Stephen Goldstein (Sun Sentinel): Wealth care vs. health care.
That choice will frame the debate for the 2012 election. As a result, President Barack Obama has already won his second term, and Democrats will recapture majorities in both houses of Congress. Everything until then is a delicious denouement, when tea party extremists will have turned the Republican Party into a blip on the political screen….
Whiz kid wannabe, Rep. Paul Ryan will be the unwitting savior of the Democratic Party and cause of his party’s humiliating defeat. He issued his penny-pinching “Path to Prosperity” before the president spoke about our debt and deficit. For the unveiling, image consultants gave the Wisconsonite a new hairdo to soften his usual menacing part and ghoulish gaze, but they couldn’t change the mean-spirited, elitist strategy to which he committed Republicans: Adiós – Medicare, Social Security, Medicaid; Hola – tax cuts for the drowning-in-money.
…For average Americans, Ryan’s “Path” is a road to ruin. The Ryan Republican tea party would make a 65-year-old eligible for Medicare in 10 years pay nearly $6,400 more than people pay today – and force them into the private insurance market, where they probably won’t be able to afford, or even get, coverage. It swells the deficit by trillions and doesn’t achieve a balanced budget for decades….
When Obama delivered his vision for America, he drew an election-winning distinction between his party and Ryan extremists. Cool, calm and collected, he outlined a pragmatic path to fiscal health, while reaffirming his commitment to the social infrastructure on which all Americans depend. He spoke like the wise, senior member of an accounting firm, chastening an overzealous, junior bean-counter. Squirming in the audience, Ryan, who naively expected the president to kowtow to him, was sandbagged by a pro.
Whatever plan emerges to restore our fiscal health – and everyone agrees we need one – Obama will be the winner. Ryan/tea party/Republicans overplayed their hand. Exactly 150 years after our first Civil War, we are fighting another one for the republic’s heart and soul – and wallet. Ryan promises magically to create prosperity-for-all by pledging never to raise revenue while redistributing trillions in wealth care to the rich. So, he’s led a delusional GOP to a path to political suicide. When he and other defeated tea party/Republicans are looking for jobs, Obama’s commitment to health care reform will be the only thing that saves their family finances.
Full article here
Thank you Sarah T – this article is sublime
