Tuesday, December 09, 2003
Bush Campaign Begins New Nickname Search
Estimates on Medicare hit $2 trillion0 comments
RIP "Compassionate Conservative."
OK, well, they lost the use of "compassionate" a goodly while ago. Thousands of men, arrested without charges; a tight handle on the trickle of federal funds promised to help rebuild New York City after the World Trade Center attacks; the destruction of most Americans' retirement accounts; the privatization of Medicare; the attempts to rescind Title IX when school budgets dried up; and the deaths of thousands of Iraqi civilians and hundreds of American men and women in uniform while trying to fulfill a Neo-Con wish list, etc., etc., have tended to put a dent in that one.
But now, according to the right-wing press, the "conservative" part is officially shot to hell as well. Misguided politics will do that to you.
They were very proud of themselves, pulling "a Clinton" by taking a simple Democratic proposal and running with it, thereby making it their own election-year accomplishment.
But, making it their own accomplishment necessitated distorting the Democratic plan, which included price controls on drug companies and insurance companies, and the allowance of drugs to be imported from Canada to keep costs down.
The Bush administration and the Republican Guard in Congress quickly turned that one entitlement—which would have been costly enough, but doable—into a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to completely deconstruct the whole Medicare machinery and remake it to their liking. And pick up a number of campaign chips along the way.
As a result, we now are faced with the most bloated corporate windfall in the history of the United States. Which has now effectively created cracks in one of the most unified, ongoing political movements this country has ever seen.
George W. Bush has been unflatteringly compared by some on the left to Adolf Hitler. I think this unfair and unwise. Once he created his unified political force, Hitler was wise enough never to piss off his rabid supporters in the SS.
So, forward any new nicknames you can come up with to Committee Chairman Ed Gillespie at the Republican National Committee.
posted by Gotham 12:22 PM
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