He’s going to slash Medicare and Medicaid.
John McCain would pay for his health plan with major reductions to Medicare and Medicaid, a top aide said, in a move that independent analysts estimate could result in cuts of $1.3 trillion over 10 years to the government programs.
The Republican presidential nominee has said little about the proposed cuts, but they are needed to keep his health-care plan “budget neutral,” as he has promised. The McCain campaign hasn’t given a specific figure for the cuts, but didn’t dispute the analysts’ estimate.
Josh Marshall notes: “I guess they really are writing off Florida.”
Brachiator
Wow! This is really … mavericky.
Jeff
Does McCain want to lose Arizona as well? Wait for the retraction and someone moving out of the forefront of the campaign. They seem to be throwing up a trial balloon, see how it plays and then quickly blame someone other than McCain for the issue.
Punchy
I thought touching/altering/reducing/fucking with/adjusting Medicare/caid was the Golden Rule Of What Not to Do if you’re a politician.
How did McCain miss this maxim?
4tehlulz
BUT OBAMA IS PALLING AROUND WITH TERRORISTS
Stuck in the Fun House
Looks like they’d learn from Bush’s master stroke of gambling political capitol on tinkering with SS. That’s when his poll numbers started tanking and I still believe it’s the main reason they stayed tanked. It’s called the Third Rail of politics for a reason, as Goldwater first learned 45 years ago. Old folks tend to vote a little more conservative than others, but you mess with SS and the walkers and canes become weapons of choice against whomever. And so do votes.
Dave
C’mon now. Medicare/Medicaid helps the poor, the elderly and the disabled. Since when has the GOP given two shits about anyone in those groups? Least shocking news ever.
yam
analysts estimate could result in cuts of $1.3 trillion
Numbers like this don’t mean anything to a person. They see a 1.3 and a trillion and it doesn’t connect. I propose that numbers this large should be written in a more comprehensible number — in this case $1,300 billion. This then brings it into scale with other numbers people are seeing.
Tom65
Damn, even Susan Estrich wasn’t this dumb.
John S.
Then it is officially "game over".
If Obama wins all the Kerry states (which looks imminent) and picks up Florida, say hello to President Obama. I really do not see a viable path to victory on the electoral map for McCain right now. And if that is the case, then this month is going to be the nastiest and vilest shit-slinging we have ever seen in politics (which already seems to be the case).
Comrade Incertus
Maybe McCain has figured out that he’s going to lose, and so he wants to secure his legacy by pulling a Mondale–make it the biggest Republican loss since Goldwater.
Dennis - SGMM
Here’s how smart McCain is: one of his senior economic advisers is Kevin Hassett, co-author of Dow 36000.
So, he’s going to cut Medicare and Medicaid and he’ll replace it with ? The old poseur couldn’t even get coverage under his own "health plan" because he has a pre-existing condition. This is great news for herbal medicine.
b. hussein canuckistani (comrade)
I’m leaning further and further towards the conspiracy theory that McCain has sworn to destroy the GOP for the hatchet job they did on him in 2000.
Brian J
It’s not shocking that they want to do it, it’s shocking that they’d announce it so close to an election when the group they are strongest with this time around, seniors, is going to vote so heavily in so many crucial states.
Napoleon
I am beginning to wonder if McCain has placed a big bet on himself to loose with some Vegas casino and now he is just making sure it happens.
Stuck in the Fun House
As we speak, I wonder if some enterprising and desperate wingnuts are trying to figure out a way to Photoshop images of Obama wearing Michelle Malkin’s cheerleader outfit.
Octavian
That would be funny.
Jorge
Johm McCain, "I just voted for a trillion dollars for Wall Street and now want to cut a trillion dollars from ‘Caid and ‘Care."
Can they really be that bad at politics?
chopper
brilliant idea, mccain campaign. right when the baby boomers are starting to retire, right when all of their 401(k)s and IRAs are losing blood by the gallon, right when pensions that retirees worked decades for (including extended health benefits after retirement) are vanishing in a puff of smoke, in other words right when an assload of people are going to really need medicare, let’s make massive cuts in medicare so the middle class can pay more for health insurance.
wow, smooth move. that’s gonna sell all over.
SGEW
Goldwater/Johnson? Hell, I’m starting to feel that we might be entering Roosevelt/Landon territory.
tripletee (formerly tBone)
I’ve finally figured out the secret that explains the incomprehensibly inept McCain campaign. The mystifying selection of the cosmically unqualified Palin. The hilariously inept pivot from "the fundamentals of the economy are sound" to "I’m airdropping into Washington today to solve the BIGGEST CRISIS EVAR!". The green screen backdrop. And now a health care policy that only the clinically insane would seriously propose.
It all makes sense once you deduce who’s behind the curtain.
That’s right – "Steve Schmit" is actually DougJ, and the McCain campaign is the most elaborate spoof ever conceived.
Comrade Incertus
@b. hussein canuckistani (comrade): That would be enough to redeem him in my eyes. Unfortunately, I think it’s just more likely that he’s stupid and the people running his campaign are just taking him for every penny they can.
TheFountainHead
Not sure if you’ve seen this yet, John, but is this what you meant when you said we should put on our hip-waders?
DonnaInMichigan
I keep track of the sex offenders moving or living in my area. Because I have 4 minor children.
I live in a rural area in Michigan. A tiny village of maybe 5,000 citizens. I am active in my community.
We just found out that yet another sex offender has moved less than a mile from our home.
Another lives about 1.5 miles.
Now you tell me, because they live in a close proximity to MY house, and that I may of, been in the same place at one point,, or possibly had contact with them, spoke with them at my job, or even at community events…that I now have this guilt by association ? I am now going to be labeled as a scary white woman who pals around with sex offenders?
This is total nonsense. While rome is burning, palinocchio, wants this to be discussed?
Punchy
He’s getting shitty odds, unless he placed them a week after the convention.
Right now, its Obama -350, McCain +225. In Vegas terms, ladies and gents, that pretty much implies game over.
Jeff
I wonder if Obama would say this in the debate. He could even include himself as a former smoker.
grandpajohn
florida may have to stand in line, 2 polls out of VA today, both have Obama with double diget lead
SGEW
My God! And now I’ve read your comment on a blog that I frequent, so I’m a sex offender too! Horrors!
Wait, it’s worse – now you’ve read my comment, which means you’re also a ethnically different radical environmental activist on the terrorist watch list! And now that you’re a radical terrorist sex offender who’s white and brown, and if you post again, and I read it, I’ll be even worse by association!
It’s a never ending cycle of DOOM!
b. hussein canuckistani (comrade)
You also associate with foreign socialists now. Go to jail. Go directly to jail.
mellowjohn
"Hell, I’m starting to feel that we might be entering Roosevelt/Landon territory."
except mcsame isn’t going to carry maine or vermont.
Scot
McCain is the ultimate "Page Turner" for the Republican party.
Jon H
"C’mon now. Medicare/Medicaid helps the poor, the elderly and the disabled. Since when has the GOP given two shits about anyone in those groups? Least shocking news ever."
The thing is, even the GOP is usually smart enough to not campaign by promising to give you a cleveland steamer.
Jon H
At the rate McCain is going, before the end of the month he’s going to be filmed, on a golf course, saying "Now watch this drive".
jenniebee
For anybody out there who hasn’t ever had to buy health insurance on your own, there is a tidbit of info that might astonish you. I found this out when I first started as an independent consultant and tried to buy insurance. I was a healthy 26 year old female non-smoker, my husband was a healthy 28 year old male non-smoker, and what we discovered was that my insurance was going to cost 2-3 times what his did. Rates are 2-3 times higher for women of childbearing age than they are for men the same health and age.
Let me state that again: private health insurance costs 2-3 times as much for women as it does for men. Everybody keeps talking about the "family" rate, nobody ever seems to mention the individual rates and it’s driving me nuts. So single men would get a windfall with McCain’s "buy-it-yourself" plan, but women would pay through the nose. It’s wealth redistribution along gender lines, and it stinks.
May I also add, for anybody carrying a few extra pounds, it’s not easy getting insurance. When I shopped for it, I was going on 5 mile hikes on the Appalachian Trail at least once a week, but my body type is (sigh) more oak than willow. I actually had to lose muscle mass to qualify for a policy.
What can I say, except the entire staff of NRO would lose their shirts if McCain’s plan actually got put into place.
Grumpy Code Monkey
I really want to believe that this is true, because that would be Chuck Norris awesome.
dr. luba
Now that is a picture too terrifying to visualize…….
Delia
I’m tending toward the theory that McCain is trending toward senility.
TenguPhule
Hey! We’re trying to discourage the plan, not make it popular.