Hypocrite hit squad

Hypocrite hit squad July 14, 2004

"It's the Hypocrisy, Stupid."

— Sign on the door of the Bush/Cheney campaign's "war room," a 24/7, facts-be-damned, attack-John Kerry nerve center responsible for coordinating what The New York Times' Jim Rutenberg reports, "some presidential scholars have called the most relentlessly negative re-election campaign in memory."

Same paper, same day, different article:

"Medicare Law Is Seen Leading to Cuts in Drug Benefits for Retirees."

New government estimates suggest that employers will reduce or eliminate prescription drug benefits for 3.8 million retirees when Medicare offers such coverage in 2006.

That represents one-third of all the retirees with employer-sponsored drug coverage, according to documents from the Department of Health and Human Services.

No aspect of the new Medicare law causes more concern among retirees than the possibility that they might lose benefits they already have.

That would be the same budget-busting Medicare law that the White House misrepresented the cost of by $134 billion while threatening to fire the chief Medicare actuary if he told anybody the truth about its real cost. It's the same Medicare law that makes it illegal for the government to negotiate lower prices from pharmaceutical companies. The Medicare law that screws over your grandparents by guaranteeing they will have to pay whatever sellers ask for prescription drugs, while simultaneously screwing over your grandchildren through a vast, dishonest increase in long-term, structural federal deficits and debt.

"It's the hypocrisy, stupid," the hacks in the war room say. But they're not accusing. They're bragging.


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