Over at The Progressive Pulse Chris is talking about Medicare and how Medicare is playing a role in the Health Care debate.
One of the Republican talking points about the latest health care reform proposal is that it slashes Medicare benefits. It’s not true of course, but that doesn’t matter when you are trying to scare seniors.
I find the irony rich. The whole point of Chris’ post is how hard it is to keep up with the right and how hard it is to separate truth from fiction. I think Chris is both right and wrong. I think he is right when he correctly points out a flaw in the Right’s tactics:
…Tea Party activists shouting “keep government’s hands off my Medicare,”…
However, he is completely wrong when he claims no shenanigans surrounding Medicare.
One of the tricks employed by the Democrats during this whole debate was that one which brought the Heal Care bill in under $1 trillion. See, the Dems wrote the bill to include reduced Medicare spending. A reduction such that the entirely of the bill would come in less than the politically unattractive trillion dollar mark. The way around this? They then would submit a SEPARATE bill that would delay such spending for 10 years.
So take your pick Chris. Either the bill is a pig well over what the Dems are advertising or Medicare spending will be slashed.