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| "People hate Medicare, right?" |
Republican presidential hopeful Jeb Bush appeared at a New Hampshire event last night sponsored by the Koch brothers’ Americans for Prosperity, and the former governor raised a few eyebrows with his comments on the future of Medicare.
“The left needs to join the conversation, but they haven’t. I mean, when [Rep. Paul Ryan] came up with, one of his proposals as it relates to Medicare, the first thing I saw was a TV ad of a guy that looked just like Paul Ryan … that was pushing an elderly person off the cliff in a wheelchair. That’s their response.
“And I think we need to be vigilant about this and persuade people that our, when your volunteers go door to door, and they talk to people, people understand this. They know, and I think a lot of people recognize that we need to make sure we fulfill the commitment to people that have already received the benefits, that are receiving the benefits. But that we need to figure out a way to phase out this program for others and move to a new system that allows them to have something – because they’re not going to have anything.”
Remember, Jeb Bush is the ostensible moderate candidate in the massive GOP presidential field. It says something important about Republican politics in 2015 when the most mainstream candidate is also the candidate who wants to scrap Medicare altogether.
So not only does Jebbie support his brother's invasion of Iraq, but he also supports his efforts to privatize a program that works great and benefits millions of Americans.
Americans by the way that are usually elderly and who make up the base of the Republican party.
With this "phase out" talk Bush is hoping that like most GOP politicians the primary voters will have an "I got mine so screw the rest of you" attitude about Medicare.
But in fact parents want their children covered, and grandparents want their grandchildren covered as well.
As one elderly woman made abundantly clear:
Jeb Bush defended comments he made Wednesday night in which he seemed to advocate the “phasing out” of Medicare, after he was confronted during a town hall here Thursday afternoon by an elderly woman who said she was worried about losing benefits.
“We’re not going to have adequate coverage for our children or our grandchildren without Medicare. I paid into that for years and years, just like all these other seniors here, and now you want to take it away?” said the woman, who did not identify herself and left before the town hall concluded. “Why are you always attacking the seniors?"
“Well, I’m not,” Bush responded. “Here’s what I said: I said, ‘We’re going to have to reform our entitlement system.’ We have to.”
“It’s not an entitlement,” the woman shot back. “I earned that.”
Yeah I think Jebbie really whiffed on this one.
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