Through The 2008 Campaign Looking Glass--John McCain on Medicare Cuts, Now And Then
One can be forgiven for the double take. Back during the 2008 campaign, Barack Obama was the one accusing John McCain of wanting to cut Medicare benefits for seniors--a claim that independent fact checkers called "false." (McCain had proposed vaguely defined cost savings in Medicare, not benefit cuts.) Now everything is all reversed and upside down. President Obama is the one proposing the spending cuts, and McCain is raising a ruckus claiming that this will mean reductions in benefits. Here is McCain on Monday, Nov. 30, 2009:
Slashing Medicare by nearly $500 billion, one-half a trillion dollars, to create a new federal health care entitlement is not health care reform. These reductions include $120 billion to the Medicare Advantage program, $150 billion to providers including hospitals, hospice, and nursing homes, and $23 billion in unspecified decreases to be determined by an ‘Independent Medicare Advisory board.' Simply put, these Medicare cuts will impacts senior's access to quality care. This is a price that American's should not be asked to pay.
Now compare that statement to Presidential Candidate John McCain, per the Wall Street Journal on October 6, 2008:
John McCain would pay for his health plan with major reductions to Medicare and Medicaid, a top aide said, in a move that independent analysts estimate could result in cuts of $1.3 trillion over 10 years to the government programs. . . . Douglas Holtz-Eakin, Sen. McCain's senior policy adviser, said Sunday that the campaign has always planned to fund the tax credits, in part, with savings from Medicare and Medicaid. . . . He said the savings would come from eliminating Medicare fraud and by reforming payment policies to lower the overall cost of care.
During the campaign, McCain's aides even identified Medicare Advantage as place ripe for savings. Here is Presidential Candidate John McCain, per USA Today on May 19, 2008:
Medicare Advantage plans -- private alternatives to Medicare that cover 9.4 million people -- ought to "compete on a level playing field" with traditional Medicare, a top adviser to Sen. John McCain said today.
McCain was never too specific about his proposals, so he can argue that he has not changed positions by opposing the precise cuts backed by Obama--even if he seemed to rhetorically support this sort of thing just over a year ago.
The topsy turvy nature of this whole debate is a bit dizzying. For another example, take a look at this campaign stump from Obama, where the future president decries McCain's plan to tax health care benefits--"just like George Bush." Obama now effectively supports raising taxes on those people with the most expensive health care plans.
If anything, it should be a lesson to us all about just how unsubstantial and non-prognostic campaign policy "debates" can be.
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"...it should be a lesson to us all about just how unsubstantial and non-prognostic campaign policy "debates" can be."
Dang, call it what it is:LYING. Especially for political gain. Why's anyone surprised?
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Michael, after McCain picked Sarah whatshername, all of his subsequent decisions can be called into question.
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But did YOU go tour with Obama to Asia earlier? I want gossipy stuff: behind scenes, accidental touristy stuff on Chinese streets, nightclubs, can Obama open a door unlike Bush, compare Chinese locals to Russians, etc. You haven't posted much here about the trip - if you went (or am I mistaken?).-
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I went. Wrote a few blog posts, four time.com stories and a memo for the magazine. No major flubs for Obama--if you don't count BowGate, which is hard to count. Hard to get a cab in Beijing. Great toilets in Tokyo. Mean looking Nepalese Gurkha's (with scary knives) guarding the president's hotel in Singapore. Flew over Seoul in a helicopter. All neon like Blade Runner. Most of it was unexceptional, which is hard to explain, because it is Asia on Air Force One, but very long days, little sleep, lots of hotels and motorcades, and running to wait, watch or get sniffed again by a bomb-detecting dog.
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"All neon like Blade Runner"
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Man, did you ever score points with that line.
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I do not really care what McCain has to say about this or any other issue. He has always been a waffler who stands for only what benefits him at any point in time.
He lost the elections in part to his inability to be true to any issue. His “Maverickyness” was simply a cover for his erratic and ever changing positions on so many issues.
I certainly find him to be a big yawn. His remarks and continued change in position on key matters is expected and normal.
Now the shock would be if he stood for something from beginning to end. Heck, most politicians never do anyway, McCain is just worse than most.
LM
http://theblindspotsofgod.wordpress.com/2009/10/18/armed-robbers-use-technology-to-stalk-and-kill/
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This post lacks a tip of the hat to Steve Benen's Washington Monthly, from which it was cut and pasted.
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2009_12/021227.php
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4.1
Or from this http://thinkprogress.org/2009/11/30/medicare-cuts-mccain/ earlier post by Igor Volsky of Think Progress.
The Constant Weader at http://www.RealityChex.com
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It is very tiresome that so-called journalists continually steal research and news from blogs and then pretend that it is the result of their own work.
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Yes, McCain will say or do anything that strikes him as to his political advantage at the moment. This is old news.
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Happily, no one cares what McCain thinks about anything. -
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Let's see. McCain is being called a liar and a waffler because he wanted to tax employer provided health care and have cuts to Social Security to pay for HC reform.
Now, interestingly, Obama and the left have not only proposed both but have codified it in the bills before Congress.
So was McCain right then or is he right now? In either case the sanctimonious left turns out to be the REAL LIAR in health care. Quick somebody report Obama to Obama for spreading falsehoods about health care.
We now have the John Kerry Health Plan: I voted against it before I voted for it.
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You've finally convinced me!
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I'm going to go vote for John McCain right now! -
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I realize that you're probably considered a "challenged" individual so I'll get right to the point: McCain is being admonished as a hypocrite because he proposed the same types of cuts over a year ago that Obama is proposing now. The only difference is that now McCain is seeking to score political points by pulling a 180 on his previous position, thus he is a hypocrite.
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I guess the "challenged" part explains your utter mental exhaustion and your complete and total delusion.
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Sigh, I'm sorry, but this is a McCain post about the election so it has to be said...
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This is Great News for John McCain! -
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John McCain, full of sh*t?! Hardly a news item.
btw: Freepinpa: exactly what cuts to SS is Obama proposing?
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Correction I meant Medicare.
Obama is equally full of crap isn't a news item to conservatives but apparently the left is a bit slow in figuring that out. But then again the MSM has been MIA.
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There is zero that is "dizzying" about this. McCain is an opportunistic liar.
He was an opportunistic liar when he crashed eleventy planes as a drunk flyboy and got his daddy to save his reputation.
He was an opportunistic liar when he humped around with a rich beer heiress after he got back from Vietnam.
He was an opportunistic liar when he got involved sniffing for bribes during the savings and loan fiasco.
He was an opportunistic liar when he protected his doctor shopping and illegal drug using wife from any sort of consequences for her actions.
He was an opportunistic liar when he called Chelsea Clinton ugly, then apologized to her father and later tricked Mike Scherer and his easily duped pals into believing he had apologized to Ms. Clinton.
He was an opportunistic liar when he called the economy "fundamentally strong".
He was an opportunistic liar when he invented a story about one of his Vietcong captors scratching a Christian-style cross out in the dirt 35 years after he was released.
Actually, there is one "dizzying" thing about all this. Why does the corrupt traditional media still consider something a discredited and relatively un-influential Senator like John McCain says as news?-
9.1
Introducing John Opportunistic McCain, Senator from Arizona. Haven't seen him on Sunday teevee these two Sundays past. Why???
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Yes, everything is equivalent and everyone's the same.
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… in which our Esteemed Scribe wipes the Barbecue Sauce off his Chin and Realizes what the Rest Of Us have known for Years.
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Isn't the 2008 Campaign Looking Glass the one Sarah Palin uses to cook ants with on sunny days?
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12.1
No, she uses it to see Russia from her house.
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In the interest of seniors everywhere, the politics need to be taken out of Medicare. In finding and comparing plans available to me for the 2010 enrollment period at PlanPrescriber.com, I found my current Medicare Advantage plan is no longer offered. I had to select another plan with less benefits. Who said what regarding Medicare cuts is not going to bring back quality Medicare plans.
- michaelscherer @alangrayson TIME told your story (http://bit.ly/cdG9qb), tho not how you would have told it, here: http://bit.ly/YSRHh - 3 hours ago
- michaelscherer RT @PElliottAP: Obama makes surprise visit to White House briefing room. Tune in. - 5 hours ago
- michaelscherer RT @ryssiebee: 92 magazine covers, 10 years, 2 minutes. http://bit.ly/5d7oCo - 8 hours ago
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