The Price Is Ryan

There's been a lot of scary buzz lately about Washington's newest Gruesome Twosome (House Speaker Paul Ryan and HHS Secretary-Designate Tom Price) publicly drooling over taking the buzz-saw to Medicare.

No matter that even VP-elect Mike Pence vowed as late as this past Sunday that the Trump administration would protect Medicare. No matter that even Ayn Rand fanboy Ryan admitted on 60 Minutes that the privatization of Medicare might have to wait until such time that Republicans - who'd truly love to slash it to bits, yesterday - won't be quite as vulnerable to the wrath of the old people in their respective districts. If Ryan has inside dope that vulnerable voting seniors are dying off more quickly than dopey pols, he didn't say.

Vulnerable Democrats and their veal pen offshoots, meanwhile, are in a frenzy of fund-raising and flailing around the meme that Medicare As We Know It Is Doomed the minute Donald Trump takes the oath of office. As usual, they are placing themselves in a purely defensive crouch. Rather than boldly re-introducing HR 676 or a similar Medicare for All single payer health care bill, they vow to simply fight back and protect what little we already have. It's so much more virtue-signalling fun to shoot diseased fish in a barrel than it is to be therapeutically proactive and progressive.

Medicare actually would have been more vulnerable to attack under a Clinton administration. Hillary ran her winning campaign on, among other things, praising the austerity plan of the Bowles-Simpson Cat Food Commission. Bill Clinton, who would have been "in charge of the economy," had hoped to play Good Cop to Paul Ryan's Bad Cop in the triangulation game. They might even be called the original Gruesome Twosome, as evidenced by an open mic catching them openly plotting Grandma's fate a couple of years ago.

For, as evidenced by the Clintonoid welfare "reform" package of the 90s, it is only through the collusion of both sides of the Right Wing Party that people can be punished. If the Democrats and Republicans can cancel each other out in the Sadism Sweepstakes, voters will never know what really hit them. They won't know who to blame for the sudden loss in their basic standards of living. They will again be forced to hold their noses and vote for the lesser evil. (Democrats really, really tried. Don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good. Don't be a purist.)

As far as Donald Trump is concerned, his selection of Tom Price for Health and Human Services Secretary would seem to be in direct conflict with his vow to protect Medicare and Medicaid and Social Security. A bone-cutter by trade, Dr. Price not only wants to cut social programs to the bone, he wants to perform a radical amputation. So, can the two Republican sadists (Price and Ryan) from the Island of Dr. Moreau succeed in triangulating as ably with Trump as they could have with Clinton? We will have to wait and see. As with everything else in the Trump administration, it's still a mystery.

The New York Times explains that Price's main allegiance is to the greedy and powerful members of the American Medical Association, who have historically made it their business to prevent universal health care coverage for everybody.

Throughout his career, Mr. Price — who has been picked by President-elect Donald J. Trump to be secretary of health and human services — has argued that the government should get out of the way of doctors and give patients more control over their health care.

This position is rooted in Mr. Price’s experience as an orthopedic surgeon for more than 20 years. “As a physician,” he said in the House in 2007, “I know oh so well how the intervention of the state and federal government into the practice of medicine destroys the ability to take care of people. It makes it so you can’t provide quality health care for children and moms and dads.”

What the Times doesn't tell you: orthopedic surgeons have been legally thwarted from the practice of price-gouging, receiving kickbacks or bribes and profiting personally from the sale of orthopedic and other medical devices. Price's specialty is also subject to some of the highest medical malpractice insurance rates in the country. Even with their off-shored accounts and LLCs, they're in the highest income tax bracket. If they can't keep everything they earn and if they can't charge egregious above-Medicare rates, then they might as well destroy Medicare. If it weren't for Medicare, the orthopods could make enough money to pay for a third vacation home and a fifth luxury sports-car. But instead of admitting this, they scapegoat old people.  According to Price and his ilk, Granny is literally shoving little kids with easy and profitable greenstick fractures out of her way in her own selfish quest for a price-controlled hip replacement. The price just isn't right enough to suit Price.

 Price even likes to describe the slave-owning Founders as champions of wealthy orthopedic surgeons. The Times article continues: 

And in 2010, when Congress approved the Affordable Care Act, Mr. Price called it “a dark day for America,” saying that “our founders are weeping” over a bill that was “an affront to federalism, an affront to individual liberty.”

Senate Democrats are sure to challenge many of his positions at his confirmation hearings. Just as they distrust him on health care, he distrusts them.

“The true desire of those on the left,” Mr. Price said on the House floor in 2007, “is to gradually and enticingly move all Americans to Washington-controlled bureaucratic health care.” The bureaucracy, he said, is “not nimble like the private sector.”

The scariest aspect of Price's tenure at HHS is that he is apt to behave as much as a fascistic strongman as his boss. Directors of the agency have always enjoyed the power to act unilaterally, to tweak rules and regulations at their whim. So Price might not even need Ryan as much as Ryan needs him. It's hard out there for a flim-flam man acting out his sadistic fantasies all by his lonesome.

Come on Down! (graphic by Kat Garcia)

For his part, Ryan hopes to effectuate the increased suffering and swifter deaths of seniors via a cheap voucher or coupon system, which he euphemizes as "premium supports." It would change Medicare from the single payer government system it is today into a program more in tune with the Affordable Care Act. Older people, including Alzheimers patients and those suffering from chronic diseases affecting mentation and physical stamina would be forced to spend days or weeks navigating the "marketplace" of private insurance plans in order to get the least horrible coverage for their meager government buck.

Ryan's colleagues once thought he was crazy for wanting to kill Medicare, but he brought many of the squeamish along to his Ayn Randian way of thinking by also advocating for cuts in education, housing, food assistance to poor families, and veterans' programs. The theory is that if you spread the pain around equally, it is more palatable both to yourself and to your victims. 

And forget about polls showing that 80 percent of Americans -- and that includes Trump voters -- don't want their Medicare touched. Paul Ryan doesn't care about polls. "Leaders are elected to lead and are supposed to change the polls because that's what the country wants," he told David Gregory of NBC back in the austerian good times of 2011.

When Ryan was trying to sell his voucher program a couple of years ago, he hysterically complained that it wasn't fair to call it a voucher system. People might actually suspect that he was trying to kill them. 

So to help poor Paulie and his Price-pal in the newly-named Hell and Inhumane Services Lab, here are a few alternative names for them to chew on while they await their main course:

MediPRIC (Paul Ryan's Insurance Cabal).

MediPOP (Profits Over People).

MediCRAP (Conservative Republicans Against Patients).

MediKIL (Kleptocratic Insurance Limited).

MediSCAM (Social Conservatives Against Mankind).
 
MediCHEAT (Conservatives Hiding Eugenics Agenda Totally).

And, when the Democrats inevitably cave and compromise so as not to let the perfect be the enemy of the good, they might offer the following "improvements" to Medicare As We Know It:

MediBUT (Bipartisanship Under Table).

MediPUNT (Pragmatism Until New Term).

MediSTRIP (Surrender to Republicans in Peace).

Sighin' Over Ryan

(Graphic by Kat Garcia)

House Speaker Paul Ryan is back in the news. The photogenic Ayn Rand poster boy for plutocratic supremacy is being dragged out by the centrist chattering class as the last great, white hope to defeat the great white dope named Donald Trump --  who is, by the way, a pure genius in the way he manipulates the media for billions of dollars' worth of free air time.... not to mention the pure genius of manipulating the media who provide such prominent coverage of the media manipulation.

Meanwhile, Hillary Clinton is champing at the bit to finally dispose of her true threat, Bernie Sanders, the better to sink her teeth into Trump in the general election. Barack Obama, long portrayed in the media mythology textbooks as "the only adult in the room," is now reportedly working on a whole book of new hilarious Donald Trump jokes. He not only aims to put the fun back into fighting fascism, he aims to keep pretending that fascism (corporatism) hasn't been an integral part of the American political process ever since our nation was born out of slavery and mass extermination.

New York Times columnist Paul Krugman, apparently feeling confident enough in a Hillary coronation to cease and desist from his serial rabid Bernie-bashing, is regressing back to his own true area of expertise: bashing the Republican Party in general, and Paul Ryan in particular. Like just about everybody in the liberal class, Krugman whines that the GOP, in all its "invincible ignorance," is disowning its own responsibility for the rise of Donald Trump:

Like just about everyone in the Republican establishment, Mr. Ryan is in denial about the roots of Trumpism, about the extent to which the party deliberately cultivated anger and racial backlash, only to lose control of the monster it created. But what I found especially striking were his comments on tax policy. I know, boring — but indulge me here. There’s a larger moral.

You might think that Republican thought leaders would be engaged in some soul-searching about their party’s obsession with cutting taxes on the wealthy. Why do candidates who inveigh against the evils of budget deficits and federal debt feel obliged to propose huge high-end tax cuts — much bigger than those of George W. Bush -- that would eliminate trillions in revenue?

As is his wont, Krugman glosses right over Democratic complicity (Third Way free-market Clintonism) in the rise of Trump. My published response:

 Since the official embrace of ignorance has been a mainstay of right-wingery for more than 200 years, the GOP is simply following a grand old tradition. Their beef with Trump is that he wears his ignorance on his sleeve.

Lyin' Ryan and his cohort, meanwhile, couldn't survive without the complicity of the other big business party. Just last week*, President Obama praised him for being a good husband, father and a patriot. He doesn't often agree with him, of course, but he has no reason to doubt Ryan's sincere concern for "folks."

Obama (and the entire Establishment, it seems) are, however, chiding the young agitators who are disrupting Trump's fascist rallies. What really scares them is bottom-up democracy, citizens who aren't just consumers, and the inclusive message of Bernie Sanders.

 They would prefer to work with nice family men like Ryan to quietly "trim" or "reform" social programs, while pouring trillions of dollars into permanent war and the surveillance state. Every extra crumb for the needy is offset by a reward for the rich. The slow destruction of the safety net and the funneling of all the wealth to the top 1% must be conducted calmly and efficiently.

Their Exceptional America is for the exceptional top 1%. They, who are so devoted to family: their own. They are true patriots, whose love for the corporate state trumps everything: particularly the "folks" they claim to represent.

Hear the duopoly roar: politely, seriously, invincibly.

*Obama's complete "both sides do it"  remarks at a St. Patrick's Day luncheon can be found here. The salient excerpts, in which he fawned over Ryan and scolded political protesters for being rude to The Donald, implicitly including the Black Lives Matter activists, are here:

And so I know that I’m not the only one in this room who may be more than a little dismayed about what’s happening on the campaign trail lately.  We have heard vulgar and divisive rhetoric aimed at women and minorities -- at Americans who don’t look like “us,” or pray like “us,” or vote like we do.  We’ve seen misguided attempts to shut down that speech, however offensive it may be.  We live in a country where free speech is one of the most important rights that we hold.

(Except when militarized police forces get together and use batons and pepper spray to squelch free speech at Occupy camps and at anti-war and anti-corporate "free trade"  protests. It is "misguided" for protesters to shut down roads that lead to a demagogue whose whole raison d'etre is to incite riots.)

In response to those attempts, we’ve seen actual violence, and we’ve heard silence from too many of our leaders.  Speaker Ryan, I appreciated the words on this topic that you shared with us this morning.  But too often we’ve accepted this as somehow the new normal.

(No word about the physical courage of people who are willing to get beaten up for their protests against racism and xenophobia. Aren't their protests also free speech? Probably what Obama really fears is the whole corrupt duopoly collapsing in upon itself, and of course, protests at Hillary Clinton's rallies. Better be quiet little consumer-citizens and wait for the Adult President to tell Trump jokes to lighten things up a bit.)

And it’s worth asking ourselves what each of us may have done to contribute to this kind of vicious atmosphere in our politics.  I suspect that all of us can recall some intemperate words that we regret.  Certainly, I can.  And while some may be more to blame than others for the current climate, all of us are responsible for reversing it.  For it is a cycle that is not an accurate reflection of America.  And it has to stop.  And I say that not because it’s a matter of “political correctness,” it’s about the way that corrosive behavior can undermine our democracy, and our society, and even our economy.... 

(This is from the guy who until quite recently openly embraced Grand Bargain austerity and the Sequester, is still covering up portions of the CIA torture report, still shielding war criminals, shielding Wall Street criminals, waging wars both openly and secretly, killing thousands of civilians in drone strikes, and orchestrating coups in Honduras, Ukraine and other democratic countries. Violence is, and always has been, an accurate reflection of America. And yet Obama is singling out protesters at Trump's political rallies and glossing over the de facto social policy violence of Paul Ryan.) 

And this is also about the American brand.  Who are we?  How are we perceived around the world?  There’s a reason that America has always attracted the greatest talent from every corner of the globe.  There’s a reason that “Made in America” means something. It’s because we’re creative, and dynamic, and diverse, and inclusive, and open.  Why would we want to see that brand tarnished?  The world pays attention to what we say and what we do....

(America is pure propaganda, an advertising brand, a low-wage talent magnet, a maudlin appeal to patriotism in order to quell anger and dissent. Not much is actually made in America any more, thanks to NAFTA, the WTO inclusion of China into the Walton family oligarchy, and other "trade" deals. Obama seems more concerned about his reputation and legacy and public relations than about the reality that the whole world has been noticing for quite some time now.) 

So when we leave this lunch, I think we have a choice.  We can condone this race to the bottom, or accept it as the way things are and sink further.   Or we can roundly reject this kind of behavior, whether we see it in the other party, or more importantly, when we see it in our own party, and set a better example for our children and the rest of the country to follow.  It starts with us.

(And if the duopoly has anything to say about it, the horrible example they set will be kept largely confined to opulent rooms behind closed doors. After all, this administration is credited with being the most secretive in memory. If only the angry citizens would just shut up, the kids won't look around and discover that one out of every 30 of them is homeless for the sole reason that the elite political class has never seen fit to implement a humane, affordable housing policy in this country.)

Speaker Ryan, you and I don’t agree on a lot of policy.  But I know you are a great father and a great husband, and I know you want what’s best for America.  And we may fiercely disagree on policy -- and the NFC North -- (laughter) -- but I don’t have a bad word to say about you as a man.  And I would never insult my fellow Irish like that....

 That’s what carried us through other times that were far more tough and far more dangerous than the one that we're in today -– times where we were told to fear the future; times where we were told to turn inward and to turn against each other.  And each time, we overcame those fears.  Each time, we faced the future with confidence in who we are and what we stand for, and the incredible things that we’re capable of together.

The corrupt duopoly is capable of so much more. Capitalism is awesomely incredible. The only thing the elites have to fear is Bernie Sanders-style Democratic Socialism. 

The State of the Uniparty is Strong and Hearty-Har-Har-Har

Proud To Be a Goldwater Girl in Blackface

Here's the lady currently running on the promise of becoming the nation's third black president: (h/t US Uncut) 

She admitted in 1996 (the same year as her "super-predator" speech castigating black kids) that her beliefs are deep-rooted in conservatism. She chillingly lamented that the current GOP was "too reactionary" for her, as though the rabidly racist free market ideologue Barry Goldwater himself was not the epitome of right wing extremism.

 Therefore, when she now brags that she is a "progressive who can get things done," I take her to mean that she will be concocting the most gluttonous recipe contained in the Twilight Zone cookbook called To Serve Man. 

We are the things who will become well done, should Hillary Clinton win the election and begin an immediate culinary collaboration with Paul Ryan. He is the Ayn Rand fan and House Speaker whose life's ambition is not just to cut the social safety net to shreds --  it's to take those shreds and use them as fuel for humanity's barbecue grill. And unlike Rod Serling's space aliens, he won't even fatten up his victims first. To the contrary: Congress already has cut billions of dollars from the food stamp program, with more cuts (via new work requirements) on the way.

"Call me," Bill Clinton was ominously heard to whisper to then-House budget director Ryan a few years ago, after one of those horrible annual Kill the Poor seminars hosted by billionaire deficit hawk Pete Peterson. Ryan had been running into roadblocks over his efforts to privatize Medicare. "How do we get this done" was the subject of their conversation, literally conducted in the shadows:

"You (meaning the Democrats) gotta start this. You gotta get out there. You gotta get this thing (Medicare cuts) moving," Ryan hissed to Clinton.

Ryan at this very moment must be absolutely salivating over the prospect of triangulating with the Clintons the same way they once so successfully triangulated with Newt Gingrich over welfare reform. If that Machiavellian twosome could collude with the GOP to send millions of poor and minority people into lives of abject poverty and incarceration 20 years ago, you can only imagine what a feast for the plutocrats a Clinton restoration would be. Medicare and Social Security will be on the chopping block once again, despite all of Hillary Clinton's expedient campaign promises to leave them intact.

The problem with Donald Trump is that he is a bullying demagogue. As Hillary herself has scornfully observed, he "does not play well with others." And that includes Paul Ryan, who has made no effort to disguise his own loathing for Trump. It's hard to collude with a guy who wears his fascism on his sleeve.

 Hillary, for her part, skillfully hides her own fascism behind the mask of identity politics. She is a consummate player, not to mention a multimillionaire chef who is not above gorging herself on her own neoliberal cuisine. 

Getting Things Done: A Clinton Family Thanksgiving

He Said Yes

There hasn't been this much media excitement since Charles and Diana announced their engagement. Mitt and Paul re-plighted their own troth on 60 Minutes last night in what had to be the fuzziest lovey dovey interview in the history of broadcasting. "I said YES," gushed Paul. The happy couple recounted the hotel hideout, the ride to the secret location in the black SUV through the dark woods to the final tryst, when Mitt finally popped the question.

The two lovebirds just couldn't keep their eyes off one another as they giddily breezed through the Bob Schieffer interview. Paul of the Big Blue Eyes even sneaked Shy Di glances at his new Prince Charming from time to time. Mitt himself was the very picture of the aging awkward swain:

RomRy have eclipsed Brangelina. This May-December political wedding between two guys with good hair has grabbed the national spotlight. The whirlwind courtship and honeymoon is blazing in tabloid headlines, even in the staid New York Times. Watch for the media frenzy to continue at least through the Republican National Convention. You can watch the 60 Minutes interview here. If you're not up for it, here's part of the transcript: 

Bob Schieffer:  What I would like to know was there one point where there was one moment when zing went the beat of your heart you said, "This is the guy. This is my guy."

Mitt Romney: Well, actually, you know, we've been plotting the country's downfall seeing each other working together for a while and, over the last year, Paul and I have come together on some policy issues and sat down and discussed those things. I was impressed with his sadistic right wing social engineering understanding of the issues that we were facing and also his cruelty political acumen. But then we spent some time on the campaign trail. I got to meet his wife and three children and was very impressed. They are the perfect all-American photogenic vanilla cover. But the final decision, Bob, was not until really August 1st when Wall Street kept pressuring me I kept my mind open, but I was intrigued and inclined towards Paul for some time, but I kept my mind open, and then on August 1st it was time to make that final decision. I called Paul and said, "I'd like to meet you on Sunday." And, we sat down and consummated the deal made it happen.

Bob Schieffer: Well, what was it that did it? Was it the hair? The eyes?

Mitt Romney: Well, you know, this is a guy who's a real looker leader. There are a lot of people who go to Washington or go to their state houses with a personal ambition in mind. Paul had a very different course laid out for his life. And became convinced that he was needed to try and get the country back on track. And he has gone to Washington with a passion for making a difference. And the Beltway media assholes have been having a mancrush on his phony centrism and telegenecity for a long, long time and I'm simply cashing in on his star power. 

Bob Schieffer: Has this sunk in on you yet? Can I see your ring?

Paul Ryan: It has. Because I've pretended felt for a while now that our country is in a very perilous position. And I'm a prima-donna. I'm a CAP. I'm a Congressional-American Princess.  And I've done everything I could in my career as a political golddigger chairman of the Budget Committee to try and make a difference to tackle this economic and fiscal challenge before it tackles us. Sunday is when we had this conversation and it took a little while to sink in after that, but to see all Americans coming out to these rallies, hungry for a new star solutions, hungry for a charismatic severe conservative demagogue people that provide leadership to get this country on the right track, I'm very excited about S&M this.

Bob Schieffer: And what did the governor say when he offered you--

Paul Ryan: He essentially said--

Bob Schieffer: --the job? A pre-nup?

Paul Ryan: --that we share the same hair and hatred for the common folk values and that I have the kinds of experiences that complement his skills. That complement his experience. To help him govern. To whip the peasants into submission. To execute a vision to get this country back on the right track. You know, to cut rich people's  taxes create jobs. To help people get rid of their Social Security and Medicare back on the path in life.

Bob Schieffer: I think I just turned into a senile Barbara Walters. What did you say?

Paul Ryan: I said, "Yes." 

The Budget for All Gets Attention from None

Even though deficit weasel Paul Ryan has been exposed as a serial charlatan, he is still being taken seriously by the punditocracy. David Brooks, for example, sneakily incorporates some of Ryan's ideas for the gentle genocide of the lesser people his column today. Predictions of the Ryan Budget's imminent demise have proven false. His Ayn Randian plan of annihilation may pass the House despite its chicanery. Numbers not adding up don't matter. Only ideology matters, and that ideology is for the rich to get richer and the poor to just die already. 

AynR/Ryan

You'd think there would be an alternative to Ryanism and austerity -- and, as it turns out, there is! But you wouldn't know it from reading/watching the mainstream media. The "Budget for All" has just been introduced by the Congressional Progressive Caucus (CPC), and I can count on the fingers of one hand how many articles have been written about it. (on my left hand, because they're all from lefty blogs, of course). The New York Times, with the exception of Paul Krugman, has always faithfully ignored all things CPC.  According to my Google search, the only print outlet to cover it has been the San Jose Mercury News . And that is only because local Congressman Mike Honda happens to be the author of the CPC budget proposal. Said Honda to his hometown paper: 

"Ryan's bill sort of grips everybody around the neck -- he's going for the jugular," Honda said. "Only the upper 1 or 2 percent and oil companies, those who've enjoyed the benefits of Republican leadership, will continue to do so. "We, on the other hand, are trying to keep our finger on the pulse."

You can read the progressive budget proposal in its entirety here. Meanwhile, the CPC has released a summary:

Our Budget Puts Americans Back to Work
Our budget attacks America’s persistently high unemployment levels with more than $2.4 trillion in job-creating investments. This plan utilizes every tool at the government’s disposal to get our economy moving again, including:
• Direct hire programs that create a School Improvement Corps, a Park Improvement Corps, and a Student Jobs Corps, among others.
• Targeted tax incentives that spur clean energy, manufacturing, and cutting-edge technological investments in the private sector.
• Widespread domestic investments including an infrastructure bank, a $556 billion surface transportation bill, and approximately $1.7 trillion in widespread domestic investment.
Our Budget Exhibits Fiscal Discipline
• Unlike the Republican budget, the Budget for All substantially reduces the deficit, and does so in a way that does not devastate what Americans want preserved.
• We achieve these notable benchmarks by focusing on the true drivers of our deficit – unsustainable tax policies, the wars overseas, and policies that helped cause the recent recession – rather than putting the middle class’s social safety net on the chopping block.
Our Budget Creates a Fairer America
• Ends tax cuts for the top 2% of Americans on schedule at year’s end
• Extends tax relief for middle class households and the vast majority of Americans
• Creates new tax brackets for millionaires and billionaires, in line with the Buffett Rule principle
• Eliminates the tax code’s preferential treatment of capital gains and dividends
• Abolishes corporate welfare for oil, gas, and coal companies
• Eliminates loopholes that allow businesses to dodge their true tax liability
• Creates a publicly funded federal election system that gets corporate money out of politics for good

Our Budget Brings Our Troops Home
• Responsibly and expeditiously ends our military presence in Iraq and Afghanistan, leaving America more secure at home and abroad
• Adapts our military to address 21^st century threats; through modernization, the Department of Defense will spend less and stop contributing to our deficit problems
Protects American Families
• Provides a Making Work Pay tax credit for families struggling with high gas and food cost 2013-2015
• Extends Earned Income Tax Credit, the Child and Dependent Care Credit
• Invests in programs to stave off further foreclosures to keep families in their homes
• Invests in our children’s education by increasing Education, Training, and Social Services

Pretty radical, huh? Not particularly -- this budget from the "progressive" caucus might have been put forth by moderate Republicans back in the day.  And it actually contains some neoliberal stuff that makes me cringe -- for example, that vague line about "adapting our military to address 21st century threats" sounds suspiciously like a tacit approval of the Obama Doctrine: over the horizon drone strikes and targeted assassinations which are not only fiscally responsible -- they're kept secret. 

So, when do you think the White House will be giving this proposal so much as a glance or a mention? Don't hold your breath.

You see, Paul Ryan and his draconian budget are useful idiots. His Road to Doom is so extreme that it gives the Conserva-Dems the cover they need to negotiate from the right themselves and thus continue to serve their real masters without us noticing. Ryan goes for the quick kill by handing old people a check for a few grand and instructing them to shop around for crappy health insurance. The Democrats will more gradually cull older people from the population by raising the Medicare age to 67 and adjusting Social Security cost of living increases and reducing home heating assistance.

The Beltway Bozos, if they even bothered to read the CPC proposals, might notice that it balances the budget more quickly than Paul Ryan's plan (assuming that Ryan's plan is based on facts, which it isn't). The trouble is, the progressive method of balancing the budget involves stopping wars, reining in Wall Street to some extent and protecting Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. And since those ideas are just not in the best interests of the One Percent, neither can they provide any benefit to the political puppets in either faction of the Money Party and their corporate-sponsored media stooges.