Why the news that the GOP is "dropping" its plan to end Medicare doesn't actually mean that much

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.salon.com/news/politics/war_room/2011/05/06/gop_medicare_2012

Friday, May 6, 2011 12:21 ET

With Medicare retreat, GOP raises the stakes for '12

Why the news that the GOP is "dropping" its plan to end Medicare doesn't actually mean that much


Just three weeks after nearly every Republican in the House went on record in support of it, congressional Republicans are now walking away from a plan that would end Medicare as it currently exists.

The official explanation, offered by Michigan Rep. Dave Camp (who chairs the Ways and Means Committee, through which any Medicare overhaul would have to pass, is that pressing forward would represent a pointless act of posturing, since the plan has zero chance of clearing the Democratic-controlled Senate.

That's certainly true -- but it was just as true (and obvious) when the House GOP lined up behind the Medicare-ending blueprint in mid-April. All that's happened between then and now is that Republicans have endured a predictable series of aggressive attacks from Democrats for attempting to do away with a program that is immensely popular with voters (attacks that will almost certainly continue through next year's election). So why did they do it in the first place?

[CoffeeCat]

1. The reason they're dropping it is because...

...Americans roared at those town-hall meetings, and they're worried NOT ABOUT US CITIZENS--they're afraid to be
slaughtered in the next election.

Ending Medicare is a no-win issue.

Make no mistake. They'll be back to try again, another day. Remember the scene in Jurassic Park where the park ranger
tells the scientists that the velociraptors have been "systematically testing the electric fences"? Those dinosaurs
were testing every point on the fence, trying to find weaknesses that would enable them to break out and destroy everything.

The Republicans are like those velociraptors. They're testing us. They're testing the system.

This started with Bush with his staged, town-hall meeting where he tried to get Social Security privatized. He lost too.

The neocon corporatists want Soc Sec, Medicare and Medicaid--and they will keep trying.

And the Republicans are trodding out a line of bullshit about why they're dumping their plans. They KNEW when they began this
little debacle, that the majority in the Senate would never allow Medicare to end.

Again--they're just testing the fences--softening us up, looking for weaknesses, making a mental note of what worked and what didn't
and how they can control public sentiment and protest for the next go-round.

Bastard lizards. Or birds. Whatever.

[Kingofalldems]

2. It's a trick. It's always a trick with the repubs.

They will bring it back in another form after 2012.