Thom Hartmann: All right, every single Republican in the House of Representatives and virtually every single Republican in the United States Senate has voted for Paul Ryan’s plan to convert Medicare from the existing government program which was in a little bit of trouble but largely saved by Obamacare, it would still be a good idea if they took out the George W. Bush poison pill and allowed them to negotiate drug prices, but Medicare is a program put into place by Lyndon Johnson that works and can continue working. Every single Republican is in favor of turning that into a voucher system and continuing to call it Medicare so they could say oh we didn’t destroy Medicare. But a voucher system, which in my mind is destroying Medicare and the mind of everybody else. And the Republicans have been casting around for some way to wiggle out of this thing because they know that this will be the issue that will destroy them in 2012. And it looks to me like they found a useful idiot in Ron Wyden, the senator from Oregon who has been on this show before when I was doing a morning show in Portland, Oregon, on AM 620 KPOJ, he was on that show frequently, I always thought of him as a good guy, a reasonably progressive, kind of middle of the road but reasonably progressive fellow. Jeff Merkley is the clear progressive in Oregon.
But now he’s, well let’s reality check this. Carl Wolfson is on the line with us. Carl in the morning is a show on AM 620 KPOJ. Those of you in Portland who are listening to us right now live on 620 KPOJ know him very well, and others you’ve heard him on this progrma before and you know you can stream him at 620KPOJ.com. Carl!
Carl Wolfson: Hey Thom, how are you doing?
Thom Hartmann: I am fine. What the hell is going on there?
Carl Wolfson: Well I think you’re absolutely right in your assessment, maybe I can add a little bit of perspective to it. We, too, have senator Wyden on regularly. We have Jeff Merkley on as well and senator Merkley in my estimate is the more progressive senator here in Oregon. But let’s go to the core first of what this handshake agreement with Paul Ryan is. And then I’ll tell you why you’re right that I think Ron Wyden is a useful idiot here.
This policy that they have crafted together would allow insurers to compete with traditional Medicare. It would actually turn Medicare into a public option on a private insurance exchange. Now look, you were just talking about the affordable care act. We, as progressives, you and I, want Medicare part E. We want single payer. We have that now for people over 65. What this plan would do is turn over 65 into a public option, it would force a public auction on people over 65. We were fighting for a public option for people under 65 as a way of moving towards Medicare part E.
Thom Hartmann: Yeah. Now I understand Paul Ryan has also said he doesn’t intend to bring this to, as legislation, in the year 2012, it will be in 2013. Which means, to me, this isn’t even a serious proposal. There’s a very real chance that Paul Ryan will not get reelected in 2012, and that this is purely a political stunt. He was looking for a democrat that they can wave around and say no, no, this is bipartisan.
Carl Wolfson: Exactly right. And I heard a caller at the end of your first hour allude to that, and that is exactly my point this morning as well. And by the way we had angry callers, angry at Senator Wyden all morning long. Look, as you said, Thom, the message of president Obama and the Republicans is that Republicans are trying to end the Medicare guarantee. Now we have a senator, Ron Wyden, who gives legitimacy to Paul Ryan. It is undercutting the very important message. And, you know, I heard you talking about Paul Ryan being a trouble in his own district. He is! He’s in the first district of Wisconsin, and you know I looked up this morning at some of the opponents who want to run against him. One of his opponents, potential opponents has the slogan “My opponent not only endorses the plan to end Medicare, he wrote it." This is what democrats want to run on in the general election, and the individual elections around the country, and this is what we can oust Paul Ryan on, and now…
Thom Hartmann: As long as no democrat gets in bed with him.
Carl Wolfson: Right. And now senator Wyden has given cover, and let’s remember that this plan that Wyden has now agreed to, is very close to what Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney are considering, and have proposed so far, for Medicare. You can just see them running ads with Ron Wyden saying even a liberal senator, such as Ron Wyden, agrees with us. So it is…
Thom Hartmann: Is Ron Wyden up for reelection in 2012?
Carl Wolfson: No. 2016.
Thom Hartmann: 2016. And I saw a graphic this morning that showed that he’d taken over 1.1 million dollars from medical interests, might that have something to do with it?
Carl Wolfson: Yep. Thom, let me give you a little background, and you probably know this about Ron Wyden, this is not the first time he has reached across the aisle. He did so with his healthy Americans act, he got Robert Bennett, who was a conservative Republican from Utah to sign on. Here’s the moral of that story. Where is Robert Bennett now? He is no longer in the senate because Republicans don’t compromise. They ran ads of Robert Bennett standing next to Ron Wyden, they have political conventions in Utah, not a primary. Robert Bennett didn’t even survive the political convention last year in Utah. Mike Lee is now in office. This tells you that Republicans aren’t interested in compromise. They’re tethered to an ideology that says privatize social security, privatize Medicare, they’re not going to compromise. We’ve seen how well that has worked for president Obama. So what Ron Wyden is doing is shaking hands with a party in the name of Paul Ryan that’s never going to compromise, that is only using this for political purposes.
Thom Hartmann: What possible motive, as I said, it looks like he’s taken over a million bucks from the health interests, and if you add in the private hospitals and others, it’s several million dollars. Is it that he is paying, you know, he’s paying off his donors? Is it that he is misguided and thinks this is a good idea? I saw, I was reading some of the comments over at TPM and somebody says oh you can’t blame a guy for one bad act, and somebody else replied, you know, tell that to anybody in prison, right? I mean you know one bad act, one bank robbery, you’re in jail, sorry.
Carl Wolfson: One of the dynamics here with senator Wyden is that he knows a lot about this subject but he’s always been kind of a free market guy with this. And I think he was a bit miffed that his healthy Americans act did not merit sufficient attention from the White House and let’s be honest, he’s undercutting the president in a general election. You just mentioned 2.5 million young adults have insurance that wouldn’t have because of the Affordable Care Act. The affordable care act also extended Medicare, the trust fund, by 12 years to 2029. And consider this, Paul Ryan is for the repeal of the Affordable Care Act. Does senator Wyden know that? One last thing, Thom, is this undercuts not only the message of Democrats that Republicans want to end Medicare’s guarantee, it also plays into this idea that somehow Medicare has to be fixed. The projected shortfall, this is from the Center for Economic and Policy Research, the projected shortfall for Medicare over the program’s 75 year planning horizon is less than .4 % of GDP, that’s less than a quarter of what we spent in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Thom Hartmann: And that could be resolved if you simply let Medicare negotiate for the price of drugs.
Carl Wolfson: Exactly right. And unfortunately that wasn’t, as you pointed out, wasn’t part of the Affordable Care Act. Medicare and Social Security are not in trouble if they’re fixes, they can be easy fixes, like lifting the cap on Social Security, and what you just said on Medicare. By doing this, Ron Wyden, he’s the first elected democrat to endorse a premium support system and it’s bad politics for us.
Thom Hartmann: It’s bad politics, it’s bad policy, it is, I think Ron Wyden, in one fell swoop here, has just turned the entire 2012 election on it’s head unless he, apparently he was holding a press conference with Paul Ryan this morning on this. Unless he starts running in the other direction really fast and we’ll see. I mean, you know, there’s a lot of people in Oregon who are his constituents who are probably calling him right now going what the hell are you doing?
Carl Wolfson: Yeah and speaking of that, here’s the number, direct to his office. 202-224-5244. 202-224-5244. One other thing, if I might, Thom. A lot of the press this morning is about Mitt Romney calling Newt Gingrich “zany" in his sit down with New York Times reporters. And what people aren’t focusing on is what Mitt Romney said, I watched the whole interview, what he said before the whole “zany" comment. He was extolling Paul Ryan and saying that Newt threw Paul Ryan under the bus by calling it right wing social engineering. Romney has embraced Paul Ryan. In fact in that interview he called it the most important conservative proposal of our time. Well Ron Wyden has just given cover to Republicans who want to call it that.
Thom Hartmann: That’s amazing. Carl Wolfson, Carl in the Morning, 620KPOJ.com. Thank you Carl.
Carl Wolfson: Thank you Thom.
Transcribed by Suzanne Roberts, Portland Psychology Clinic.
