Politifact, the St. Petersburg based news project that rates statements by politicians for their truthfulness, has decided that the lie of this year was when Democrats insisted that the proposal by Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wisconsin) to revamp Medicare would "end" or "kill" the program.
In making this ruling, Politifact effectively enables the thieves and brigands of the political right whose often stated goal -- since before Medicare was even enacted nearly half a century ago -- has been to end the program.
Indeed, as the Center for American Progress puts it, the Ryan plan to change Medicare by privatizing it "is merely ending Medicare by another name." Which, quite simply, puts the lie to Politifact's own attempt at ferreting out the lies of others.
Pollitifact says that Democrats have lied because they have "used harsh terms such as 'end' and 'kill' when the program would still exist, although in a privatized system."
And therein lies the rub. By changing Medicare to a privatized system, Republicans and any Democrats in thrall to their rhetoric and influence would guarantee that Medicare as we know it will, in fact, end -- or, if you prefer, die. Not all at once, but eventually that is an undeniable and inevitable outcome. So say many experts in health insurance and the Medicare program itself.
The Ryan measure, which won passage in the GOP-controlled House earlier this year, isn't going anywhere in this Congress under this White House, but could come back to haunt Americans after 2012's elections. Worse, the lie rendering by Politifact -- perhaps better named Politifactoid -- could help Republicans include serious Medicare de-forms in any of the myriad ransom notes they'll be sending to congressional Democrats as that party actually tries to pay the country's bills.
Ryan's vision for a new Medicare would privatize Medicare all right. A major factor in Politifact's description of Democratic criticism of this plan is that existing Medicare recipients could continue to use the program as it is structured today -- a public medical insurance program. However, the Ryan plan would drastically increase the premiums charged to those seniors. Meanwhile, incoming retirees would instead get a static voucher to go find private insurance -- a voucher that would only cover a fraction of the total cost of that coverage, completely unlike the current program.
Besides blowing up the federal deficit, this, says the Center for American Progress, would sacrifice the advantages that Medicare currently brings to the realm of retiree health coverage: "its pricing power, its low administrative costs, and its ability to drive system-wide efficiencies in health care delivery."
Take those away while busting the federal budget and reducing the quality of care while raising its cost, and what do Republicans expect will happen? Well, obviously, they expect Medicare to wither away and be replaced by wholesale reliance on bureaucratic, inefficient and poorly managed for-profit private health providers. It's how they managed to put the US Postal Service at the doorstep of failure, by forcing it to swallow economically impossible new pension funding requirements. It's another installment of Grover Norquist's scheme to drown government in the bathtub.
The Ryan plan basically parallels what President George W. Bush tried but failed to do with Social Security in his second term. The GOP goal then was likewise to get rid of the program, but not to take it on frontally, since, like Medicare, Social Security is wildly popular among the electorate. So, instead, Bush sought to privatize Social Security investments, making such significant changes in the program that it was bound to wither and die. Both that attempt and Ryan's Medicare bill amount to nothing other than bait and switch politics. And Politifact is the latest institution to take the bait.
Would under Ryan's plan there still be a program called Medicare? Yes. But would the program die as a result of all the changes? Surely.
So, perhaps Politifact can with a straight face insist that Republicans aren't voting to "kill" Medicare instantly. But the GOP is seeking to lay a death trap for it. Which is sort of like hiring a contract killer in an effort to keep one's hands clean while still accomplishing the dirty deed.
Wide re-telling of this "lie of the year" by the GOP, especially Ryan, arguably furthers their plan some more. [Indeed, Ryan whipped up interest among his supporters to vote in a poll that Politifact ran to identify the top lie of the year. The Medicare "lie" did not come close to the number one choice of the public, but Politifact ran with it anyway.]
All this begs the question: If enacted, and after (as most health care experts and Medicare specialists agree) Ryan's measure ended up destroying the program while leaving the US in a much deeper deficit hole, who would get the blame? Apparently not the people like Ryan who engineered it, since Politifact has just helped provide them political cover and renewed opportunism.
So expect Republicans to continue pushing this alleged "reform." They'll stay busy trying to crawl under the Medicare car and cutting its brake lines, so it eventually goes over a cliff along with its elderly passengers. No need to worry because that's not actually a plan to end Medicare, says Politifact.
Outcomes matter. Politifact's approach to this subject amounts to an inability -- or an unwillingness -- to see the forest for the trees.
The acid test for Politifact's "lie" claim is this: If a Democrat began his or her statement that the Republicans voted to kill Medicare with, "The effect of the vote" or "In my opinion," no one could call the statement a lie. Rhetorical shorthand thus becomes the Politifact excuse to throw out an entire sheaf of legitimate objections, effectively endorsing the Republicans and their not-so-cleverly disguised Medicare death panel of a bill.
See the Center for American Progress take on the Ryan plan at:
http://thinkprogress.org/...
Politifact's "Lie of the Year" announcement is at:
http://www.politifact.com/...
And the Politifact poll results are at:
http://www.politifact.com/...