Republicans Gang Up On Haridopolos

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“I think it’s important that Republicans join together and support Ryan’s plan,” said Mack, who passed up a 2012 U.S. Senate bid and hasn’t endorsed a candidate in the GOP primary between Haridopolos, Adam Hasner and George LeMieux. “I’ll tell you why: if we fail to act, then the program goes bankrupt. So those who are choosing not to support either this plan or another plan are choosing to let Medicare go bankrupt.”

Asked by MSNBC’s Chuck Todd if he thinks it was a “mistake” for Haridopolos to oppose the plan in a GOP primary, Mack said “I do.”

Mack goes on to say that the Ryan plan would save Medicare. The opposite is true. Medicare as we know it would cease to exist. Republicans want to replace Medicare with a voucher program that does not match health care cost increases. The Congressional Budget Office ruled that Ryan's plan would increase the deficit by $145 billion. Ryan's bill would increase the number of uninsured people by 54 million.

CBO LETTER TO SPEAKER BOEHNER

Under H.R. 2, about 32 million fewer nonelderly people would have health insurance in 2019, leaving a total of about 54 million nonelderly residents with insurance coverage would be about 83 percent, compared with a projected share of 94 percent under current law...

The Ryan budget has nothing to do decreasing the deficit. Libertarian economist Tyler Cowen notes, "Over a ten-year time horizon, the Ryan plan increases the debt rather than decreasing it. Take that as a sign of how hard fiscal reform is going to be." This is Republicans fixated on killing Lyndon Johnson's and Barack Obama's health care reforms. Republicans hate it because Democrats passed it. It doesn't matter that this is similar the Republicans 1993 health care plan or Mitt Romney's plan. It must be killed because winning is more important than policy.

Haridopolos is wise to run away from a budget that has no chance of ever passing in the Senate. Republicans are fools if they think they can beat Sen. Bill Nelson with turning Medicare into a voucher program. Nelson is a rather well-liked Senator and Obama will be on the top of the ticket in Florida. If the Republican nominee runs with Ryan's plan then Nelson has an easy re-election.

David Vitter & ACORN

ACORN is being publicly denounced by Sen. David Vitter.

“It’s certainly not news to anyone that ACORN has been the subject of some controversy over the past year, and last year’s presidential election brought to light evidence of ACORN chapters engaging in fraudulent voter registration activities,” added Vitter. “They are currently under federal investigation, and this is simply not the sort of organization that should be funded by taxpayer dollars.”

I am not a fan of ACORN. That doesn't mean the attacks against ACORN haven't been outlandish. On the Senate floor, Vitter blames ACORN for the housing crisis. The Federal Reserve gave loans to Citigroup, Bank of America, JPMorganChase and Wachovia. These lending institutions got into trouble for giving mortages to people that couldn't pay. The banks were selling credit default swaps (derivatives) to create more income. The banks were over-leveraging on derivatives that were often worthless. Banks would engage in increasingly predatory lending practice to bring in more revenue. Economist Tyler Cowen wrote, "As much as 70 percent of recent early payment defaults had fraudulent misrepresentations on their original loan applications, according to one recent study." For Vitter to say ACORN is responsible for the subprime crisis is irresponsible.

Progressives are having fun noting ACORN was caught in a fake prositution stig by conservative activists Hannah Giles and James O'Keefe. Vitter has his very real prostitution scandal. Melanie Sloan, Executive Director, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, points out Vitter broke prositution laws in Washington, DC and Louisiana.

Andy Cobb makes a hysterical video about Vitter's obsession with ACORN. Pushing Rope pal Tina Dupuy appears in the video.