Fresh off their victory in an upstate New York race for a vacant House seat in a normally Republican district, the Democrats are going all out to demagogue the Medicare issue. They are lying to seniors, scaring them into believing that the House Republican Medicare reform plan would kick them off the cliff - literally, according to one left-wing organization political ad.
If logic and reason ruled the day, Republicans would win the Medicare argument hands down. The truth is that if serious bi-partisan corrective action is not taken immediately, Medicare is going bankrupt in a decade. More ominously, the United States could go bankrupt even before that time under the weight of run-away debt.
The House Republican Medicare plan championed by Rep. Paul Ryan does not affect one iota anyone who is currently 55 years or older. They will continue to receive all Medicare benefits they are entitled to under the current plan. As for future generations, there will be no Medicare at all unless something is done to reform its structure.
All that the Republican Medicare plan does is to convert all of Medicare - reimbursements for hospital care, doctor visits and medical procedures and tests - to a model based on the highly successful reimbursement for prescription drug expenses under Medicare Part D. Under the proposal, Medicare would pay insurers for a plan chosen by beneficiaries in a competitive market.
But logic and reason will not win the argument. Conservatives who care about preventing fiscal bankruptcy and protecting the health and dignity of seniors - now and in the future - will have to fight fire with fire.
The focus needs to be placed back immediately on Obamacare, which robs today's seniors of a half trillion dollars of Medicare money to subsidize a government takeover of the nation's entire health care system. The savings will come largely from government-imposed rationing, which means that Grandma and Grandpa will be beholden to federal bureaucrats to decide whether they will get the treatment recommended by their doctor or not.
The Republicans need to counter the false scaremongering ads of the Democrats with ads of their own that tell the truth about Obamacare. And the ads should pack emotion.
For example, one ad could show a nervous elderly woman in her doctor's office. Her doctor, wearing a doctor's robe, holds the lady's hand and tries to reassure her after providing her with a diagnosis of a serious illness and advice on a course of treatment that could save her life.
Suddenly, three faceless bureaucrats in suit and tie appear and push the doctor aside. Their words to the visibly scared lady: "Treatment denied. Under federal regulations, it's too expensive. Just take a painkiller and go away."
Then an image of President Obama appears, quoting his words from a nationally televised 2009 White House town hall event: "Maybe you're better off not having the surgery, but taking the painkiller."
It's time to take the gloves off and bring the fight to the Democrats who support Obamacare. When seniors understand that Obamacare is nothing more than a health rationing system, in which they will be the losers because Obamacare moves the decisions about their medical care to federal panels of "experts" interested in cutting costs at seniors' expense, they will desert the Democrats in droves.
