Budget Plans

I'm tyring to formulate different ways to think about the Ryan budget plan.  As I've said, I think it's silly to call it "courageous", but at the same time it is a stark example of what Republicans are trying to do.  What the plan should be is suicidal for conservatives, as it lays bare what they actually want to do.  The best thing to say about it is that they're no longer focused on lying about Democratic plans, but rather are telling Americans straight out what they stand for: the end of the Welfare State.

Not just "don't grow it any more".  Not "cut it back to 1970s levels".  They want to undo Lyndon Johnson's Great Society program of the 1960s, which created Medicare and Medicaid.  Basically the Right has decided that the answer to the problem of rising health care costs is to get government out of it even for the elderly and leave Seniors on their own to pay for insurance.  Of course, that's the way it was before 1965 so I guess it makes some sense.  I wasn't alive back then, but my understanding is that seniors had a pretty tough time with medical bills- and that was before many years of medical inflation outpacing GDP growth.

So this should be great for Democrats.  Polls show that Medicare is very popular.  Republicans used fear of Obamacare destroying Medicare to help them win the House in 2010, but now they've put out a plan that actually says it will destroy Medicare.  Even the Democratic party ought to be able to hit this batting practice fastball in 2012.

I'm in my 40s.  Under the Ryan plan, when I hit 65 (or a little later- they might push back the age too), I'll get a voucher to purchase health insurance, and the voucher won't be enough so I'll have to pay a lot out of pocket to round out my insurance.  That doesn't sound too reassuring.  And where are the savings going?  Tax cuts for the wealthy.  It's the Scrooge McDuck plan.

In many recent cases I've marveled at how Americans can be continuously fooled by Republican lies.  But this time they're saying what they want, unvarnished.  They're not even trying to fool people.  I think it's a Republican tactical error.  Well, hoping anyway....