Greg Sargent laments that "Conservative commentators refuse to accept public’s verdict on Ryancare":
To get a sense of just how difficult it is for some conservative commentators to accept the public’s verdict on Ryancare, take a look at Marc Thiessen’s diagnosis of the political problem Republicans face in the wake of NY-26. Thiessen rejects the notion that Republicans should now distance themselves from the GOP plan to end Medicare as we know it, and instead recommends that Republicans go on offense.
I hate to break it to Greg, but it isn't just the conservative commentators. Witness this.
MR. GREGORY: So, Ruth Marcus, what wins here: bold leadership on Medicare and the argument that the Democrats won't do something courageous, or the Democrats who say, "Hey, those guys want to take away my Medicare"?
MS. MARCUS: I regret to inform you that I think it's the latter. And I think when you were asking Senator McConnell if Medicare was the new third rail of American politics, I think the question was wrong in a sense because it's the old third rail of American politics.
MR. GREGORY: Mm-hmm.
For more on this particularly atrocity, don't miss Steve Benen.
I’m at a loss to understand what, exactly, Ruth Marcus, David Brooks, and their cohorts would have Dems do. Congressional Republicans have a plan to end Medicare and replace it with a privatized voucher scheme. The proposal would not only help rewrite the social contract, it would also shift crushing costs onto the backs of seniors, freeing up money for tax breaks for the wealthy. The plan is needlessly cruel, and any serious evaluation of the GOP’s arithmetic shows that the policy is a fraud.
But in Village speak, it's not a fraud, it's "bold leadership." Which is exactly why Marc Thiessen is arguing the Republicans need to go for broke on ending Medicare, and pin the blame on the Democrats. Why wouldn't that work? It's worked before, and there's plenty of indication that Dems are so committed to being considered "serious" that they'll follow Republicans down austerity lane.
Which in turn all goes back to the Beltway Deficit Feedback Loop Sargent has been writing about for a few weeks. The "serious" people in Washington are the ones who care about the deficit, not those whose hair continues to be on fire over continued 9%+ unemployment. The ones who want to make old people suffer are the serious ones, those who point out that making old people suffer isn't the best policy are the ones using scare tactics.
Meanwhile, America is out here really hoping someone saves Medicare, helps them save their house, and does something about creating some jobs.