Waaaa...Ann Marie is disgusted. (See bottom of blog for coverage of Ann Marie's disgust.) Join the club. Blueskygirl has been disgusted since November.
Buerkle cries foul and claims the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee puts politics above people.
Hmmmm...Blueskygirl sits sipping her coffee this morning and wondering how that argument squares with Buerkle's having done not one damn thing to create jobs? Her denial of global warming and all its implications? Her blithe answers to questions about energy policy? Her incessant push to destroy Planned Parenthood? Her wicked support by silence for wars that have cost this country 1.2 Trillion (that's not a typo) dollars and the lives of thousands of soldiers, not to mention the costs to whole civilian populations of Iraq, Libya, Afghanistan and Pakistan?
Yeah, Ann Marie, you sure show us every day how you put people above politics. Boy, is Blueskygirl chastened!
So, what, exactly, about the robo calls isn't true, Ann Marie? Because you do support tax breaks for millionaires and corporations.
You do continue to support a Medicare voucher system that will quickly become unaffordable for many seniors.
You do keep pushing the idea that Medicare won't change for people over 55. That is, Blueskygirl admits, consistent with your narrow view of your job when it comes to serving the people in your district. Let younger people deal with the massive problems you and your miserable excuse for parties, Republican and Tea, are fighting to create.
Blueskygirl gets the distinct feeling that what really disgusts Buerkle is having to face real music. Her constituents are upset, and they should be upset. Buerkle is a foot soldier for politicians who intend to continue to gut programs that help people with reduced and limited resources while pandering to corporations and the wealthy.
Buerkle is at her best not having to actually listen to real people with real concerns. She's got all the answers, supplied to her by daily Republican and Teaparty briefings on how to handle the folks back home.
That's why Paul Singer and company, (see Blueskygirl's blogs here,) love people like dilettante politician Buerkle.
New York Times columnist Paul Krugman explains how the Republicans and the Teaparty plan to destroy Medicare:
Between an aging population and rising health costs, then, preserving anything like the programs for seniors we now have will require a significant increase in spending on these programs as a percentage of G.D.P. And unless we offset that rise with drastic cuts in defense spending — which Republicans, needless to say, oppose — this means a substantial rise in overall spending, which we can afford only if taxes rise.
So when people like Mr. Boehner reject out of hand any increase in taxes, they are, in effect, declaring that they won’t preserve programs benefiting older Americans in anything like their current form. It’s just a matter of arithmetic.
Which brings me back to those Republican freshmen. Last year, older voters, who split their vote almost evenly between the parties in 2008, swung overwhelmingly to the G.O.P., as Republicans posed successfully as defenders of Medicare. Now Democrats are pointing out that the G.O.P., far from defending Medicare, is actually trying to dismantle the program. So you can see why those Republican freshmen are nervous.
But the Democrats aren’t engaging in scare tactics, they’re simply telling the truth. Policy details aside, the G.O.P.’s rigid anti-tax position also makes it, necessarily, the enemy of the senior-oriented programs that account for much of federal spending. And that’s something voters ought to know.
Krugman's complete and excellent article is here.
Here is the "disgusted" article from Human Events, 6/14/11, by John Gizzi
'Disgusted' Rep. Buerkle Fires Back at DCCC 'Mediscare' Calls
“Disgusted” is how a freshman Republican House member told HUMAN EVENTS she felt after a day of her office answering telephone calls generated by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee that led to tearful constituents asking whether the GOP lawmaker wanted to “end Medicare.”
“Some of my constituents were in tears and probably can’t sleep tonight because robocalls from the DCCC told them that the [House Republican] budget will get rid of their Medicare,” an outraged Rep. Ann Marie Buerkle (R.-N.Y.) told us. “Those kind of tactics are mean-spirited and they lack integrity.
“I’m disgusted at the DCCC because, clearly, they put politics above people.”
A clearly angry Buerkle contacted HUMAN EVENTS last Thursday evening, after her district office was deluged with what she said were “at least one hundred telephone calls from constituents generated by robocalls from the DCCC claiming that I was supporting a ‘plan to end Medicare’ that increases the debt because of ‘more tax breaks for millionaires and corporations.’ ”
“Finally, after our staff left in the early evening, I began answering some of the calls myself,” recalled Buerkle, one of three former nurses elected to the House in the Republican sweep last fall and a strong supporter of the Medicare reform plan in the GOP budget. “Some of my constituents were in tears, and asked me why Republicans wanted to get rid of their Medicare. I explained—to several callers, in fact—that the Republican plan does not ‘get rid of Medicare,’ that it doesn’t even affect anyone over 54, and preserves health care for the next generation of senior citizens.”
The Syracuse-area lawmaker also told HUMAN EVENTS that the technology in the robocalls “apparently permitted the person receiving them to just press a number and be connected to my office. And they were urged to protest what the Democrats claimed was the Republican position on Medicare. This is something we’re going to have to face and deal with.”
Buerkle wasn’t the only House member getting “Mediscare” calls. Her office told me that she was one of 13 House Republicans on a DCCC “target list” for robocalls that refer to them as backers of a “plan to end Medicare.” ( Politico later published the list of “Targeted Members,” which includes 12 freshman Republicans and six-term Rep. Steve King of Iowa. All are considered vulnerable to a Democratic assault next year.)
Last month, Democrat Kathy Hochul won a nationally watched special election for the House seat in a Buffalo, N.Y., area district that had been in Republican hands for four decades. Because her campaign was based in part on charges that her opponent wanted to “end Medicare,” it was widely expected that Democrats would expand this kind of broadside nationwide and especially at GOP lawmakers in marginal districts.
However, by upsetting senior citizens to the point of tears in some cases, Buerkle charges, Democrats “have gone too far—and I’m disgusted.”
TARGETED REPUBLICAN MEMBERS:
“Arizona Rep. Ben Quayle, Florida Rep. Dan Webster, Iowa Rep. Steve King, Illinois Rep. Bobby Schilling, New Hampshire Rep. Charlie Bass, Nevada Rep. Joe Heck, New Jersey Rep. Jon Runyan, New York Representatives Nan Hayworth and Ann Marie Buerkle, Ohio Rep. Steve Chabot, Pennsylvania Rep. Lou Barletta, South Dakota Rep. Kristi Noem and Virginia Rep. Scott Rigell.” (Alex Burns and James Hohmann, “Medicare Wars,” Politico Morning Score, 06/09/11)
“Some of my constituents were in tears and probably can’t sleep tonight because robocalls from the DCCC told them that the [House Republican] budget will get rid of their Medicare,” an outraged Rep. Ann Marie Buerkle (R.-N.Y.) told us. “Those kind of tactics are mean-spirited and they lack integrity.
“I’m disgusted at the DCCC because, clearly, they put politics above people.”
A clearly angry Buerkle contacted HUMAN EVENTS last Thursday evening, after her district office was deluged with what she said were “at least one hundred telephone calls from constituents generated by robocalls from the DCCC claiming that I was supporting a ‘plan to end Medicare’ that increases the debt because of ‘more tax breaks for millionaires and corporations.’ ”
“Finally, after our staff left in the early evening, I began answering some of the calls myself,” recalled Buerkle, one of three former nurses elected to the House in the Republican sweep last fall and a strong supporter of the Medicare reform plan in the GOP budget. “Some of my constituents were in tears, and asked me why Republicans wanted to get rid of their Medicare. I explained—to several callers, in fact—that the Republican plan does not ‘get rid of Medicare,’ that it doesn’t even affect anyone over 54, and preserves health care for the next generation of senior citizens.”
The Syracuse-area lawmaker also told HUMAN EVENTS that the technology in the robocalls “apparently permitted the person receiving them to just press a number and be connected to my office. And they were urged to protest what the Democrats claimed was the Republican position on Medicare. This is something we’re going to have to face and deal with.”
Buerkle wasn’t the only House member getting “Mediscare” calls. Her office told me that she was one of 13 House Republicans on a DCCC “target list” for robocalls that refer to them as backers of a “plan to end Medicare.” ( Politico later published the list of “Targeted Members,” which includes 12 freshman Republicans and six-term Rep. Steve King of Iowa. All are considered vulnerable to a Democratic assault next year.)
Last month, Democrat Kathy Hochul won a nationally watched special election for the House seat in a Buffalo, N.Y., area district that had been in Republican hands for four decades. Because her campaign was based in part on charges that her opponent wanted to “end Medicare,” it was widely expected that Democrats would expand this kind of broadside nationwide and especially at GOP lawmakers in marginal districts.
However, by upsetting senior citizens to the point of tears in some cases, Buerkle charges, Democrats “have gone too far—and I’m disgusted.”
TARGETED REPUBLICAN MEMBERS:
“Arizona Rep. Ben Quayle, Florida Rep. Dan Webster, Iowa Rep. Steve King, Illinois Rep. Bobby Schilling, New Hampshire Rep. Charlie Bass, Nevada Rep. Joe Heck, New Jersey Rep. Jon Runyan, New York Representatives Nan Hayworth and Ann Marie Buerkle, Ohio Rep. Steve Chabot, Pennsylvania Rep. Lou Barletta, South Dakota Rep. Kristi Noem and Virginia Rep. Scott Rigell.” (Alex Burns and James Hohmann, “Medicare Wars,” Politico Morning Score, 06/09/11)
TalkingPointsMemo also says that it is a mistake even to assert that Medicare will remain unchanged for those now 55 or over under the Republican budget.
ReplyDeletequoted:
"As seniors in traditional Medicare aged and died, the size of that program -- and thus the health of its risk pool and its purchasing power -- would diminish under the GOP plan, for it would close the door on Medicare as a single-payer plan for people under 55. Thus as time wore on, the traditional Medicare program would incur higher costs per patient, and have a harder and harder time finding providers willing to serve its dwindling number of beneficiaries. In short, traditional Medicare would unravel economically."
http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/06/democratic-attacks-on-gop-budget-unfairly-pilloried-by-independent-fact-checkers.php?ref=fpblg