When the Republicans go all in, they go all in. Here's Paul Ryan this morning:
Washington has not been honest with you about Medicare. Medicare is a critical program which helps seniors achieve health security. But the truth is it’s headed for a painful collapse. We can save Medicare, but we have to reform it so that it delivers the high quality we expect, at a price we can afford. [...] The urgent need to reform Medicare, and the President’s misguided approach, have left us with a serious question to ask: Who should be making health-care decisions for you and your family? A government monopoly and a panel of bureaucrats in Washington, D.C.? Or you?
We have to destroy Medicare in order to save it. I think we've been down that bizarroworld wingnut logic road before. It doesn't make any more sense today than it ever has. But they are going there, presumably trying to convince senior citizens that the only people they really want to screw are people under 55. (Apparently, they have zero interest in ever getting the votes of the second wave baby boomers who are now between 47 and 55 --- and just took a major hit in their retirement plans. And why not? They only make up 25% of the voting population. Who needs 'em?)
This is actually good news because it indicates that the Republicans are so delusional that they will never agree to even the kind of fake tax hikes the corporate Dems are more than willing to give them in exchange for the cuts in "entitlements" so they think they need to sell themselves as "fiscally responsible." As I've been harping for months -- with the Republicans having gone completely over the cliff and the Democrats ready to compromise on anything in order that the Villagers finally acknowledge them as "grown-ups" the best thing that could happen is gridlock. Since it's unlikely that the Democrats will ever draw a real line in the sand we have to depend upon Grover Norquist and Paul Ryan to stay crazy. Looks like that's not going to be a problem.