Rush’s Morning Update: Then and Now
December 4, 2009
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In 2005, the Republican Congress sought to reduce Medicare’s rate of growth by $6 billion. The AARP went ballistic.
They claimed the “cuts” – which weren’t cuts – would harm millions of low-income seniors, and millions more who needed long-term care. They accused Republicans of trying to fund the war in Iraq “on the backs of retirees.” They threatened Republicans that if the bill became law, “the AARP and its more than 36 million members” would “work tirelessly to hold those accountable for passing such irresponsible policy.”
Ten years earlier, in 1995, the newly elected Republican Congress proposed slowing the rate of Medicare’s growth, saving $283 billion over ten years. Joining the chorus of Democrats who claimed that Republicans wanted to “kill old people” and “starve seniors to death,” the AARP went ballistic. They promised to fight the measure, quote, “with everything we’ve got.”
So now – we have Democrats proposing $500 billion in actual Medicare cuts, as part of their health care takeover. Republicans are trying to restore the funding to Medicare. But this week, AARP CEO Barry Rand sent a letter to Senate Democrats – expressing full support for the Democrat slashes to the program. Rand says that cutting a half a trillion dollars will “not reduce any guaranteed Medicare benefits.”
The question that seasoned citizens need to ask the AARP leadership is simple. Were you lying then…or are you lying now? The answer, too, is simple: They were lying then, AND they’re lying now. They’re liberals!
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