(If you don’t believe me, just look how plainly it’s stated in the first line of this piece from the Economist’s DIA blog: “PAUL RYAN’S plan to replace Medicare with a system of vouchers for seniors to buy health care on the private market.” Hey, if that’s what you’re for, then this is the program for you. But, as usual, the conservatives are trying to pretty up (and hide) what they’re really after. Josh Marshall sets it out pretty clearly (while also getting on the Dems for falling for the trick)
What the Republicans are proposing are not cuts. Some level of cuts and/or cost containment in Medicare are necessary because medical inflation is growing so quickly. But these aren’t cuts. They’re using a temporary budget crisis and the need to slow the rate of Medicare costs over long run simply to abolish the program. That’s a bait and switch. It’s the medical side equivalent of the “private accounts” bamboozle that President Bush used in 2005 to try to phase out Social Security.
