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Remember the Promise Keepers? Say hello to the Promise Breakers.
U.S. House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R., Va.) on Wednesday suggested that Republicans will continue a push to overhaul programs such as Medicare, saying in an interview that “promises have been made that frankly are not going to be kept for many” and that younger Americans will have to adjust.
“What we have to be, I think, focused on is truth in budgeting here,” Cantor told The Wall Street Journal’s Opinion Journal. He said “the better way” for Americans is to “get the fiscal house in order” and “come to grips with the fact that promises have been made that frankly are not going to be kept for many.”
He added that younger Americans will have “ample time to try and plan our lives so that we can adjust” to the post-Medicare society.
As Cantor sees it, the existing Medicare program simply must be eliminated for fiscal reasons, replaced with a privatized system. In other words, the Paul Ryan plan that was soundly rejected by voters and policy experts alike is still the preferred model for the House Republican leadership.
As a matter of policy, this is still hopelessly ridiculous, for all the reasons we talked about in the Spring. But on a political level, this is just as misguided. The more Cantor and his allies base their agenda on ending Medicare, the happier Democrats are.
Also note the rhetoric the oft-confused House Majority Leader uses: the United States has made promises to the public, and as far as Eric Cantor is concerned, “many” Americans will simply have to accept that those promises “are not going to be kept.”
Why not? Because Republicans say so. Promises to Grover Norquist are sacrosanct, but promises to senior citizens are not.
This is, to put it mildly, a gift for Democrats. I’ll look forward to the DNC running ads in, say, Florida, telling voters that the leading House Republican believes the United States committed to the Medicare program, but now believes those promises “are not going to be kept.”
And in an ideal political environment, the Republican presidential hopefuls would spend the next few weeks responding to a straightforward question: “Do you agree with Eric Cantor that America’s promises to Medicare beneficiaries should be broken?”
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TR on August 04, 2011 8:06 AM:
Promises to Grover Norquist are sacrosanct, but promises to senior citizens are not.
THIS.
Danp on August 04, 2011 8:09 AM:
I’ll look forward to the DNC running ads in, say, Florida, telling voters that the leading House Republican believes...
I'm afraid that is exactly what Dems will do. They should show the quote. Video is better. Telling people what Cantor believes merely sets up another ridiculous "he said, she said" argument. And Dems ALWAYS lose those arguments. But that is probably what they will do anyway.
Brenna on August 04, 2011 8:14 AM:
Kathy Hochul (NY-26) proved this is a winning issue for dems. I think they'll run on it.
Just because these mean little punks, Eric Cantor and Paul Ryan, says something is so, doesn't mean it's true or going to happen.
2012 is going to be a drag out, knock down fight. I think even Obama is shoring up for it. Because the truth is: Dems can't govern unless they own all three branches. And even then they have trouble.
c u n d gulag on August 04, 2011 8:14 AM:
Yup, the message is:
"So, you've pledged to Grover Norquist that there'll be no tax increases for any reason, ever, but you can't promise Grandma that she won't be put out on the street to die if she gets sick.
And this is your 'Vision for America?'"
But, of course the Democrats will try to be nice about this, the Republicans will twist this around somehow, and it'll end up making it look like Democrats are pushing Grandma down a flight of stairs, while Republicans are trying to cushion her fall.
ATTACK, you Democratic schmucks, ATTACK!!!!!
SteveT on August 04, 2011 8:15 AM:
This is, to put it mildly, a gift for Democrats.
Wow. The team that has fumbled twelve times could still win the game as the opposing quarterback throws his second straight pick six.
The Democrats don't deserve this largess. But the American people do.
The pessimist in me is still pretty sure that the Democrats will screw this up though -- again.
baz on August 04, 2011 8:17 AM:
What does the world think of the U.S?
Used car salesmen.
j on August 04, 2011 8:24 AM:
Does anyone know if it is correct that the debt deal, signed on to by both parties - agrees that the Bush tax cuts
expire?
What's the story about a drone that flies across the US - owned by Murdoch, has equipment to track peoples cell phone conversations?
Sadie on August 04, 2011 8:24 AM:
And in an ideal political environment, the Republican presidential hopefuls would spend the next few weeks
...in small wooden boxes with tarantulas.
Buffalo Harold on August 04, 2011 8:29 AM:
"The more Cantor and his allies base their agenda on ending Medicare, the happier Democrats are."
More than likely Medicare will be a future hostage to be taken by Cantor and his Republican thugs -- and The Compromiser in Chief, as usual, will cave, roll over, and grant them the abolition of Medicare in exchange for some trivial non-concession on their part.
Democrats don't know how to fight -- and the President doesn't know what to fight for. So why will this make them happier?
DAY on August 04, 2011 8:33 AM:
Cantor's message to Middle America:
You're 40, out of work, the house is underwater, your 401(K) has tanked, and the kids are moving back home. But don't worry- there is “ample time to try and plan our lives so that we can adjust” !
ellie on August 04, 2011 8:35 AM:
Thanks for posting this. I read it yesterday and am in awe of the repuke's hubris. If I recall correctly, when the Ryan plan was trotted out, the repuke reps got earfuls from their constituents. What makes them think it is going to be different this time? Hubris.
Ron Byers on August 04, 2011 8:39 AM:
Democrats don't know how to fight. That is probably because national Democrats don't know what they are fighting for. They are fat cats sitting on their thrones of silver waited on hand and foot by supplicants and advisors telling what the supplicants and advisors think is going on outside the beltway. Of course the supplicants and advisors never go outside the beltway they get their information from inspecting Fox News dung.
The Democratic party is a lot like the last ruling Chinese dynasty totally out of touch and hopelessly decadent.
We need some Democrats who have a fire in the belly. We need some Democrats who have some street smarts and are at least trying to help grandma and not the banksters.
The only Democrats like that these days are fighting everyday in places like Madison, Wisconsin. That is where my money is going this year.
You hear that Claire McCaskill.
Live Free or Die on August 04, 2011 8:40 AM:
Ok. I have been so negative over the past few days that I am going to be positive today. I promised my wife, and my cardiologist says that I need to lower my blood pressure. Here goes. Republicans have been awfully cocky lately. Mitch was openly bragging yesterday about hostage taking. The GOP in both houses voted to eliminate Medicare. Daily they are making foolish statements like Cantor did. What IF, and I know this is a big if,Democrats have already made political ads, but do not want to show their hand until next year. If they destroy the Republicans now with all their good stuff, that would give them time to regroup and stage a comeback. What if this is really rope a dope? The dems have a lot of good ammo.
del on August 04, 2011 8:41 AM:
Of course he will not have to answer the media questions as they will not ask them. They are too busy repeating the republicans talking points.
Mack on August 04, 2011 9:09 AM:
And did Cantor say anything about how he plans to reimburse all Americans for the money taken out of their paychecks their entire working lives to fund Medicare? And will they keep deducting it even though they have no intention of delivering the service they promised for that deduction?
foosion on August 04, 2011 9:12 AM:
Don't worry. Reid will appoint a "moderate" to the deficit committee, which will then provide political cover for the Republican plan to destroy Medicare.
david1234 on August 04, 2011 9:14 AM:
Opposition by Republicans to Medicare and Social Security does not make much sense in terms of looking after the interests of the wealthy. The ratio of the taxes for these programs to other taxes is much lower for the wealthy than people with median incomes.
The programs are not so much about having the government spend your money on someone else, as having the government assist you by collecting money when you are young and have an income and giving you money when you are old and are without an income. The wealthy may not want this, but it does not hurt them very much if at all.
It is odd that opposition to Social Security and Medicare tends to vary inversely with the burden of the taxes for them.
Josef K on August 04, 2011 9:15 AM:
One quibble:
the oft-confused House Majority Lead
At this point, I'm not convinced he's all that 'confused'. Ignorant, callow, vicious, unethical, and as empathic as a rock, sure. But confused?
No. Cantor and his minion know exactly what they want. How they're getting it is obscene, but I doubt they're confused about where their loyalties lie and what they're working for.
JM917 on August 04, 2011 9:21 AM:
I'm going to try to be optimistic again, like Live Free or Die (and I too have to remember my blood pressure).
Sometimes, after you've been sucker-punched one time too many, you finally realize that it's a matter of fight back in earnest or be killed. That's where the Democrats and President Obama now find themselves.
Don't get mad--get even! Or rather, channel your "getting mad" into a steely determination to focus all your anger on the Republican enemy (yes, *enemy*) as personified by evil-doers like Ryan, Cantor, McConnell, and Norquist. Let's stop just fulminating on our blogs. Let's deluge our Democratic members of Congress, the DNC, and the White House with exhortations to fight in the spirit of Winston Churchill after Dunkirk or of Harry Truman every day. Let's WELCOME the Republicans' hatred--because hatred it is--and fight their fire with fire in the belly.
And above all, let's carry the fight to ordinary Americans who have to struggle with lousy wages, low job security (or no job at all), a fraying safety net, and now the boast of farts like that sneering Cantor that all the promises that have been made to them are simply scraps of paper (the infamous phrase of the Germans re: the pre-WWI guarantee of Belgian neutrality).
Live Free is absolutely right. Let the damned Republican enemy really have it, at a time and place of our choosing. And Mr. President: go after the Repugs like you went after Osama (though of course I'm being figurative and talking of political warfare...)
Grumpy on August 04, 2011 9:22 AM:
“ample time to try and plan our lives so that we can adjust”
Here's my plan: how many lottery tickets can I buy between now and retirement?
Trollop on August 04, 2011 10:00 AM:
That this imbecile can shoot his mouth off in this way, that anyone can stand up and proclaim "more tax breaks for the richest Americans and screw the middle class" in not so many or more words is simply amazing. These people should be tarred and feathered, or simply executed. This may happen in time of course and until dumbassed, hayseed America wakes up out of it's (there's too much spending, which there is on two occupations and a spook-war) stupor, we'll have ass-clowns like Cuntor, spewing his elitist garbage and trying to unravel every humanitarian piece of legislation created in the last 100 years.
Anonymous on August 04, 2011 10:02 AM:
I am surprised no one has addressed the reaction the approximately 30 to 40% of Americans who are between age 40 and 64 to Republicans promising to withdraw these "promises."
At age 55, I am in no way prepared to otherwise compensate for a loss of the promise of Medicare in my old age, and I don't know many people who are.
Republicans love to talk about how "the Greatest Generation" fought in WWII "for our freedoms." Did they do that so that their children could die from preventable diseases just prior to or shortly after reaching their retirement years?
Republicans apparently believe that if you're no longer capable of being a "productive member of society" you should just crawl into a corner and die.
I'm 55, I have no pension, no retirement plan other than SS and Medicare. Apparently I'm shit out of luck.
karen marie on August 04, 2011 10:04 AM:
I am surprised no one has addressed the reaction the approximately 30 to 40% of Americans who are between age 40 and 64 to Republicans promising to withdraw these "promises."
At age 55, I am in no way prepared to otherwise compensate for a loss of the promise of Medicare in my old age, and I don't know many people who are.
Republicans love to talk about how "the Greatest Generation" fought in WWII "for our freedoms." Did they do that so that their children could die from preventable diseases just prior to or shortly after reaching their retirement years?
Republicans apparently believe that if you're no longer capable of being a "productive member of society" you should just crawl into a corner and die.
I'm 55, I have no pension, no retirement plan other than SS and Medicare. Apparently I'm shit out of luck.
PS: I really hate this Captcha thing.
Bartender on August 04, 2011 10:08 AM:
Ok, in the House Republicans perfect world, they've successfully defeated and have done away with or totally privatized Social Security, Medicare, & Medicaid. What then? How are you going to honor the clause in the US Constitution stating to "...provide for the ... general Welfare of the United States" (and please spare me your debunked trickle-down theory)? Do these underpinnings to our pursuit of happiness simply not apply? Do you quite honestly think that private enterprise will give a rats ass about our senior citizens and the less fortunate? What is your plan? What are your specifics? How are you going to protect these groups from a financial and/or medical meltdown, that in my view, will create even a larger - much larger burden on our nations health that is nearing going on life-support now. Absolutely we have to address our debt obligations but your draconian solutions will only weaken an already faltering world power to third-world status.
cmdicely on August 04, 2011 10:12 AM:
He added that younger Americans will have “ample time to try and plan our lives so that we can adjust” to the post-Medicare society.
With, as you note, Republicans knowingly pushing policies that they acknowledge will lead to economic contraction -- and thus, more un- and under-employment -- I wonder where they thing younger Americans will be getting the resources to plan their lives so that they can adjust to the absence of Medicare? Is he perhaps proposing federal largess that will supply a major boost to benefits for the legions of the poor that their austerity programs are designed to create so that they can prepare for the absence of old-age health benefits?
Or is he, as seems more likely, just saying that the handful that remain well-off even with the economic collapse Republicans are deliberately engineering will be okay, and since those are the people that are funding Republican politicians lives -- both their political campaigns and the sinecures they get in between public positions -- he's safe and so are his friends, so f*ck everyone else?
Frank on August 04, 2011 10:14 AM:
How's this for a bumper sticker?
End Medicare. Vote Republican.
E.Hatt-Swank on August 04, 2011 10:16 AM:
Re: JM917 @ 9:21am --
Thank you for that bit of inspiration. It's good to hear after all the disappointments of the last few days.
I'm hearing a lot of comments like "Even with gifts like Cantor's quote, the Dems will screw it up somehow." And it's true, they might, but only if we let them. Let's not forget that we don't have to wait for the politicians to take action; there are plenty of outside groups with no shortage of talent who would love to have some donations for running effective political ads on issues like this. And as JM917 says, the more the Dems in D.C. hear from us that we don't want them to give in, the less inclined they'll be to accept the C.W. from inside the Washington bubble. Remember how Bush's presidency ran right into a brick wall when he went after Social Security? We can surely do that again.
kevo on August 04, 2011 10:19 AM:
Cantor is a handmaiden to corporate interests - he is absolutely dangerous to a free and liberty-minded people!
Sharing a fence line with Cantor would most probably lead to much sleeplessness having to wonder what he was up to as he stared through the night upon your garden with covetous eyes! -Kevo
cmdicely on August 04, 2011 10:27 AM:
What's this "they"? Are the people saying it -- including you -- outside observers, or are they participants in the American political process?
We need less people criticizing from the sideline and more players on the field.
Dex on August 04, 2011 10:34 AM:
Cantor is from the same womb as Herber Hoover. Cantor's ideas have been tried before and proven to be a disaster. How could anyone vote for this knucklehead?
yellowdog on August 04, 2011 10:59 AM:
This, this, Steve, is the most important post of the year. Without a doubt...
It is obvious and uncontestable now to anyone
-on Medicare
-related to anyone on Medicare, or
-one day expecting to be on Medicare
that the GOP has other ideas for you. Remember that in 2010 these dolts ran -criticizing- cuts in Medicare that Dems supported as part of health care reform. They scared everybody into voting for them. "Obama is going to take away your Medicare..."
Now, though, what have those voters gotten? In addition to the Ryan Plan, they've gotten a blatant, hubris-fueled statement like this from Cantor--Essentially, "we're coming for your Medicare, folks. Just wait."
Every Democrat's job just got easier. With that appalling statement from McConnell yesterday and now this from Cantor, the radicalization of the GOP is perfectly clear to all. Even the dimmest DC journalist should be able to pick it up.
And I thought Louie Gohmert was the most useful GOP House member. Turns out Cantor is. Even Bob Shrum could make this work in a Democratic ad.
bdop4 on August 04, 2011 11:19 AM:
Yet another opportunity for Dems, but I'm not counting on them to capitalize.
It's time to take matters into our own hands.
There is a "Tahrir Square" event at Freedom Square in DC, starting on October 6th. I plan on being there.
For details, go to http://october2011.org.
Kathryn on August 04, 2011 12:23 PM:
Another event worth showing up for in large numbers is the August 27, 2011 Al Sharpton, NAACP march to commemorate Martin Luther King's march on Washington in support of poor people and middle class workers. If huge numbers show up, white and black together, I'm talking 1 million, maybe the media would notice. I can dream, MLK did too.
ohhenery on August 04, 2011 12:42 PM:
Helpful hint for Medicare users and family: Post hospital trauma and your family is in distress and the rehab unit (profit or non profit) out of the blue says it's time to be discharged and it really is life and death and you've got no idea what to do: please ask for an expedited Medicare revue. This freezes everything and will buy you a few days to a week, while you and your family and "newly invigorated" support team can make the best decision possible. This applies to tea partiers and millionaires too. Death panel, my ass. And it will really piss off Dr. Cantor et. al.