Conservatives Just Love Medicare
Recently, Michael Steele put out what he called a “seniors health care bill of rights” that put forward the idea that Republicans “protect Medicare” from the evils of Obama’s health care reform. Putting aside for the moment that Medicare was ever in danger from health care reform; Mr. Steele’s statement represented a 180 degree turn around from what has been a major goal of the conservative movement. The conservative movement has never been a friend to seniors who need the critical services that Medicare provides. In fact they are ideologically opposed to any form of government provided health care including Medicare.
For over 50 years it has been their basic belief that Medicare was the one of the worst programs that this country has ever had. From the very moment that it was proposed they derided it as nothing more than simple socialism and the end of the American way of life. They fought against it with every tool at their disposal, including generous use of fear tactics to sway public opinion. It passed eventually but they continued to fight for its repeal and insidiously tried to modify it out of existence. As late as five months ago the Republicans in congress voted to phase out the Medicare program in exchange for a private insurance subsidy. Thankfully, this shameless new giveaway to insurance companies got rejected by the Democratic majority.
So if the conservative movement has always been against the Medicare program then how can they now audaciously claim that they are its passionate defenders? The bottom line is that scaring people is the only tactic that they have left. If they can convince enough seniors that they should be afraid of Obama’s reforms then they think they can stop reform altogether. With no new ideas and a dogmatic belief in outdated philosophies, simple deceit is the only card they have left to play.
