The Self-Righteous Paul Ryan

U.S. Representative Paul Ryan (R-WI), chairman of the House Budget Committee, started the Republican effort to "reform" (i.e., end) Medicare anew.  The proposed Republican budget for 2013, which Ryan introduced yesterday, would effectively replace Medicare and replace it vouchers for senior citizens, leaving them to pick up any additional health care costs the voucher does not cover.  Meanwhile, it would sharply lower taxes for the wealthy effectively staving the government of badly needed revenue and necessitating such cuts.  The plan would also repeal the heath care law to make health care even more expensive.

Ryan calls his budget morally responsible because it would restore fiscal discipline to the government and avoid a European-style financial crisis (Republicans are good at avoiding anything European, like respect for intelligence), but I don't see how moral it is to make the elderly pay more for health care - which they obviously need more than younger people - while enriching the already enriched.  Ryan's plan is going nowhere, though, because the Democratic Senate is not going to touch it with a ten-foot pole.

It's hard to imagine the GOP getting away with this, especially with the presidential and congressional elections coming up, but inconceivably (unless you've heard of the word gerrymandering), the Republicans could keep the House after November and just as inconceivably (until you've seen the staggered numbers favoring the Republicans) win back the Senate.  And while the Democrats are pretty good at being against domestic budget cuts, they don't offer much to be in favor of . . . and we have a Democratic President, at according to one source, is still open to cuts in both Medicare and Social Security.

Speaking of being for something, I'm increasingly in favor of staying home on November 6.