House Repugs Vote to Kill Medicare

All but four of them. And every single Democratic representative voted against Paul Ryan's Lords-and-serfs budget.

So take a good hard look at the Kentucky Congressmen who just voted to install real death panels for your parents and for you: Ed Whitfield, Brett Guthrie, Geoff Davis and Hal Rogers. No more low-cost, high-efficiency Medicare seniors love so much. Into the private health insurance ghetto, all of 'em!

Steve Benen:

LIKE LEMMINGS OFF A CLIFF.... House Republicans, after a very brief debate and a week of consideration, actually voted to pass Paul Ryan's radical budget plan this afternoon. The final vote was 235 to 193. No Democrats voted for the measure, and despite some GOP anxiety going into the vote, only four Republicans had the nerve to vote against it.

The GOP leadership and Paul Ryan are no doubt pleased with themselves for pushing this extremist proposal through the House so quickly, with a largely unified caucus. As it turns out, perhaps the only people even happier with the outcome are House Democrats.

For anyone who takes these matters seriously, the Ryan plan is a radical mess. Its numbers don't add up and it's based on fraudulent expectations. It eliminates Medicare, guts Medicaid, slashes funding for key domestic priorities, and lavishes another massive tax break on millionaires and billionaires. The whole initiative is sold as a deficit reduction plan, but it doesn't actually reduce the deficit -- it just shrinks government and transfers wealth from the bottom up, imposing cruelty on elderly, disabled, and working families.

But nearly every single Republican in the chamber voted for it anyway. A year after running a campaign agenda that bashed Democrats for Medicare reductions, practically the entirety of the House GOP just voted to privatize Medicare out of existence.

Democrats can barely believe their good fortune.

SNIP

Not only did 98% of the House Republican caucus agree to take the leap off this cliff, they did so knowing full well that this budget plan has absolutely no chance whatsoever of passing the Senate.

It's likely Americans won't watch today's developments especially closely. There's been very little national debate about this budget plan -- it was only introduced last week -- and the public doesn't realize exactly what this agenda includes.

But it's Democrats' job to remind Americans about this remarkable vote every day for the next year and a half. By all indications, Dems are eager to do just that.

A budget bill so terrible that even Conservatard DINO/Blue Dog Coward Ben Chandler voted against it.

So terrible that all by itself it could guarantee Democratic landslides next year in the House, the Senate and the White House.

If, that is, the Democratic Party can bring itself to actually play offense - and hard - in an election campaign.

Have you talked to your Democratic neighbors today?