{"id":4586,"date":"2016-11-13T14:19:05","date_gmt":"2016-11-13T19:19:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/napervilledemocrats.org\/ntdo\/?p=4586"},"modified":"2016-11-13T14:19:33","modified_gmt":"2016-11-13T19:19:33","slug":"first-target-medicare","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/napervilledemocrats.org\/ntdo\/first-target-medicare\/","title":{"rendered":"First Target: Medicare"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cBecause of Obamacare, Medicare is going broke,\u201d Ryan said. This is false.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

They’re moving fast to begin building their Randian world. \u00a0From Jonathan Chait last week:<\/p>\n

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Paul Ryan Says Medicare Privatization Is On<\/a><\/h2>\n
\"Wherever

Wherever you\u2019re hiding, Medicare, Paul Ryan will find you. Photo: Chip Somodevilla\/Getty Images<\/p><\/div>\n

During the campaign, coverage of the issues was blotted out by coverage of Hillary Clinton\u2019s emails and Donald Trump\u2019s broad suite of sociopathic tendencies. And of the issues that did receive any attention, a conspicuously missing one was Paul Ryan\u2019s plan to push Medicare beneficiaries into private health insurance. Reporters just assumed that, since Trump never talked about it, it won\u2019t happen. But Paul Ryan still wants it to happen. And in a Fox News interview with Bret Baier<\/a>, Ryan said Medicare privatization is on.<\/p>\n

\u201cYour solution has always been to put things together, including entitlement reform,\u201d says Baier, using Republican code for privatizing Medicare. Ryan replies, \u201cIf you\u2019re going to repeal and replace Obamacare, you have to address those issues as well. \u2026 Medicare has got some serious issues because of Obamacare. So those things are part of our plan to replace Obamacare.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ryan tells Baier, \u201cBecause of Obamacare, Medicare is going broke.\u201d This is false. In fact, it\u2019s the complete opposite of the truth. The Medicare trust fund has been extended 11 years<\/a> as a result of the passage of Obamacare, whose cost reforms have helped bring health care inflation to historic lows<\/a>. It is also untrue that repealing Obamacare requires changing traditional Medicare. But Ryan clearly believes he needs to make this claim in order to sell his plan, or probably even to convince fellow Republicans to support it.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n