Krugman Comes Through

New York Times columnist Paul Krugman is out with a column that you just knew he would write. Accroding to Krugman, the Democrat charges that the Ryan budget plan would change Medicare as we know it are correct. That means that the Democrats, according to Krugman, are telling the truth and are not demogogues. Well, as Homer Simpson would say, "D'oh!"

Krugman has pulled a classic Obama move. Instead of addressing the question of what should be done with Medicare, Krugman instead picks something that is not disputed and announces it as if he is resolving some great dispute. It is a classic straw man move. The real truth is that Medicare as we know it is going to be changed. It cannot survive in its present form. IT is just too damn expensive. Everyone agrees with that. Let me restate that: everyone with at least half a brain agrees with that.

Ryan has come forth with a plan that changes the program to one that gives vouchers for purchase of private insurance. It operates in the same way that the prescription drug portion of the current Medicare program functions; as a result, seniors are already familiar with how a program of this sort works.

For their part, the Democrats and Obama have offered no plan for the future of Medicare. Obama did give a speech in which he called for saving half a trillion dollars of waste and fraud in the system, but this is the same half a trillion dollars that he claimed would be used to finance Obamacare. That means that it cannot be used again for another purpose. Even the great Obama cannot spend the same dollar twice (although he seems never to give up on trying to do so.) Obama's only other suggestion was to set up a rationing board of 15 unelected supervisors for Medicare. These folks will decide which people get which sort of treatment. In other words, we are back to the original Obama prescription for Medicare, "Sometimes you have to just tell Grandma to take the pain pill."

Krugman and his ilk can wrap themselves in this deception as much as they like. If the American people come to realize that Medicare cannot survive in it current form, it will be the greatest disaster the modern Democratic party has ever faced. But hey, that's just my opinion and, unlike Krugman or Obama,I never won the Nobel Prize.