While the national media foolishly and sadly follow Sarah Palin around the country, serious Tea Party people—Palin is not seriously thinking about running for president—are focusing on the battle ahead.
Dick Armey, former House Majority Leader and now Pooh-Bah of Freedom Works, has graciously supplied freshman House Republicans with a few simple points to make about the party’s plan to hold the debt ceiling hostage in exchange for some ideological candy and about the party’s plot to murder Medicare in its sleep.
Debt Ceiling: “Key point: the world does not end if the debt ceiling is not raised. Treasury Secretary Geitner [sic] is not likely to default on our loans. Spending cuts will become a priority before default.”
Translation: We don’t have to worry about any fallout from our irresponsible behavior. Geithner will either have to do our bidding or we will blame him for any trouble! It’s that simple fellow Republicans!
Medicare Caper: “Get out there and talk to people. Hold town halls at senior centers and other areas where the population is especially concerned about their benefits being cut. Take the lessons of ’94 and ’95 and get out there and explain to people that their immediate benefits will not be affected.”
Translation: Go tell the old folks who love their Medicare, and who vote in droves, that they have nothing to fear. We’re not going to murder their Medicare, only their children’s and grandchildren’s Medicare. What old-timer wouldn’t buy into that plan? No harm, no foul. The geezers get to keep (most) of their current bennies, while the younger folks will both pay for those bennies and cough up more scrilla for cost increases in their own health care coverage resulting from our stingy “new” plan. Let’s hope the voters don’t figure out the unfairness of that part of our electoral scheme.
The Myth Of Doing Nothing: “We need to dispel the myth that if we leave Medicare alone it will stay the same. It won’t…Democrats do not have a plan of their own. Hold up a blank piece of paper as a powerful image of their do-nothing approach. Stick to your message.”
Translation: As long as Democrats are just trying to keep us from killing Medicare, we can win the message battle by simply saying our plan to kill it is the only one out there.
The Erstwhile Conservative: A Blog of Repentance 
Jim Wheeler
/ May 31, 2011The Democrats’ plan is the ACA. It’s a good one except for the fact that America can’t afford it.
I know. Let’s move the deck chairs two inches further from the gunwales. OMG.
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Jim Wheeler
/ May 31, 2011PS, Please allow me to clarify what I mean by, “can’t afford it (the ACA)”. We could of course afford it now. Simply rolling back the historic Bush II tax cuts would permit that, I believe. No, what I meant is that the rate of increase in medical costs is unsustainable and needs to be fixed now, not in the future. The longer we wait to deal with the root causes, the harder it will be in the future to fix it. Every credible expert I read and hear says the ACA does many wonderful things, but it does not fix the cost problem. I have a feeling, if Ike were here today he would be warning about the Medical Industrial Complex.
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sekanblogger
/ May 31, 2011Heath care-I still want no less than a single-payer system in place.
Anything less will always be a win for big pharma and insurance giants.
Whatever we’ve been doing for decades has caused such a drastic price increase compared to all other goods and services. What is the root cause of this rampant inflation in health care cost? How could it be government?
In any case, the status quo, even if “tweaked”, is untenable by an ever increasingly impoverished hourly worker!
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R. Duane Graham
/ June 1, 2011Sekan,
There are many answers to your question, I suppose. Rarely does something like the exponential rise in health care costs have just one answer. Jim has his thoughtful opinion, others have theirs. If you do a little research, you find that the answer often depends on your political philosophy (“government” is the culprit or “greedy drug companies”). Imagine that. It is difficult to figure out just what is happening, but it does no good, in my opinion, to argue for a drastic and radical reorientation of our system, whether towards a single-payer (which I favor, too) or back to the days of the Waltons, when the doc was willing to come over and treat you for a couple of chickens and supper.
We have to work within the system we have; it will evolve, sometimes in quick bursts, sometimes in gradual changes, into a system that you and I will probably accept. That is, if the Republicans don’t win this current fight and the fight to come next year. If they do, all bets are off.
Duane
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Jim Wheeler
/ June 1, 2011sekanblogger,
You said, “What is the cause of this rampant inflation in health care cost?”
IMO, one answer is here:
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ansonburlingame
/ June 1, 2011To all,
First Duane, you said “….hold the debt ceiling hostage in exchange for some ideological candy”
That is so wrong in my view. I and fellow conservatives believe that the very soul of our country is at stake in how we approach control of our out of control debt and deficit. The debt ceiling argument and debate is the tip of that iceberg.
I have frequently challenged, in these blogs, that a failure to raise the debt ceiling will cause the U.S. to default on its debt obligations. Such a default on debt would simply be political choice that paying for our own domestic and international needs is more important than our debt payment obligations.
It would be like a man defaulting on his mortgage but continuing to make payments on his second car or living in a home that he could not afford in the first place.
Europe has tried the single payer health care system. Is it working to your satisfaction and can Europe even hope to sustain it now? Britain does not think so it seems. And why do Canadians flock across the border for our health care?
COST, COST, COST is the answer to providing adequate health care and neighter political party has made serious proposals how to limit the cost, both today and in future “medical cost inflation”.
Democrats are politidcally trying to sustain the unsustainable and Republicans are trying to cut “government” cost by limiting benefits. But no one is yet trying to control or modify the costs as billed by the entire medical profession.
Jim and I have “poked around” those costs, how “bad” they are, but neither of us knows for sure how to control them in the future. And I don’t believe you know how to do that either. But if we figure it out, then our health care situation will be far better for all Americans, in my view.
But I will almost assure you that health care debate will be dominant in the 2012 campaign and Democrats will win the debate simply because voters will want their benefits NOW with no foresight of what the consequences will be in the future.
And guess what? I believe our Founders would wonder today why the federal government was embroiled in that debate today. “They” I think would say, leave it to the states to decide.
Anson
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