Wisconsin GOP Senate candidate Tommy Thompson is having his very own "47%" moment these past few days. Much like the April video of Mitt Romney that surfaced just recently, the May video of Thompson that I wrote about on Friday has been making the rounds. Thompson's equivalent to the "47%" moment is the admission that he (and the Ryan/GOP plan) intends to "do away with Medicaid and Medicare." Here's that video and transcript again, with the money quote in bold:
... be able to take away the litigation that the trial lawyers are doing, so that doctors don't have to keep doing extra things to protect themselves from getting sued, which drives up our costs; change Medicare and Medicaid like I did welfare -- and who better than me, who's already finished one of the entitlement programs, to come up with programs to do away with Medicaid and Medicare? Let's block-grant what the state has, and allow the states to determine what's going to go into Medicaid. And Medicare, let's wait until everyone that's right now under 55 reaches 55 by age [sic] 2020, and give them a choice whether they want to purchase health insurance with a subsidy from the federal government, or stay on Medicare. I'm here to tell you, when you look at the situation nobody's going to accept it, because Medicare's going broke by the year 2022.
The story's been making the rounds:
progressive blogs in Wisconsin,
ThinkProgress,
The Nation,
TPM last night -- and the Ed Show on Monday night. (High fives to
JamieG from MD, and
brinmat, and anyone who helped get
my diary on the rec list -- we built that!!)
The footage from the Ed Show in particular is worthy of further highlighting. Follow me beyond the cheddar swirl for Howard Fineman's comentary on HOW the Thompson/Ryan/GOP plan to do away with Medicare would work.
Hat tip to Democurmudgeon (Tommy Thompson to Kill Medicare and Medicaid!!! See, We Told You) for providing the following video:
TRANSCRIPT (starting 55 seconds in):
Howard Fineman: Well, this is another one of those secret May videos, that are coming back to get the Republicans in September. There was another part of that video, just after what you played, Ed, in which Tommy Thompson says we'll put it on vouchers later on down the road, and by 2020 nobody's going to want to pick Medicare rather than the vouchers because Medicare is going to be broke. And there what you see is an even deeper cynicism in which Tommy Thompson is saying we're going to run Medicare into the ground in the meantime, so when it comes to this choice that they want to make between taking a voucher for a certain amount of money and Medicare, Medicare actually won't be a viable option. That's the most damaging part of what he said, in my view, because he explains the cynical mechanics behind it. And Tammy Baldwin, who's already ahead in that state, is going to move farther ahead based on these comments, because it betrays a real cynicism on behalf of Tommy Thompson, who's a guy who at least back in the old days, you know, had some support on a personal level in Wisconsin.
Ed Schultz: Yeah, this is the most radical he's ever been.
And again, I want to emphasize -- this isn't just Tommy's own plan that he's talking about. He's describing the Ryan plan. He's describing the intentions of Romney/Ryan and the GOP as a whole:
to do away with Medicaid and Medicare, and get those lovely taxpayer dollars moving into the pockets of private insurers instead.
Let's keep this story moving, folks. That's the absolute easiest contribution you can make right now to support Tammy Baldwin and upgrade the U.S. Senate.
Of course, monetary donations help a campaign define an opponent too!
Donate to Tammy Baldwin's Senate campaign.
Thanks, as ever, for all you do.