Coming right on the heels of his heroic blockage of the Senate Kill-the-Internet law (PIPA), Ron Wyden proves he's a Democrat by wrapping himself in shame and dishonor in his next official act.
Ron Wyden did "a bad bad thing." He teamed up with Republican House hitman Paul Ryan on a Kill-Medicare proposal. Paul Krugman (my emphasis):
Sen. Ron Wyden did indeed do a bad, bad thing in his joint proposal with Paul Ryan. Ezra Klein explains why; and the devil isn’t in the details.That's market competition at the bottom.
What Wyden did was to give cover to the fundamental fallacy of right-wing attempts to dismantle Medicare: the claim that market competition is the key to reducing health care costs. We have overwhelming evidence on this — and it just isn’t true. Looking both within the United States and across countries, if you ask which systems are best at cost control, the ranking looks like this:
Government provision as well as financing (socialized medicine) > single payer > market competition
After explaining again why market-based systems don't reduce medical costs, Krugman asks the obvious question:
So why would anyone who isn’t a right-wing ideologue propose that kind of degradation? Inquiring minds want to know.Because of Wyden's truly heroic effort to forestall PIPA, I'll offer Krugman's charitable answer: Useful idiot.
Remind me why we should support Democrats. After all, who are the PIPA supporters that Wyden is blocking?
Democratic cosponsors include:
Sherrod Brown [OH] – (202) 224-2315Your "progressive Democrats" in action.
Al Franken [D-MN] – (202) 224-5641
Kirsten Gillibrand [D-NY] – (202) 224-4451
Amy Klobuchar [D-MN] – (202) 224-3244
Sheldon Whitehouse [D-RI] – (202) 224-2921
I included phone numbers for your handy printing and use. Switchboards are open until 5:00 pm EST until Congress goes home for the holidays. Operators are waiting for your call.
You can contact Ron Wyden at 202-224-5244 or 503-326-7525.
GP
