C&L: Palin's call for Medicare rationing "adds to her Potemkin façade of policy expertise"

[Amerigo Vespucci]

December 13, 2010 08:00 AM
Palin Endorses Medicare Rationing
By Jon Perr

http://crooksandliars.com/jon-perr/palin-endorses-medicare-rationing



Fresh off her pronouncements on the Fed's "quantitative easing" and federal aid to the states, last week Sarah Palin added the deficit and Medicare to her Potemkin façade of policy expertise. A year after she first called for converting Medicare into a voucher program, Palin took to the pages of the Wall Street Journal to endorse Congressman Paul Ryan's "Roadmap for America." Which is more than a little ironic for the propagator of the "death panels" myth. As it turns out, Ryan's plan would inevitably lead to the rationing of the Medicare program on which 46 million American seniors now depend.

In her WSJ op-ed Friday, the half term governor offered her full support for Rep. Ryan (R-WI) scheme to privatize Social Security and Medicare:

Rep. Ryan proposes fundamental reform of Medicare for those under 55 by turning the current benefit into a voucher with which people can purchase their own care.

On Social Security, as with Medicare, the Roadmap honors our commitments to those who are already receiving benefits by guaranteeing all existing rights to people over the age of 55. Those below that age are offered a choice: They can remain in the traditional government-run system or direct a portion of their payroll taxes to personal accounts, owned by them, managed by the Social Security Administration and guaranteed by the federal government.

Hoping to lead the party that tried to block Medicare in the 1960's and gut it in the 1990's, Sarah Palin heartily endorsed Paul Ryan's proposal to cure what ails the health insurance system for millions of American seniors by killing it. In an August Washington Post op-ed ("A Roadmap to Saving Medicare") that mentioned neither the word "voucher" nor "privatization," Congressman Ryan intends to do apply both to address the long-term financial issues facing the system:

Future Medicare beneficiaries would receive a payment to apply to a list of Medicare-certified coverage options. The Medicare payment would grow every year, with additional support for those who have low incomes and higher health costs, and less government support for high-income beneficiaries. The most vulnerable seniors would also receive supplemental Medicaid coverage and continue to be eligible for Medicaid's long-term care benefit.

[MindandSoul]

1. "Medicare rationing???" That sounds more like the REAL "death panel" to me!

[HereSince1628]

2. True, but remember she's a politician she's on both sides of the issue

and at anytime will present as the most popular position to those paying her.

[trumad]

3. Ummm---she is not a politician...

She's a realty show TV actor.

[HereSince1628]

4. There is a difference?

Actually, she's much like Huckabee