campaign to accuse the Democrats of – what else? – dishonesty. The Ryan Plan, he asserts, would give seniors “the same kind of [health insurance] system members of Congress enjoy today.”
Oh, Paul, pants on fire! We taxpayers cover 75 percent of the payments for the plan that you enjoy, but you would saddle older folks with vouchers that’d cover only a third of their insurance costs, and that share would shrink with each passing year.
Apparently, feeling that telling the truth is unfair in today’s politics, Republicans are angry at Democrats for talking about Ryan’s Medicare gut job. Sen. John Cornyn, the Texas Republican whose sweeping white pompadour covers a totally empty head, recently ranted in feigned outrage that Democrats are trying to “scare the daylights” out of seniors. “I think that’s irresponsible,” he bellowed, oblivious to his own absurd scare tactics of only two years ago, when he assailed “Obamacare,” direly warning that Obama was turning Medicare into “a health care gulag.”
They can run, but on this one, they can’t hide.
“Rep. Ryan’s Dubious Sales Pitch,” The New York Times, May 30, 2011.
“When Democrats do the happy dance,” Austin American Statesman, May 29, 2011.
“Medicare and Mediscares,” The New York Time, May 26, 2011