"every story about the Ryan budget should highlight the breathtaking dishonesty on display here"

[babylonsister]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2013/03/11/what-do-you-do-when-one-party-is-this-dishonest/


What do you do when one party is this dishonest?

Posted by Jonathan Bernstein on March 11, 2013 at 3:38 pm


We’re still waiting for a full rollout of House Budget Chair Paul Ryan’s Republican budget, but there’s confirmation now that it will once again rely heavily on retaining the Medicare cuts passed in the Affordable Care Act (even as Ryan’s budget repeals the rest of the law).

Others have noted the hypocrisy at work here. But everyone is under-appreciating just how outrageous this is. For the second time in a row, Paul Ryan and the Republicans have run a national election campaign (the 2012 presidential election) in which the main theme was bashing the Democrats … for a policy which Republicans support — and indeed are making a key part of the most important policy blueprint that they will roll out this year.

This is no garden-variety flip-flop. It’s a fundamental decision to govern one way and campaign the exact opposite way.

This is one of those cases where it’s so audacious that reporters just don’t want to believe it. Sure, they’ll note that Republicans hit Obamacare on “death panels” or “government takeover” because those were clearly lies, and because they were the kind of smears that are consistent with conservative ideological rhetoric. But they didn’t advertise in 2010 on death panels, at least not all that much; they ran ads, again and again, attacking Democratic candidates for supporting those Medicare cuts.

snip//

It’s very simple: every story about the Ryan budget should highlight the breathtaking dishonesty on display here. It’s a major story in American politics over the last four years, and anyone reporting on the budget should do whatever it takes to make it clear exactly what’s going on.

Is there any doubt that Republicans will run in the 2014 elections by attacking Democrats for … cutting Medicare?

[spanone]

1. the budget is released tomorrow, let's see how the media exposes this...i won't be holding my breath

[KoKo]

2. Obama met extensively with him...so let's hope something can

be worked out. Although I fear Obama will cave to RYAN over SS/Medicade/Medicare....we shall see what comes out of it when it's announced. It will be too late to change anything "after the fact" but, then...it's mostly "wait and see" with this Administration.

We shall See.

[DhhD]

4. If there is a cave in, then the Democrats need to be given specific reasons why from the man where

the buck stops.

[sheshe2]

3. K&R

[radhika]

5. There is an OCD flavor to his reiterative mania....

What with the compulsive focus on his (woo-hoo!) P-90X work-outs, his non-stop-obsessing about everyday Americans getting something in exchange for their contributions to America. I'm thinking sports supplements?

There is a relentless quality that goes way beyond standard policy.