House Republicans almost embarrass themselves

[Brittain33]

Then all but four of them voted to phase out Medicare.

They voted for a bill which will never become law, not in this Congress or a future one, and which easily gives rise to a true and devastating ad campaign against all of them.

Good luck finessing the argument by saying you were voting to end Medicare for young people, not the seniors who are going to come baying for your blood.

[Brittain33]

Then all but four of them voted to phase out Medicare.

They voted for a bill which will never become law, not in this Congress or a future one, and which easily gives rise to a true and devastating ad campaign against all of them.

Good luck finessing the argument by saying you were voting to end Medicare for young people, not the seniors who are going to come baying for your blood.

241 minus 119 is not 4.

Oops, 2 Republicans voted present.

Where does the 119 come from?

On edit: I think I see the issue here. I'm talking about the vote to pass Mr. Courageous's plan that followed from this event.

You must be logged in to read this quote.

You have no idea how much I want your party to believe that. FWIW, Republican demagoguery over Medicare worked very well in the face of a $14 Trillion debt (not deficit) in 2010.

Opposing the Republican plan has the double benefit of being both popular and the moral, ethical, and fiscally appropriate thing to do. The Ryan plan is a total sham, no plan at all. Obama is right.

[Brittain33]

The Ryan plan is at least a plan, even though you may disagree with the need to reign in reckless spending. 

I agree with the need to curb reckless spending, that's why I supported PPACA and other initiatives in the face of Republican attacks on Democrats for making "$500 billion in Medicare cuts" in 2010.

Ryan doesn't make any cuts in Medicare until 2022, when presumably the political will to cut benefits for seniors that's absent now will somehow materialize and become possible. His bold plan punts for 10 years to avoid doing anything that might hurt the largest generation of seniors in America's history from experiencing any kind of cost controls. Ryan endorses reckless spending for ten years and longer for everyone born before the mid-1950s.

[Brittain33]

By the bye, tactics like this are precisely why it was a good thing for Democrats to keep Nancy Pelosi in charge of our caucus as an effective leader. Despite all the advice from Republicans that her poll numbers were the deciding factor for dumping her in favor of someone else to be demonized.