No, this is not a flashback: DWS calls Ryan budget “a tornado through America’s nursing homes”

Friday afternoon pop quiz! Which is easier? (A) Passing a budget and bearing the brunt of political demagoguery or (B) not passing a budget and delivering the demagoguery?

It must be nice to be a Democrat in Congress. It must be particularly nice to be Debbie Wasserman Schultz, whose job seems to amount to spouting colorless, confused platitudes that pay no respect to the earnest efforts of her Republican colleagues. Paul Ryan works assiduously to garner the support of a handful of Democrats for a feasible plan to reform Medicare. He introduces a responsible budget that’s maligned even by members of his own party. He patiently explains it to anyone who will listen.

Debbie Wasserman Schultz, meanwhile, does this:

Ratcheting up the rhetoric on the eve of Vice President Joe Biden‘s visit to a South Florida senior community, Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz today likened Republican Medicare proposals to “a tornado through America’s nursing homes.” …

Said Wasserman Schultz: “The Romney-Ryan budget would be devastating to seniors and older Americans. It is a Republican path to poverty that would pass like a tornado through America’s nursing homes where millions of America’s seniors receive long-term and end-of-life care.”

The Ryan plan — which has no chance of passing the Democrat-controlled Senate — would leave Medicare intact for current recipients and those nearing retirement. But when those who are now 54 and younger reach retirement, the plan would replace the current fee-for-service program with subsidies to purchase insurance.

Pay particular attention to that last paragraph. It was true last year and it’s true again this year: Paul Ryan’s plan doesn’t affect current seniors. At all. Democrats lied about this the first time around and Politifact called them on it. Undaunted, DWS is doing it again.

As Guy Benson writes, if she’s going to lie, it’d be nice if she’d at least put a little creativity into her misleading criticisms:

Perhaps my expectations were too high, but I at least expected them to brainstorm a list of new unhinged descriptions of this year’s Republican budget.  I’m almost disappointed the 2013 Path to Prosperity hasn’t been dubbed “a Republican Path to Perdition, holding American seniors’ heads underwater in bathtubs until they drown,” or “a Republican March to Misery, herding seniors into giant microwaves and baking them until they explode.”  Try harder, guys.

Here’s hoping Karen Harrington retires Debbie Wasserman Schultz from Congress for good.

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