Actually, I'm not sure it's a goal as much as it's merely a logical consequence of their deranged view of government's proper role in managing the affairs of a modern country.
The debate (AKA: phony partisan posturing) over the debt ceiling is but the latest version of the kind of idiocy coming from the GOP and their hyper-idelogical effort to tear down our federal government.
At this point, the GOP may have fallen so far down the trickle-down economics rabbit hole that they've lost all perspective of how to actually govern.
Take the debate over Medicare spending, for example.
As Paul Krugman correctly points out in his piece today, if we were looking at the Medicare question without the fierce opposition to government programs that blinds the GOP to any sane debate about America's problems, we would be looking for ways to dramatically expand Medicare, not cut it.
Krugman writes:
The crucial thing to remember, when we talk about Medicare... Our goal should be, instead, to give Americans the health care they need at a price the country can afford. And throwing Americans in their mid-60s off Medicare moves us away from that goal, not toward it.
This should be so obvious and non-controversial that any caveman would understand. As Krugman continues:
For Medicare, with all its flaws, works better than private insurance. It has less bureaucracy and, hence, lower administrative costs than private insurers. It has been more successful in controlling costs. While Medicare expenses per beneficiary have soared over the past 40 years, they’ve risen significantly less than private insurance premiums. And since Medicare-type systems in other advanced countries have much lower costs than the uniquely privatized U.S. system, there’s good reason to believe that Medicare reform can do a lot to control costs in the future.
Yes, yes, yes. There is no factual argument against any of this. Yet, our national debate doesn't seem to care.
Let's ask the question from a slightly different perspective: What do GOPers think will happen when you drive people out of Medicare either by raising the eligibility age or cutting benefits? What happens when you drive sicker and older people into the private health insurance market? How will the private health insurance market accommodate these sicker and older customers (assuming they accept them at all)?
The answer is SIMPLE: The only way they can -- by raising the rates on younger, healthier people.
You think your premiums are high right now? Just think what they will be when more seniors are forced to get more bypasses and hip replacements under private health plans.
Cuts to Medicare will simply be passed through the system and paid for by higher premiums and co-pays and lower benefits in the private health insurance market. And, with less leverage for Medicare to negotiate lower prices in the health care market, guess what happens to the overall cost of health care?
A) Goes up
B) Goes down
C) Goes diagonal
D) Goes in circles
Anyone who doesn't see that the answer is bound to be A is probably a GOP member of Congress, a Fox News contributor, a Rush Limbaugh listener, or, more likely, all of the above.
As you shift more burden on more Americans to pay for higher health care costs in the private market, you will take money out of the rest of the economy, effectively creating a hidden Cuts-to-Medicare tax for everyone and slashing household budgets for everything else.
Since Medicare is by far the most efficient health insurance program in America, a smart way to think about both fixing the health care crisis and lowering the federal deficit would be to leverage the hell out of the Medicare program by allowing anyone at any age the opportunity to buy into Medicare.
The younger and healthier custumers would therefore finance not only the current older Medicare beneficiaries, but would have the opportunity to finance their own health care through the most efficienct program in in the country. This would expand the pool, help drive down overall health care costs and reduce the Medicare deficit by growing the program and raising more Medicare revenue.
Of course, all of this makes WAY too much sense for the GOP idiots. No, instead of even allowing a discussion about expanding Medicare to get off the ground floor, these jerks are forcing us to debate penny-wise/pound-foolish draconian cuts to the only program we have to contain overall health care costs.
Democrats don't even bring up these ideas anymore knowing full well that the GOP spinmasters would never allow a calm, rational, sane debate and will instead come up with their poll-tested sound bites about Canadian health care and socialism and government intruding in our lives, etc. etc.
Meanwhile, the country is getting screwed day in and day out. And that seems to be exactly the way the GOP likes it.