When the Newt Gingrich led Republican Congress of 1995 tried to slow the growth of Medicare payments, the Democrats employed hyperbolic scare tactics in an effort to prevent the reduction in growth to Medicare. Today, Senate Republicans are doing the same thing on the healthcare reform bill when they say over and over and over that the bill will "raid" Medicare and "cut benefits to seniors" and even "kill grandma." Republican Senators McCain and Alexander relished the opportunity to use the Democrats' opposition to cuts in growth in 1995 in their own attempt to prevent the cuts in growth that are part of the present Democratic healthcare reform bill. Every politician loves the opportunity to use the words of opponents against them.The problem for the Republicans today is that their efforts to slow Medicare growth in the 1990s were proposed by a party whose leader openly admitted that his goal was to let Medicare "die on the vine." Republicans claiming that they tried to "save" Medicare by slowing its growth are really insulting the intelligence of the American people. Medicare and Social Security, the two most popular government programs in our history are both programs that were and are bitterly opposed by the Republican Party. Republicans fought very hard against both programs at their inception and have sought to privatize both.
The point is, when a team of doctor suggests a particular, but counter-intuitive, treatment for a patient as part of a larger, comprehensive treatment plan, common sense dictates deferring to the expert. In the 1990s the Republican proposals to slow the growth of Medicare were not part of a comprehensive healthcare reform bill. Their proposal was akin to an undertaker prescribing a counter-intuitive treatment to a sick patient. Credibility counts!
Is it unfair, pure partisanship of me to say that when Democrats propose a specific thing for Medicare as part of a comprehensive plan it is more credible than when Republicans propose the same particular thing as a stand-alone proposal? I certainly hope not, but if my logic escapes you then you ought to consider a fact that Republicans are loath to distort. The most powerful and well respected group advocating for the interests of seniors, the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) is not only a strong supporter of the present healthcare reform bill and its provisions intended to slow the growth of Medicare Advantage payments to providers, it ALSO was squarely behind the Democrats in 1995 when the Republicans' proposed slowing the growth of Medicare payments.
This time around, not only is the entire bill strongly endorsed by the AARP, the beneficiaries of Medicare, it is also strongly endorsed by the most prominent and credible group representing the interests of America's physicians, the American Medical Association (AMA). Republicans are claiming that the healthcare reform bill should be killed because it hurts doctors and patients despite the FACT that doctors and patients, whether measured by opinion poll or by interest group advocates, SUPPORT the bill because they believe it helps doctors and patients.
Having listened to the debate on the Senate floor yesterday, I now know why the Democratic leaders were so happy just to get the bill to the floor. The Republicans can't credibly refute the non-partisan interpretation of the bill being provided by the AARP and the AMA, nor can they attack these two very powerful interest groups without attacking doctors and seniors.
Turnabout may well be fair play, but for the Republicans on this issue it's foolish, self defeating play that signals the inevitability of the reform package's eventual approval.