Democrats Vote to Slash Medicare

Senate Democrats rejected an Amendment to strip cuts to Medicare from the mammoth health care reform bill trudging its way through the Senate.

Republicans found themselves aided by Democrat Senators Jim Webb and Bill Nelson, but the votes proceeded mostly along party lines, 58 – 42 in support of stripping funding from Medicare.

Senators voted 58-42 to reject an amendment by Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., that would have stripped more than $400 billion in Medicare cuts from the nearly $1 trillion measure. It would have sent the entire 2,074-page bill back to the Senate Finance Committee for a redo.

Republicans said the proposed cuts to health insurance plans and medical providers mean seniors in the popular Medicare Advantage program will lose benefits. And they predicted lawmakers will ultimately back away from the cuts, once seniors start feeling the brunt.

"Medicare is already in trouble. The program needs to be fixed, not raided to create another new government program," said Republican leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky.

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For a party claiming to promote fairness for all, the votes strikes me as an astonishing hypocrisy. It makes little sense to cut the funding of seniors who actually need health care coverage in order to create a government program aimed at foising coverage upon those who do not. 

It will be interesting, going forward, to see exactly how the AARP tries to justify such an indefensible position. It will be equally interesting to see the GOP attack ads run once they’ve identified which ‘moderate’ Democrats voted to slash Medicare and seniors’ benefits…