McCain Plans Federal Health Cuts
Medicare, Medicaid Spending Would Be Reduced to Offset Proposed Tax Credit By LAURA MECKLER
John McCain would pay for his health plan with major reductions to Medicare and Medicaid, a top aide said, in a move that independent analysts estimate could result in cuts of $1.3 trillion over 10 years to the government programs.
The Republican presidential nominee has said little about the proposed cuts, but they are needed to keep his health-care plan "budget neutral," as he has promised. The McCain campaign hasn't given a specific figure for the cuts, but didn't dispute the analysts' estimate.
As Josh says at TPM, "I guess they really are writing off Florida." And with Florida gone, so are McCain's last hopes of winning the election. The 10- and 12-point leads in Virginia polls released today would just be icing on the cake with Florida in Obama's column.
The McCain campaign has its spin in place for this announcement, but it's the same old "getting rid of waste, fraud, and abuse" that's been used since 1980, and just doesn't seem like it's selling anymore. So the mere fact that they've allowed this to emerge at this late date in the campaign is as devastating an indictment as the plan itself. Who needs to hand them an anvil, when they've got more of their own than they have hands?
In the months since Sen. McCain introduced his health plan, statements made by his campaign have implied that the new tax credits he is proposing to help Americans buy health insurance would be paid for with other tax increases.
But Douglas Holtz-Eakin, Sen. McCain's senior policy adviser, said Sunday that the campaign has always planned to fund the tax credits, in part, with savings from Medicare and Medicaid. Those government health-care programs serve seniors, poor families and the disabled. Medicare spending for the fiscal year ended Sept. 30 is estimated at $457.5 billion.
Mr. Holtz-Eakin said the Medicare and Medicaid changes would improve the programs and eliminate fraud, but he didn't detail where the cuts would come from. "It's about giving them the benefit package that has been promised to them by law at lower cost," he said.
Maybe when McCain's base in the media was secure, and everyone still took him to be a man of honor, integrity, and high principle, they could have sold this. But coming out last minute like this, claiming it's "always" been planned, but somehow never talked about, and claiming "this won't hurt a bit"?
That's a bit much. You betcha!
Kos has already posted this chart about the plummeting support for McCain among older voters:
Letting this slip out now can only be regarded as a form of electoral suicide. (There's a longer blow-by-blow recap of how McCain's position--or presentation thereof--has shifted over time at The Plank, which only serves to underscore why they shouldn't have been saying anything new about this at all, from a campaign strategy POV.)
Of course this doesn't mean we should let up. It means we should re-double our efforts to make sure we win in a landslide. Because it will take that sort of a mandate--with much stronger Congressional majorities--to meet the enormous challenges that 8 years of Bush have left us saddled with. The mission now is not to beat McCain, it is to crush him--and the GOP.
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