Payne: Rep. Peters is scarin’ grandma (The Michigan View 08.02.11)

Posted by hpayne on August 2, 2011

In Washington, deception is hailed as good politics. So Michigan Rep. Gary Peters, D-Birmingham, must be one heckuva politician.

Peters – a self-styled “centrist” – let loose with some shameless fear-mongering as the budget impasse reached its climax in the House last week.

“Stand with me today on the 46th anniversary of Medicare and tell House Republicans we will not let their political game playing sacrifice the support we provide for our seniors,” Peters wrote in a letter to supporters. “Contribute $25 today to show your support for Medicare to allow me to stand up for what is right – to protect this lifeline for our seniors. Republican leadership continues to propose massive cuts to Medicare to pay for the tax breaks and loopholes for millionaires and large corporations.”

In truth, entitlements like Medicare weren’t on the table in the debt talks.

Republican cuts to try and avoid yet more national debt were aimed entirely at discretionary spending. Peters’s scaring the glasses off grandma was compounded by class warfare demagoguery which is also fundamentally untrue. In fact, Obama and his Party took off the table the massive tax cuts to wealthy consumers and Big Business to purchase and make green products like electric cars.

Ultimately, of course, entitlements will have to part of a log term solution lest U.S. debt be downgraded and the country thrown into insolvency like Greece. But here again, Peters nose grows.

“Instead of focusing on building a sustainable fiscal future for our nation,” he continues. “They are attacking a proven health care program for our seniors.”

Untrue. In fact, Medicare spending is unsustainable, which is why GOPers have come up with a solution that puts it on a budget by giving seniors a voucher with which they can buy an insurance policy – just like auto or life insurance is purchased in private markets.

What Peters embraces is Obamacare, a radical, government-run, middle-class health care solution that lights a debt bomb under our childrens’ future. So much for the centrist label.

 

 

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