Video: Liberal Dem says dumping the public option will cost 100 House votes

The Hill focuses on the political aspect of this CNBC appearance by Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-NY), but the opening argument from Weiner has to be heard to be believed. Weiner, who actually held a town-hall forum for his constituents, says that ObamaCare opponents are lying to seniors, which is why they’re so dead set against health-care reform. In fact, Weiner thinks that seniors should be grateful for the single-payer system they already have, and insists that consumers of Medicare think it’s wonderful:

Medicare has actually been a pretty successful program. It has some financial problems, but as far as consumers are concerned, they like it.

Except for “some financial problems,” people like Medicare? That’s akin to asking, “Other than that, how did you like the play, Mrs. Lincoln?” Medicare has $36,000,000,000,000 (that’s trillion with a T) in unfunded liabilities in the next 25 years. That’s not “some financial problems,” as Weiner puts it in today’s worst understatement, and ObamaCare promises to make the problem worse — by expanding the program and its coverage.

Amazingly, CNBC doesn’t call him on this statement. Aren’t they supposed to be reporting on financial matters?

Next, Weiner says that opponents are scaring seniors by claiming that Obama will cut Medicare. I wonder where they got that idea? I guess that would be from Obama himself, who proposed almost $500 billion in cuts to Medicare and Medicaid to pay for ObamaCare, which the House used in its version of the bill.

But the topper of that statement comes from saying that consumers of Medicare love the system. At best, it’s tolerable, made so only by Medicare Advantage, which allows its consumers to buy supplemental insurance for broader coverage, better choice of providers, and a wider range of services. Guess what Obama, Weiner, and the rest of the liberals in Congress want to cut to pay for their “reform”? Medicare Advantage, a program demonized by Obama at every opportunity.

And I say that as the spouse of a Medicare consumer. If Weiner’s been within a hundred miles of a Medicare EOB, I’d eat my hat.

As for the politics of dumping the public option, I suspect it won’t come to that. They’ll simply create government-managed co-ops that will do exactly what the public plan would have done — undermine the private sector and allow employers to dump their health-insurance costs. The liberal wing of the Democratic Party will eventually go for that Trojan horse, the same way they’ve been cheering the Trojan horse of a public plan as the gateway to one single-payer health-care system in America.

Update: In case you missed it, The Moderate Voice has allowed me a “guest voice” to reprint my Modest Proposal for a single-payer legal system. I wonder why Weiner hasn’t joined me on that push yet. For a less satirical pushback on ObamaCare, be sure to read Jazz Shaw’s rebuttal to his fellow TMV writers.

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