John Nichols: Tommy just says it: 'Do away with Medicare, Medicaid'

[hue]

http://host.madison.com/ct/news/opinion/column/john_nichols/john-nichols-tommy-just-says-it-do-away-with-medicare/article_139395f6-070f-11e2-a886-0019bb2963f4.html

Paul Ryan admits that he’s an “end Medicare as we know it” candidate.
But, somehow, we are not supposed to think that he would actually end the popular and successful health care program for the elderly, as well as related Medicaid programs for the poor and people with disabilities.

The “as we know it” part provides a sort of cover, as least in the eyes of a media that is more inclined toward stenography than journalism.

Never mind that Ryan, a fanatical reader of government-can-do-no-good fanatic Ayn Rand, goes positively wide-eyed when he starts talking about how desperately he wants to downsize government -- and shift control of health care and retirement programs to the insurance and Wall Street interests that so generously fund his campaigns. We’re not supposed to talk about the long-term crony-capitalist scheme of certain Republicans to do away with government programs that work so that private-sector profiteers can come in and create programs that don’t work -- except for private-sector profiteers...

Declaring that he wants to “change Medicare and Medicaid like I did welfare,” Thompson asked a May gathering of the Lake Country Area Defenders of Liberty in Oconomowoc: “Who better to and who better than me, who’s already finished one of the entitlement programs, to come up with programs to do away with Medicaid and Medicare?”

[hrmjustin]

1. This is why he is behind in the polls. n/t

[Scuba]

2. There's a cure for Tommy...

http://www.tammybaldwin.com/splash/