Ending Medicare: A big, scary lie

The federal budget passed by House Republicans makes substantial changes to Medicare. People aged 55 and older would see no changes. But for those younger, Medicare would be converted from a defined-benefit plan to a defined-contribution plan. That calls for a rigorous, serious debate. Alas, the Democratic Party immediately demagogued it.

President Obama started the game by saying the House plan “ends Medicare as we know it.” Well, that’s true. Medicare would still exist, but it would function very differently. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, though, went further. That group claims the House Republicans “end Medicare.” Period.

That’s a total lie. The political fact-checking site Politifact.com gave the claim a “pants on fire” rating. The DCCC knows the claim isn’t true. But it also knows that scaring seniors has won the party votes for decades, so it figures, why tell the truth now?

President Obama and his party famously advocated “change” in 2008. But apparently they didn’t mean change that would involve actually running government differently.