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You are here: Home / Economics / Fuck The Middle-Class / Calling out word strings of stupidity…

Calling out word strings of stupidity…

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This was brilliant–Kthug came out with an excellent explanation of RyanCare:

Here’s an analogy: think of Medicare as a footbridge that is deteriorating and will eventually become unsafe. You could propose structural repairs to fix its faults; Ryan doesn’t do that. Instead, he proposes knocking the bridge down and replacing it with trampolines, in the hope that pedestrians can bounce across the stream. And the Post declares that he deserves credit for pointing out that the bridge is falling down, and proposing a solution. Um, we knew that the bridge was in bad shape — and his solution is a fraud.

It was all in response to yet more dubious work over at the Washington Post in defense of defending Republican lies with a narrow parsing of this or that word while overlooking the meaning in context, the policy and objective reality. While many see this as par for the course I’m always disappointed to watch a once great paper sink in a soup of pure bullshit and offer fact-like word stings of no meaning in defense of said bullshit.

Kthug keyed off some pretty decent take downs of Hiatt and company by Jonathan Chait and Jamelle Bouie. Both are also well worth a look.

And with that, let’s have an Open Thread.

Cheers

Reader Interactions

52Comments

  4. 4.

    Doug Harlan J

    That is good, very good. Kthug brings it sometimes. Why an economist writes better than their other opinion writers I don’t know, but he does.

  5. 5.

    scav

    @Quicksand: Well, so are circus elephants but I wouldn’t necessarily hire one as a surgeon. Maybe I’m just going about things wrong. hmmmm. They would work for peanuts and help build the hospitals . . .

  9. 9.

    arguingwithsignposts

    While many see this as par for the course I’m always disappointed to watch a once great paper sink in a soup of pure bullshit and offer fact-liked word stings of no meaning in defense of said bullshit.

    I have no research to base this upon, but was the Washington Post’s editorial page ever really ‘once great’?

    I remember seeing George Will’s puckered face over there since the Reagan years. Ditto Charles Krauthammer.

    And if anyone’s curious, I’ll save you the Google. Here’s the WaPo editorial board.

    I’m betting Charles Lane deserves the Krugthulu treatment for that one.

  10. 10.

    maya

    Call it the Medicare Industrial Complex. Then Ryan and the Repubs would have no choice but to be all for it, especially if there might be magic bullets involved.

  12. 12.

    Mark S.

    From the WaPo piece:

    The phrase about “a tough choice between saving their life or their life savings” certainly jumped out at us. But it’s still a far cry from saying there was “no question” that “people will run out of money” and “die sooner.” Incidentally, at least one academic study has indicated that Medicare had no discernible impact on elderly mortality in its first 10 years in operation.

    You know, Medicare has been around for almost fifty years. Any studies on the last forty? So why is it even relevant?

  14. 14.

    Martin

    @Mark S.:

    Any studies on the last forty?

    Well, yes, but WaPo didn’t like those results, so they excluded them for being too partisan.

  18. 18.

    David Broder

    If Krugman was a serious, he would meet Ryan half way and end Medicare for people who aren’t Republican.

  19. 19.

    MagicPanda

    Really disappointed that Politifact has got this one so wrong.

    I wish there were a Snopes for political misinformation that was objective and trustable.

    In the old days, we would call that “Journalism” but since journalism is no longer about trying to separate out fact from spin….

    Anyone?

  20. 20.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Mark S.: Does kind of leave the question hanging there, doesn’t it? Like those old gum commercials, what about the that tenth fucking dentist? and “at least one academic study”…. who did it? what was the methodology? I’m sure there were more than at least one “academic study” purporting to disprove a link between smoking and cancer.

    The Washington Post has definitely declined since Katharine Graham died.

  21. 21.

    slag

    Great. Now I’m going to have to denounce Kthug as he’s outed himself as an anti-trampoline-ite. And this day was going so well.

  23. 23.

    General Stuck

    After The Man Show, I can never think of trampolines the same way.

    Maybe I’ve gotten jaded, but I neither read nor care about what someone like Fred Hiatt has to say, or any of the other buffoons at the WAPO or throughout the MSM establishment.

    It’s all just a bunch of aristocratic navel gazing, and when it comes to SS and Medicare, pointless ideological mental masturbation. Those programs are such a vital part of American life now, if it came down to it, politicians work melt down the military to fund either one, and at some point the ACA, or whatever evolves out of it.

    Necessity is the mother of invention, and when it comes to the main pillars of The New Deal, it will not become necessary to do what ever needs to be done to medicare, until the 11th hour of emergency.

    And everyone knows that will have to include increases in taxes, and at some point some kind of real cost control of med services. And everyone also knows, even the wingnuts, that eventually the profit model is going to have to be ditched. Of course, the wingnuts intend to squeeze every last penny of profit out of that racket before it either collapses, or is just about to before what needs to be done gets done.

    Ryan’s plan was just a winger jerkoff to keep the tea tards stoked, because without them, the GOP is a fractured fairy tale, at best.

    You will not see rationed care in this country, nor triage for withholding medicare care to the terminally ill. That would fix a lot of the problems, but it is not within the ethos of this country. na gonna happen

  24. 24.

    RossInDetroit

    @Doug Harlan J:

    Why an economist writes better than their other opinion writers I don’t know, but he does.

    Possibly because he has to face objective reality every day for a living. Making him unique among high profile political commentators.
    I wonder why he bothers. Nerves of steel or a masochism complex.

  26. 26.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    @handy:

    Looks like Jeb is gonna run.

    Is it too late for George Allen to get in? Because he’d be more Bush redux than Jeb.

  28. 28.

    Tonal Crow

    …I’m always disappointed to watch a once great paper sink in a soup of pure bullshit and offer fact-liked word stings of no meaning in defense of said bullshit.

    “fact-liked word stings”? You mean “fact-like word strings”? Or is this about that time Says You invited a nest of fire ants to compete?

  29. 29.

    Ash Can

    @handy: For Jeb to announce now, while the nation is still buzzing about Osama bin Laden finally getting iced, would be timing of epic proportions. And he’s supposed to be the smart one?

    “Jeb Bush ’12: Because he couldn’t possibly be worse than his brother, could he?”

  31. 31.

    maya

    Looks like Jeb is gonna run.

    It’s because a recent Gallop-SCOTUS poll has determined that 5 out of 9 justices will support his appointment.

  33. 33.

    arguingwithsignposts

    @Ash Can:

    For Jeb to announce now, while the nation is still buzzing about Osama bin Laden finally getting iced, would be timing of epic proportions. And he’s supposed to be the smart one?

    My guess would be that some very large donations have been pledged for him to run and get his ass kicked. And if he doesn’t make it out of the primaries? Well, he’ll still make out like a bandit.

  34. 34.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    I can’t imagine Jebbie could take the psychological risk of losing the primary, much less the Big Chair, after the dummy got two terms.

    and some good news, from David Kurtz at TPM

    Texas teacher suspended for telling Muslim student that “I bet that you’re grieving” over Osama bin Laden’s death is no longer employed by that school.

  35. 35.

    mr. whipple

    @handy:

    Looks like Jeb is gonna run.

    Sweet jeebus, say it ain’t so. We can’t take another on of this crew.

  36. 36.

    maya

    Remember when Governor Jeb Bush and his Sect of State, Kathrine Harris, purged the voting rolls in certain Democratic counties of anyone who had even a similar name to a convicted felon?
    Now look who’s Governor there?

    He should run on the Ironic ticket.

  38. 38.

    General Stuck

    @mr. whipple:

    Sweet jeebus, say it ain’t so. We can’t take another on of this crew.

    Could be kind a fun, where we could accidentally on purpose call him George for kicks.

    And then slyly apologize for the mixup, and ten minutes later call him George again.

  39. 39.

    RSA

    @RossInDetroit:

    Possibly because he has to face objective reality every day for a living. Making him unique among high profile political commentators.

    I also suspect that he’s quite a bit smarter than most commentators. I’m often surprised at how far someone can go with nothing more than a facility with words.

  40. 40.

    Hawes

    First, I am uncharacteristically sanguine that the Amrrcn people might actually be seeing through the bullshit on the GOP assault on Medicare. All the Pinochios in the world can’t protect Ryan and the House GOP from that vote they took.

    Second, I would LOVE to see Jeb become the “serious” candidate for the GOP. The only guy who moderately scares me is Mitch Daniels, because he might get the same kid gloves treatment Dubya got in 2000. But I have to think Jeb will pay for his idiot brother’s sins.

  44. 44.

    maya

    @Ruckus: Dubya will appear in a few election ads debating with Jeb. When it is clear that Jeb is winning, Dubya will say; “Oh yeah, well mom liked me better!

  47. 47.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    @efgoldman:

    Do we REALLY need another Bush?” Stick them together like, well, brothers…

    The press’ll never let that happen. It will absolutely kill itself trying to prove how different they are.

    Now if Jeb looked like Reverend Wright..

  49. 49.

    Triassic Sands

    Maybe instead of trampolines we could say the Ryan Plan will replace the bridge with private yachts that can be hired to ferry people across the river. There may even be some fairly inexpensive row boats (high deductible, high copay plans), but they’ll probably founder in the rapids. The yachts will make it…if one can afford the cost…and just like in real life, many people can’t afford them.

  51. 51.

    Agoraphobic Kleptomaniac

    I’d give all internet moneys to the democrats if they turned this analogy into an ad in 2012.

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