Republican leaders are sending signals that their real target in killing health-insurance reform is privatizing Medicare, and thus killing it, too.
Just this week, former House Majority Leader Dick Armey (R-Texas) described Medicare on “Meet the Press” as “tyranny.” Tonight, on MSBNC’s “Hardball,” another former House Majority Leader, Tom DeLay, R-Texas, agreed with Armey, saying Medicare must go:
TOM DELAY: I want Medicare to be privatized. It shouldn’t be a government program. It’s the thing that is driving up costs. Not [the need] to have a public option. It’s Medicare, Medicaid and SCHIP — the government-run programs — that are running up costs. That’s where the reform ought to be.
There are 44 million million seniors on Medicare right now. Killing the program by privatizing it would bankrupt tens of millions of them and cause self-imposed rationing by millions more who would find themselves choosing between food and medicine or paying the rent and seeking treatment.
That is the Republicans’ Dickensian vision for health-insurance “reform.”
Watch the news. Seniors are angry about being forced to take a public option (medicare) also. If they don’t want medicare (public option), why should other americans be forced to take it.