"Now It's On" - Grandaddy
- Well the Wisconsin Supreme Court, on the strength of the one vote margin they maintained followng the recent election, upheld Scott Walker's union busting travesty. So now it's on kids. This summer's recall elections for state senators in America's Dairyland loom as part of a life or death struggle for public employees unions in Wisconsin. Any of you who can spare a few bucks should think about donating to Act Blue to support the recall efforts.
- When the fact checkers lie - I find it incredibly frustrating when the individuals designated by major media outlets to be fact checkers turn out themselves to be partisan apologists and distorters of truth. Not shockingly, Glen Kessler, the man to whom the Washington Post turns to for such determinations does not like Democrats claiming that the Ryan Plan is the end of Medicare. He gives such claims "four Pinocchios" meaning that they are big and blatant lies. Which, when you think about it, is a bit astonishing. Medicare is a single payer system that guarantees the payment of a certain percentage of health claims incurred by those over 65 or disabled and covers everyone eligible regardless of income. The Ryan Plan, on the other hand, ends the government paying health claims for those who would otherwise have been eligible for Medicare in the future, requires future senior citizens to go out and purchase private insurance, offers premium support to some of those future senior citizens, but ties that premium support not to medical inflation but rather to general increases in CPI. In other words, the Ryan Plan may be called Medicare, but is utterly unrecognizable when compared to Medicare as it exists today. The tell with Kessler is that he embraces the use of the term "Mediscare" to describe Democratic attacks on the Ryan plan. And this reflects more on the nature of Mr. Kessler's ideological view and his employer's policy preferences rather than the veracity of the Democratic claims, which, it seems to me, are unassailable.
Naturally, I had to send Mr. Kessler one of my always temperate emails -- I just can't help myself:
Dear Mr. Kessler:
So you are doubling down and giving four Pinocchios to claims that -- characterized by you as "Mediscare" tactics -- the Ryan Plan ends Medicare. How in God's name can you make this preposterous claim? Medicare is a single payer system that guarantees senior citizens payment of their health care claims. The Ryan plan requires future seniors to go out in the private market and obtain personal health insurance with ever diminishing premium support -- on an income-based basis. You can call this whatever the f*ck you want, but it is not Medicare and it is not even close to being Medicare.
