Opened up the paper today and saw an AP article whose premise was that Ryan and Obama are both going to "end Medicare as we know it". So this is their new planted meme - the Republicans know they're going to get hit for trying to kill Medicare, they know they can't hide, despite PolitiFact's "Lie of the Year" award for telling the truth about Republican plans for Medicare. So instead, they will embrace the "Medicare as we know it" formulation and accuse Obama and the Dems of doing the same thing. More below.
Here is the article, in a more extended version than shows up in my paper. It starts out:
Baby boomers take note: Medicare as your parents have known it is headed for big changes no matter who wins the White House in 2012. You may not like it, but you might have to accept it.
Dial down the partisan rhetoric and surprising similarities emerge from competing policy prescriptions by President Barack Obama and leading Republicans such as Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan.
And what are those "surprising similarities"? They both want to manage costs, and possibly increase the premiums based on income. See? Surprisingly similar!!
Here comes the Republican hack with the money quote:
"People would like to have what they used to have. What they don't seem to understand is that it's already changed," said Gail Wilensky, a former Medicare administrator and adviser to Republicans. "Medicare as we have known it is not part of our future."
Under Ryan's plan you slowly become destitute from rising insurance premiums and shrinking "vouchers" while being ripped off by private insurance companies. Under Obama's plan, maybe you'll pay an extra $500 per year in premiums. Either way, it will cost you more and so, my friends, end Medicare as we know it.
Disgusting.