Representative Paul Ryan (R-WI) is at it again. He has produced a budget resolution that calls for the end of Medicare-as-we-know-it, replacing it with coupons that can be used to buy private health insurance. This has been introduced as the House version of the Congressional Budget Resolution, and is certain to a) pass the House, and b) be rejected by the Senate.
With the Ryan Budget, the Republicans have now defined two key planks in their platform for the next election:
- Ending Medicare
- Attacking birth control
Sound a little nuts? After all, most people support both Medicare and birth control. So why are they giving Barack Obama this nice present?
There are two possible explanations, as I see it:
- In what should be a Republican election year, the Tea Party is forcing the GOP to commit political suicide, handing Obama an election that he could not otherwise win, because of their fanatical commitment to hating both government and women. Or …
- The continuting recession makes it so unlikely that Obama will be reelected that the GOP has decided to implement the program that they really believe in: reducing the working class to poverty so that the capitalist class can get even richer.
Which do you think it is?