Shoot Me Now

by Patrick Appel

GOP Chairman Michael Steele, summoning up the fake earnestness of a vacuum cleaner salesman, is back to defending Medicare and scaring the elderly. Weigel says "it's running in Florida and 'select national cable networks.'" In another context the ad could be run, almost verbatim, by a Democrat. It's surreal witnessing how unprincipled the national GOP has become, opposing a sensible cut to Medicare Advantage. There are plenty of legitimate arguments to make against the health care bill, but this sort of rhetoric makes the inevitable eventual reforms of Medicare tougher. Steele also repeats the ceaselessly debunked end-of-life care lie: