Thompson admits to lying about his Medicare plan

Wisconsin State Journal:

U.S. Senate candidate Tommy Thompson acknowledged Friday that he doesn’t know whether his latest plan to change Medicare will save recipients or the federal government any money.

Thompson, the Republican governor of Wisconsin from 1988 to 2001, outlined the plan before the Wisconsin State Journal editorial board: Allow those who are 50 by the year 2020 to either stay on Medicare or join the same health insurance plan that members of Congress and federal employees have.

Asked how much the plan would cost, Thompson initially said the Congressional Budget Office had evaluated his plan and “it has been projected that it would save money.” He later acknowledged that the nonpartisan CBO had not evaluated the plan.

“I have not scored it,” Thompson said, adding that since he is not in office, “I have no ability to score it.”

Worse, had he had that ability, things wouldn’t have turned out well for him.  According to the report, a study was conducted by the Kaiser Family Foundation. That study found that costs in a plan similar to Thompson’s “grew by an average of 7.1 percent per enrollee per year compared to a 5.8 percent average growth rate for traditional Medicare.”

“The organization reported that the data analysis and interviews with experts showed the federal employee plan ‘had not held down costs per enrollee as efficiently as Medicare during the past decade,’” WSJ reports. So not only didn’t the CBO score his plan, but if they had it probably would’ve shown it was all snake oil.

Still, this does establish Thompson as a mainstream Republican — in that if you ask him to prove something, he answers, “Sure! Here’s some numbers, fresh from being pulled straight out of my butt.”

Tommy Thompson claimed to be the best person 'to do away with Medicaid and Medicare'

ThinkProgress:

Republicans and their defenders have claimed that the GOP’s massive proposed cuts to the nation’s health care safety net will not eliminate Medicare or Medicaid. The Romney campaign even released talking points claiming GOP proposals would “strengthen Medicare” shortly after they announced that Paul Ryan, the author of a 2011 plan to phase out Medicare, would be the vice presidential candidate. Yet, in a speech last May to a conservative group, former Bush Secretary of Health and Human Services and U.S. Senate candidate Tommy Thompson (R-WI) appeared to admit that the GOP’s proposals have a far more nefarious purpose:

[W]ho better than me, who’s already finished one of the entitlement programs, to come up with programs to do away with Medicaid and Medicare? Let’s block-grant what the state has, and allow the states to determine what’s going to go into Medicaid. And Medicare, let’s wait until everyone that right now is under 55 reaches 55 by age [sic] 2020, and give them a choice whether they want to purchase health insurance with a subsidy from the federal government, or stay on Medicare.

The “one entitlement” program Thompson refers to is Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC), which he was instrumental in abolishing under “welfare reform.” For an idea of how well that little disaster has worked out, take a look at all the rent-to-own stores and payday loan scammers all over the damned place — those didn’t used to exist, until Clinton screwed the poor by knuckling under to dopes like Thompson and signing welfare reform into law, creating a need for loan sharks to the needy. Long story short, this guy — and people like him — do not have good ideas.

But man, does that quote ever lay it all bare. They don’t want to “fix” it, they want to repeal it — along with the rest of the 20th century.

News Roundup for 5/24/11

I'm just saying you should think about it, Russ

-Headline of the day-
"Poll: Come Back, Russ Feingold!"

Well that didn't take long. Just seven months after losing to rightwing halfwit Ron Johnson, Russ Feingold is now the favorite to win the seat held by the retiring Wisconsin Sen. Herb Kohl. According to the report, "In hypothetical contests Feingold leads Tommy Thompson 52-42, Mark Neumann 53-41, JB Van Hollen 53-38, and Jeff Fitzgerald 54-39. He wins independents by at least 9 points in all of the match ups and takes more than 90% of the Democratic vote while keeping the Republican candidates in the 80s within their own parties."

If you don't know who all those people are, don't worry. Suffice it to say that they're all jerks. Tommy Thompson is probably the one to watch, having been the longest-serving governor of the state. After that though, he kind of went south and led what might very well be the most disastrous presidential campaign of 2008. And that's why you never heard of him -- he was out almost as soon as he got in. The others have enough pro-Walker, anti-labor baggage to be sure targets in attack ads.

Here you go Russ. Just pick right up where you left off. (Weigel)


-Conservatives are just awful-
Top Palin aide Rebecca Mansour -- who looks remarkably like Danny DeVito as "The Penguin" -- loves her some of that twitter. And it's there that we begin to find out what conservatives are really like.

See, Mansour has been having a "Twitter correspondence with a web denizen whom she didn't know, but had come to trust online," according to Politico's Ben Smith. And said web denizen was looking to cash in.

"Does Politico pay for exclusives? Cause I'm looking to sell. I have 122 direct messages from Sarah Palin staffer Rebecca Mansour," the web denizen emailed Smith. Smith told him he'd buy lunch or something, but that was as far as journalistic ethics would allow him to go.

"Sorry, Ben, but it's going to take more than a happy meal and a hand shake to get me to betray someone's confidence. Only freshly printed 100 dollar bills help me get over feelings of guilt," he wrote back, "Would it violate some fake journalistic ethics and standards to get me in contact someone who does pay? I know that the thought of blogging about this is making your panties wet. The topics range from Chuck Hagel to Ricky Hollywood and everything else in between. It's a fucking blogger's gold mine."

Yeah, this guy's just a wonderful person.

Anyway, Smith wrote back that it was no deal, so web denizen took his tweets to Tucker Carlson, who totally denies paying for the dirt that Smith refused to pay for. Still, it all wound up at Carlson's Daily Caller, because he offered a better lunch or something.

So we go from jerk #1 to jerk #2 -- i.e., Mansour herself. Rebecca hates everybody. Redstate's Erick Erick is "a total douchebag" (this confirms my suspicions, by the way). Mitt Romney supporters are "wacky as hell." She was "was thinking more along the lines" of mailing journalist Joe McGinnis "a dead fish." Even Bristol Palin gets hit with comparisons to Billy Carter and Margaret Thatcher's "screw up son Mark."

Then, when confronted with the tweets, she tried to deny them. That proved to be impossible, so she begged that they not be printed. "Can I just appeal to you to leave the Bristol stuff alone?"

Finally, she sent out a statement saying it was all "personal private conversations between myself and someone who I thought was a friend."

Wow. With the way you talk about people behind their backs, you really think you have friends? (Politico, Daily Caller)


-Bonus HotD-
"Study: Whites say they face more racism than blacks."

Oh for fuck's sake... (Raw Story)

News Roundup for 3/31/11

Rep. Gohmert, deep in what he likes to pretend is thought

-Headline of the day-
"Gohmert: Libya Attacks Are False Flag For Obama To Call Up Private Army Created By Health Care Law."

Yesterday, a member of the House of Representatives concerned other members of that body by having some sort of wingnut talk points stroke on the House floor. Libya was a "false flag" operation meant to deplete our military, so President Obama could call up his secret Obamacare Army and make everyone have abortions or something, argued Rep. Louie "Terror Babies!" Gohmert. Bilderbergers! Secret Muslim! Birth certificate! NAFTA superhighway! Roswell! GAAAAHHH!

Actually, he only said the first part -- out loud, anyway. "[W]hen you find out we're being sent to Libya to use our treasure and American lives there," Louis said, "maybe there's intention to so deplete the military that we're going to need that presidential reserve officer commissioned corps and non-commissioned corps that the president can call up on a moment's notice involuntarily, according to the Obamacare bill."

Is that secret army really in the healthcare law?

What do you think? According to the report, "If this rings a bell, maybe you've seen a chain email peddling the second half of this conspiracy theory. Some on the far-right believe the health care law creates a private army for President Obama to call up and train on U.S. citizens. What it really does is make good on a plan first envisioned by Bush HHS Secretary Tommy Thompson in the wake of the September 11 attack to create a Ready Reserve Corps of several thousand public health professionals -- nurses, doctors -- that can be called up to treat people in the wake of an epidemic or a disaster like Hurricane Katrina."

Louis Gohmert, ladies and gentlemen. The Republican who believes that government should not be run like a business, but by that chain email sent to you by your crazy aunt Trudy.

For all you Gohmert voters out there, I have only one question: what the hell is wrong with you? (Talking Points Memo)


-Cartoon time with Mark Fiore-
Hey kids, have you heard? Uncle Mark says everything's all fixed now! Everything! YAY!


Click for animation

OK, now that's just mean... (MarkFiore.com)


-Bonus HotD-
"Today, Rick Scott Will Lay Out Cuts For Developmentally Disabled And Then Attend A Special Olympics Photo-Op."

And that's why Florida's Gov. Scott is the the most popular governor in America. (ThinkProgress)