Crying to become a trend among Republicans?
It looks like we are going to find out how many Senators favor slashing and privatizing Medicare. Next week, the Senate is likely to vote on the budget plan House Republicans passed:
Senate Democratic leadership is likely to bring the GOP's 2012 budget plan to the floor next week, a senior leadership aide told The Hill on Friday.
The 2012 plan, crafted by House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), would cut $5.8 trillion in spending over 10 years and transform Medicare into a sort of voucher system to balance the budget by 2040 without raising taxes.
We don't often know what's at stake in an election until it's over. For example, we didn't know in Wisconsin that Scott Walker was going to try and eliminate collective bargaining rights for public employees. If Walker had made that crystal clear, then he probably would have lost the election.
In 2012 however, we are going to know exactly what's at stake. Republicans. Will. Privatize. Medicare. They will slash it pretty deeply in the process, too.
While it's not a good thing that one of the two major parties in this country is now overwhelmingly in favor of slashing and privatizing Medicare, it's a lot better to know that before an election than afterward. If this is something we had only found out in early 2013 after Republicans had secured a trifecta in D.C., then there would be virtually no way to stop it.
Republicans have really done us a favor in being upfront about one of their major policy goals. By voting for their own plan they hurt their chances to win in 2012, and thus actually privatize Medicare. This is both because the plan is very unpopular and because it gives progressive activists an indisputably powerful reason to stay engaged. Further, it serves an important clarifying purpose. If at any point over the next 18 months anyone asks you "what's the difference between Democrats and Republicans," just point at this.
So please, join with the over 12,000 Kossacks who have signed the petition thanking John Boehner for coming clean about Republican plans. Boehner thinks he is winning with this plan because it allows him to suck up both to the tea party and to the Wall Street donors who control the GOP. Let him know that this will actually cause him to lose.