The Ryan Budget currently under debate in DC and around the country plans to replace Medicare with something else.
That much should be clear to all.
Sadly, it is not. In fact, much of the debate coming from one side amounts to a denial of that fact, which is done by creating the illusion that Medicare will continue to exist under the Ryan Budget.
Their opponents, meanwhile, appear to be falling for the illusion. They say that the Ryan Plan “ends Medicare as we know it” for example, which implies that some sort of Medicare will still be in existence (i.e., Medicare as we have yet to know it). That is a false implication, yet it persists.
Abraham Lincoln loved to open his speeches with a joke. One of his favorites involved audience participation. He would say, “If we call a tail a leg, then how many legs does a dog have?” The audience would shout “five”. Then Lincoln would correct them: “No, it only has four, because calling a tail a leg does not make it a leg.” From there he went on to indict the DC bureaucracy as too dense to understand this simple fact.
The Ryan Gang is betting that the voters are too dense to understand it too. They are replacing Medicare with something else, and calling it Medicare. But it is not Medicare simply because they call it that.
In case anyone doubts my position, let me enter the following argument for my view:
Medicare is a defined benefit plan. Anything that is not a defined benefit plan is not Medicare.
The Ryan Plan is a defined contribution plan, not a defined benefit plan. Therefore, it is not Medicare.
Those who oppose Ryan and who care about effective communication (that is, rhetoric) must be diligent in their denial that the Ryan Plan is Medicare in any sense at all. As such, they must avoid phrases that imply the continued existence of Medicare. They must avoid saying, for example, that Ryan is “gutting Medicare” – that ugly phrase implies taking the guts from something, which implies the continuation of that something. Another false implication. A better phrase: Medicare is being replaced by Ryan Care. More colorfully: Medicare is being killed off to make room for Ryan Care.
They are not “gutting” it after all. Nor are they “transforming” it, “radically altering it”, or, worst of all, “fundamentally changing” it. They are getting rid of the defined benefits -- which is the essence of Medicare. The essence of something is that which makes it what it is. In the case of Medicare, the essence is a defined benefit. Eliminating that is eliminating Medicare.
We know they are eliminating it because we know that under the Ryan Proposal there will not be any defined benefit plan for those currently under 55. When those folks qualify for Ryan Care, they will get a defined contribution (a voucher or coupon) not a defined benefit package. They will be expected to use that contribution to purchase (or support the purchase) of a benefit package.
Dems (I don't mean Kossaks) don’t spend nearly enough time or effort defining their opponents. In contrast, the Repugs spend about 80% of their public remarks on it.
On this issue, the D's could get plenty of traction from spending some time on messaging about who their opponents are here. The proponents of Ryan Care are Assassins of Medicare, Executioners of Medicare, Assailants of Medicare, Hangmen of Medicare, Privatizers of Public Monies, and a Death Panel for Medicare. They want to pull the plug on Grandma, stop treating the elderly, let old folks die in misery and poverty, transfer 30% of payments from doctors to insurance companies, break the promises that govt has made with the people, etc. They are not respectable reformers, and all language implying that they are must be deliberately and energetically resisted.
What they are not, emphatically not, are proponents of Medicare of any kind. They are not Fixers, Reformers, Tinkerers or Repairers. No such label should be tolerated. Any occurrence of such tropes should be rebutted and replaced with another term. “They are not reforming it, they are killing it and replacing it with an utterly inadequate coupon” should be the snappy response to all suggestions that Ryan is engaged in Medicare reform.